Chaucer’s Craft in Telling Philosophical Lessons in“The Manciple’s Tale”

王玢诗 / 云南大学滇池学院外国语学院

Chaucer’s Craft in Telling Philosophical Lessons in“The Manciple’s Tale”

王玢诗 / 云南大学滇池学院外国语学院

“The Manciple’s Tale” is a beast fable. Chaucer is a genius both in designing creative plots and teaching philosophical lessons in this beast fable. Chaucer arranges the Manciple to tell the story and the Manciple lets the animals tell the truth. Chaucer combines two philosophical lessons and his creative plot together perfectly.

The Manciple’s Tale；two philosophical lessons； creative plot

“The Manciple’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales is told by a Manciple according to Chaucer’s arrangement. It tells an old story about why the crow cries and becomes black. Phoebus, a very capable and handsome God, loves his wife. He has a snow-white crow and it can speak well. One day, the crow tells Phoebus that it witnesses his wife making love to another man of little reputation. Phoebus kills his wife angrily and punishes the crow by taking its song and white feathers away. From that moment on, all crows are black and can not sing. This is a beast fable. Chaucer arranges the Manciple to tell the story and the Manciple lets the animals (the crow, the birds, the cat and the she-wolf) tell the truth. Chaucer combines two philosophical lessons and his creative plot together perfectly.

The first philosophical lesson is that everyone in the world should obey the principles of the nature. Chaucer uses animals’ behaviors to explain human beings’ behaviors. Then the reader understands better Phoebus’ wife’s behavior. In front of a golden cage with “the dainties food and drink” and “a rough, cold forest” with miserable food, any bird without a doubt would rather choose the latter. The reason is that to fly freely is the birds’ nature. Chaucer writes a cat would rather chase a mouse than eat the prepared milk and meat, because chasing mouse is all cats’ born nature; a she-wolf prefers taking “the one with the worst reputation” to satisfy her lust to waiting for a wolf with good reputation because it’s her nature to satisfy her lust. As a natural creature, like the bird, the cat and the she-wolf, she needs liberty and sexual satisfaction. From this perspective, the wife’s behavior is easily understood. Although “Phoebus was jealous and eager to keep her to himself”, she is more eager to escape and to chase her liberty. All her behavior illustrates that “no more can manage to prevent a thing which nature has placed instinctively within a creature”(Chaucer, 728). Chaucer has the Manciple tell this universal truth as a beast fable, and then he elevates the moral to the human level because this truth is equally applicable. Because of Chaucer’s meticulous arrangement, the philosophical lesson is more impressive and persuasive.

The second philosophical lesson is that everyone should think carefully before he talks. Anyone wanting to talk should know the consequences. Chaucer illustrates “a malicious tongue is worse than a devil” by telling about the crow’s fate (Chaucer, 731). In the tale, the crow seems innocent because it just tells what it witnesses. But it is the crow’s words that stimulate Phoebus’ rashness:

Phoebus, in spite all your worth, your beauty, and your gentility-in spite of all your songs and minstrelsy, and all your watching-your eyes are bleared by a man of little reputation, not worth a great in comparison with you, as I hope to prosper! For I saw him made love with your wife on your bed (Chaucer, 734).

If the crow just told him the last sentence above, Phoebus may not kill his wife and punish the crow. However, the crow compares Phoebus with the other man of little reputation in details to illustrate and emphasize that Phoebus should not lose his wife to him in this game. This triggers his wife’s death. After he kills his wife, he gradually realizes his rashness and regrets all he did. At last he transfers his great sorrow to the terrible hatred of the crow. So, telling the truth in a wrong way is dangerous. Chaucer teaches the other profound philosophical lesson here.

Besides the crow’s fate, Chaucer also designs another plot to help the husband know the truth. When Phoebus returns home, the crow sings“Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!” and Chaucer lets the Manciple describe “the crow［…］saw their doings, but said never a word” (Chaucer, 734). In fact, “cuckoo” is the answer and the truth. The Cuckoo is a migratory bird with a call that sounds like its name and it leaves its eggs in the nests of other birds. So the crow singing “cuckoo” means the wife or her sexual partner are like cuckoos: both of them have not put their “eggs”in their own nests. They are “migratory” in their desires. There is no stable “lover” in their mind; actually there is no love between them and all they need is sexual satisfaction.

Chaucer is a genius both in designing creative plots and teaching philosophical lessons in this beast fable. According to David Williams’comment, “Chaucer is a philosophical poet unrivaled in his ability to blend intellectual perception with imaginative creation” (Sandstrom, xv). His creative plot arrangement is the base of the philosophical teaching and understanding; at the same time, what he wants to teach becomes more acceptable and memorable because of the creative plot and the use of the beast fable.

Bibliography ：

[1]Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Perter G. Beidler. New York: Bantam Dell, 2006.

[2]Sandstrom ,Katharine S. Gittes, Framing The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer and the Medieval Frame Narrative Tradition. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

王玢诗，1983.2生，云南德宏人，云南大学滇池学院外国语学院，副教授，主要研究方向：英美文学、英语教学。