Two approaches to teaching Chaucer

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Two approaches to teaching Chaucers Knights Tale
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• I. Structure as Style
• Key text Charles Muscatine, Form, Texture and
  Meaning in Chaucers Knights Tale (PMLA 1950)
  the tale is about the struggle between noble
  designs and chaos and the ways in which the
  noble life, through its rituals and practices,
  makes sense of the worlds adversities
• A thought-experiment using the roman dantiquite
  mode to address this issue in a secular (i.e.,
  pagan) and philosophical fashion
• The very style of the tale emphasizes this aim
  it is highly rhetorical (note, e.g., the use of
  occupatio) and very symmetrical (in character,
  setting, speech)

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• Symmetry in character
• Palamon and Arcite two lovers/cousins/sister's
  sons
• two triangles overseen by an older male
  authority (Theseus over Palamon/ Arcite /Emelye
  Saturn over Venus, Mars, Diana alternately,
  Saturn/Jupiter/Venus Mars Egeus/Theseus/Palamon
  Arcite
• Troops of Palamon and Arcite are equal, and led
  by equally striking champions, Lycurgus and
  Emetrius their equality is acknowledged
  explicitly at 1729-35
• In al the world, to seken up and doun, So
  evene, withouten variacioun, Ther nere swiche
  compaignyes tweye, For ther was noon so wys
  that koude seye That any hadde of oother
  avauntage Of worthynesse, ne of estaat, ne
  age, So evene were they chosen, for to gesse.

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• Symmetry in setting the lists, a perfect mile in
  circuit with the three shrines, is built in the
  grove where Palamon and Arcite first fought, and
  where Arcite is to be buried.
• Symmetry in speeches and rhetoric
• Parallel speeches given by both knights upon
  their first sight of Emelye in Part 1 (Muscatine
  Arcites claimI loved her as a woman, not a
  goddessis there to balance Palamons claim, not
  refute it)
• Parallel lamentations at the end of part 1, when
  they are separated
• Parallel prayers in the temple in part 3
• Demandes damour at ends of Parts 1 2
• Yow loveres axe I now this questioun Who
  hath the worse, Arcite or Palamoun?
• (489-90)
• Who looketh lightly now but Palamoun? Who
  spryngeth up for joye but Arcite? 
• (1012-13)

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Rhetorical figures in the Knights Tale
(1)   Commutatio Two yonge knightes ligginge by
and by, Bothe in oon armes, wroght ful
richely, Of whiche two, Arcita highte that
oon, And that other knight highte Palamon. (KT
1011-14)   Dubitatio For with the rose colour
stroof her hewe, I noot which was the fairere of
hem two (KT 1038-39)   Interrogatio And eek
therto he is a prisoner Perpetuelly, noght only
for a yeer. Who coude ryme in English
proprely His martirdom? For sothe, it am nat
I Therefore I passe as lightly as I may. (KT
1457-61)  
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Rhetorical figures in the Knights Tale
(2)   Occupatio And certes, if it nere to long
to here, I wolde have told yow fully the
manere How wonnen was the regne of Femenye By
Theseus, and by his chivalrye And of the grete
bataille for the nones Bitwixen Athenës and
Amazones And how asseged was Ipolita, The faire
hardy quene of Scithia And of the feste that was
at hir wedding, And of the tempest at hir
hoomcominge But al that thing I moot as now
forbere. (KT 875-88)   See also 985-1000
(battle in Thebes) 1187-89 (strife in prison of
P. A.) 2197-2207 (pre-tournament feast)
2919-2966 (Arcites funeral), and other instances
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• The agent of order in this chaotic world Theseus
• A just conqueror on behalf of the Theban widows
  in part I
• A thoughtful prince who accedes to Emelye and
  Hippolytas pleading in part 2
• Builder of the lists and the prohibitor of
  destruccioun in the tournament
• Supervisor of Arcites funeral arrangements, and
  of the marriage of Palamon and Arcite
• Delivers the famous First Mover speech, a
  philosophical (and specifically Neoplatonic)
  perspective on this uncertain world, in which we
  must maken vertu of necessitee

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The Knights Tale, then, explicitly celebrates
healing power of chivalric ritual and its
capacity to bring order to a world beset by
chaotic and sometimes malign forces For which
anon duc Theseus leet crye, To stynten alle
rancour and envye, The gree as wel of o syde as
of oother, And eyther syde ylik as ootheres
brother And yaf hem yiftes after hir
degree, And fully heeld a feeste dayes
three, And conveyed the kynges worthily Out of
his toun a journee largely. And hoom wente every
man the righte way. Ther was namoore but "Fare
wel, have good day! (1873-82)
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II. Irony
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WINDSOR, England, 4/10/2005- Prince Charles and
Camilla Parker Bowles wed in a modest town hall
ceremony Saturday with the blessing of the queen
and the Church of England. Their bond sealed a
tangled love affair ignited at a polo match more
than 30 years ago. Once married, the royals
knelt beneath the towering Gothic arches of St.
George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, nervously
pledging their undying love and confessing "sins
and wickedness" - a phrase from the Church of
England's Book of Common Prayer - as their vows
were blessed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams. Despite years of public and media
criticism, even ridicule, Charles and Camilla's
shared affection appeared to finally to have won
them a measure of acceptance from the British
public, many of whom blamed their relationship
for poisoning Charles' marriage to Britain's
beloved Princess Diana. "He did a bit of a
dirty job on Diana," said Tina Quinney, 59, one
of the thousands of people lining the streets of
this royal town. "But the past is the past."
The ceremonies went off flawlessly on a bright,
sunny day despite sinister omens A change of
location for the civil wedding vows,
unsubstantiated reports of the queen's "fury"
that the couple would wed at all, and a one-day
postponement for Pope John Paul II's funeral.
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WINDSOR, England, 4/10/2005- Prince Charles and
Camilla Parker Bowles wed in a modest town hall
ceremony Saturday with the blessing of the queen
and the Church of England. Their bond sealed a
tangled love affair ignited at a polo match more
than 30 years ago. Once married, the royals
knelt beneath the towering Gothic arches of St.
George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, nervously
pledging their undying love and confessing "sins
and wickedness" - a phrase from the Church of
England's Book of Common Prayer - as their vows
were blessed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams. Despite years of public and media
criticism, even ridicule, Charles and Camilla's
shared affection appeared to finally to have won
them a measure of acceptance from the British
public, many of whom blamed their relationship
for poisoning Charles' marriage to Britain's
beloved Princess Diana. "He did a bit of a
dirty job on Diana," said Tina Quinney, 59, one
of the thousands of people lining the streets of
this royal town. "But the past is the past."
The ceremonies went off flawlessly on a bright,
sunny day despite sinister omens A change of
location for the civil wedding vows,
unsubstantiated reports of the queen's "fury"
that the couple would wed at all, and a one-day
postponement for Pope John Paul II's funeral.
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• Theseus ironized
• Erasure of human agency in First Mover speech
• Bloody war with Thebes/cozy relations with
  pilours/imprisonment without ransom
• Theseus the cad?   
• The rede statue of Mars, with spere and
  targe, So shyneth in his white baner
  large That alle the feeldes glyteren up and
  doun And by his baner born is his penoun Of
  gold ful riche, in which ther was ybete The
  Mynotaur, which that he wan in Crete. Thus rit
  this duc, thus rit this conquerour, And in his
  hoost of chivalrie the flour, Til that he cam
  to Thebes and alighte  Faire in a feeld, ther
  as he thoughte to fighte.
• What happened in Crete?

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From The Legend of Ariadne, in Chaucers Legend
of Good Women Juge Infernal, Minos, of Crete
king, Now cometh thy lot, now comestow on the
ring Nat for thy sake only wryte I this storie,
But for to clepe agein unto memorie Of Theseus
the grete untrouthe of love For which the
goddes of the heven above Ben wrothe, and wreche
han take for thy sinne. Be reed for shame! now I
thy lyf beginne. And in an yle, amid
the wilde see, Ther as ther dwelte creature noon
Save wilde bestes, and that ful many oon, He
made his ship a-londe for to sette And in that
yle half a day he lette, And seide, that on the
lond he moste him reste. His mariners han doon
right as him leste And, for to tellen shortly
in this cas, Whan Adriane his wyf a-slepe was,
For that her suster fairer was than she, He
taketh her in his hond, and forth goth he To
shippe, and as a traitour stal his way Whyl
that this Adriane a-slepe lay, And to his
contree-ward he saileth blyve A twenty devil
way the wind him dryve! And fond his fader
drenched in the see.
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• Chivalry ironized
• Whats the problem with the fight in the grove?
  No referees!
• This duc his courser with his spores
  smoot, And at a stert he was bitwix hem
  two, And pulled out a swerd and cride,
  "Hoo! Namoore, up peyne of lesynge of youre
  heed! By myghty Mars, he shal anon be
  deed That smyteth any strook that I may
  seen. But telleth me what myster men ye
  been, That been so hardy for to fighten
  heere Withouten juge or oother officere, As
  it were in a lystes roially.
• The Temple of Mars what chivalry is willing to
  admit about itself
• Athens vs. Thebeschivalrys self-contradictions 
                   

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• The Knight ironized
• Occupatios failures and the return of Femenye
  (this leads to discussion of the role of women in
  the tale and in chivalric discourse generallyand
  to the Wife of Baths Tale specifically)
• Elision of consent in the final happy ending (not
  to mention the way it contradicts the First
  Mover speech And er that we departen from this
  place / I rede that we make of sorwes two / O
  parfit joye, lastynge everemo.)
• A paper topic of mineTheseus in the Knights
  Tale principled spokesman for the chivalric life
  in his efforts to bring order to a chaotic world,
  or crypto-fascist control freak devoted to
  conquest?