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Chaucer Shortens a Tale
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 March 2021
Extract
Students, critics, and just plain readers of Chaucer are unanimously agreed that he is one of the great masters of narrative. But in spite of this agreement—or perhaps because of it—there has been surprisingly little attempt to discover what was Chaucer's own attitude toward the technique of storytelling. His skill in character-portrayal, his humor, his irony, his detachment, his sharp eye, his descriptive powers— all these qualities and others have been the subject of extensive comment. But about his narrative technique in the narrow sense—that is, the particular way In which he selects, arranges, and proportions the detailed events which go to make up a story—there remains much to be said. The aim of this paper is to open up one corner of this large subject by exploring the implications of a characteristic Chaucerian habit which, for lack of a better term, we can call “self-conscious abbreviation.” By this I mean the trick of calling to the reader's attention the fact that details are to be omitted, the pace of the story accelerated, unimportant or obvious events summarized or taken for granted, or any one of a number of other devices employed to shorten the narrative.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1953
References
page 1126 note 1 CT
page 1127 note 2 The present writer's count was 243, as follows: BD, 10; HF, 17; other poems, 7. Because of borderline cases, passages in which more than one abbreviating are used, and other uncertainties, the count would differ somewhat horn reader to leader. But there can be no doubt of the relative frequency: compare this count with only 22 such passages in the whole of Gower's
page 1127 note 3 The meat extreme case of this is in the
page 1127 note 4 For example, the line “And, shortly of this thyng to paces (HF 239) becomes ”And, shortly of this proces for to pace“ (LGW 1914; TC iii. 470).
page 1127 note 5 For examples of these various reasons, see BD 189–190, HF 1177–80, LGW 2257-58, LGW 1344–1345.
page 1128 note 6 Following the longer veralon of the text ed. G. C. Macaulay (Oxford, 1901).
page 1128 note 7 Legitimate comparison au be made only in those tales told by both poets. Of 13 of these, 6 an longer in Gower's version, 5 are longer in Chaucer's, and 2 are about the same in both. The lengths in lines are as follows (Gower's versions, all from Confessio Amantis, on the left; Chaucer's on the right):
page 1129 note 8 Lines 165–166, 718–719, and 1007–09 (ed. Gollance, EETS, 05. 210, 1940).
page 1129 note 9 Middle English Metrical Romances (New York, 1930). The passages are Hovelok the Dane 1732-35, 2360-63 Gamelyn 877-878; Yuoin and Gaxoin 35-41, 213-218; Sir Perucral of Galles 1741; The Seven Soges cf Rome 256; The Destruction of Troy 91-99.
page 1129 note 10 I used Skeat's parallel-text edition (Oxford, 1886). The passages are Prologue 111, Passus ii.61, v.21–22, ix.71–72, xi.155.
page 1131 note 11 See, Cf., H. Lüdeke, (Holle, 1928), pp. 56,145.
page 1131 note 12 Two excellent examples occur in Book n of the Troilus. Following the sutement in 1. 1071 that to quote
page 1131 note 13 See, e.g., TC m.1660-66 nnd Pllostarto m.st.6.3. But Chnucer's Introdudory “This is o word for al” has no equlvalent in Boccncdo. Again, his unwillingness to describe Crseydc's complaint lest he “childishly deface” it (rv.799-805) is translated directly from a similar protestation by Boccanccio.
page 1132 note 14 See, e.g., H. R. Pntch, On Rereading Chauser (Cambridge, Mass., 1939), pp. 135-138; J. L. Lowe, Geofferey Chauser and the devlopment of His Genius (Boston and New York. 1934), pp. 163-164; G. L. Kittredge, Chauser and his Poetry (Cambridge, Mass., 1915), p. 113, F. N. Robinson, op. dt., p. S66.
page 1133 note 15 Even before beginning the legends themselves, he prepares for the necessity or condensation by inserting the following lmtructions into the clmrgr or the God o! Love in the “F” version of the Prologoe (omitted in the “G” version):
“I wot wel that thou malst nnt alyt ryme,
That switche lovers diden in hire tyme;
It were to long to reden llEld to here.
Suffiseth me thou make In the, manner,
That thou reherece of al hir lyf the grete,
After this olde auetouni lystcn {or to tretc.
For whoso shnl eo mmy a story telle,
Sey shortly, or he shall to longe dwelle.”
page 1134 note 16 On this point the critics have disagreed. Whitney Wells, e.g, in mentally not devoid of a certain nervous impatience. He himself liked to get shead without too much delay and circumstance.“ In the light of Chaucer's handling of the I find this statement hard to support. Almost all his additions to Boccaccio's rather abrupt treatment of the early part of the story are in the direction of ”delay and circumstance.“ On this point see also Marie P. Hamilton's unpublished Cornell dissertation. ”The Utterancet of Chaucer on Literary Art“ (1932), pp. 84–85, 97–98, 100–101, 162–163, 170.
page 1135 note 17 In this connection, it is amusing to observe that he endows his more talkative characters with the same habit of sententioosry eschewing prolixity. Thus Chauntecleer:
“But thilke tale 1s al to knge to telle,
And eek it is ny day, I may nat dwelle.
Shortly I seye, as for conclusioun,
That I thai ban of this avisioun
Adversit's ...“ (CT vii.3149-53)
page 1137 note 18 On the subject, tee especially Ruth Crosby, “Chaucer and the Custom or Oral Delivery”—Speculum, XIII (1938), 413-432—and Bernard Bronson's article cited above (n. 16).
page 1138 note 19 An exception seems to be the wife of Bath's appeal to “the twise wyves, think khri understonde” (CT mr. 225), which is echoed in the ironic exhortritions to “noble wyves” and “archwyves” in “Lenvoy de Chaucer” with which the Clerk ends his tale (CT IV,1183, 1195}. There were, of course, no other “wyves” beside the Wife of Both the pilgrimage; the only other owmen were the two nuns. This night, of course, be forgetfulness, but I believe it is a conscious leap across the fietidious audience of the pilgrims to the actual audience of the ladies and gentlemen—husband and wives—of Richard's court.
page 1139 note 20 Others from the early poems: “Hyt were to longo for to dwelle” (BD 217); “Hyt were a long proces to telle, / And over-long for yow to dwelle” (HF 251-252); “To make you to longe to duelle” (HF 1454).
page 1139 41note 21 For discusson of this passage, see G. Stillwell, “Chauser in Tartary,” RES, xxiv (1948), 182-183. I am indebted to Stillwell's article for calling my attention to the rather neglected Squire's Tale as on example of Chaucer's art at its most mature.