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“A Solempne and a Greet Fraternitee”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

J. Wilson McCutchan
J. Wilson McCutchan*
Affiliation:
Davidson College, North Carolina
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Extract

That the “solempne” and “greet fraternitee” in whose livery Chaucer dressed the five Burgesses in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales was probably a craft fraternity and that the Drapers' Fraternity (or Brotherhood of St. Mary of Bethlehem) provides a clear-cut example of the kind of organization he had in mind are conclusions to which this paper will attempt to lead the reader through the ensuing pages. Eighteen lines introduce and describe these worthy citizens:

An Haberdasshere and a Carpenter,

A Webbe, a Dyere, and a Tapycer,—

And they were clothed alle in o lyveree

Of a solempne and a greet fraternitee.

Ful fressh and newe hir geere apiked was;

Hir knyves were chaped noght with bras

But al with silver; wroght ful clene and weel

Hire girdles and hir pouches everydeel.

Wel semed ech of hem a fair burgeys

To sitten in a yeldehalle on a deys.

Everich, for the wisdom that he kan,

Was shaply for to been an alderman.

For catel hadde they ynogh and rente,

And eek hir wyves wolde it wel assente;

And elles certeyn were they to blame.

It is ful fair to been ycleped “madame,”

And goon to vigilies al bifore,

And have a mantel roialliche ybore.

(Gen. Prol., ll. 361-378)

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 74 , Issue 4-Part1: Proceedings of the Modern Language Association of America , September 1959, pp. 313 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1959

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References

1 J. M. Manly in his edition of Canterbury Tales (New York, ca. 1928; 1950), p. 522, hints at a possible connection between the Drapers and Chaucer's “fraternitee.” He does not, however, follow up this suggestion, and he makes no effort to establish the relationship.

2 Citations to Chaucer are to The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. F. N. Robinson, 2nd ed. (Boston, 1957).

3 The Gilds and Companies of London (London, 1908), pp. 110-111. Accepting this view more recently is Sarah Herndon, “Chaucer's Five Gildsmen,” Florida SU Studs., No. 5 (Tallahassee, 1952), pp. 36-37.

4 “The Five Craftsmen,” MLN, lxi (Dec. 1946), 517-521.

5 Unwin, pp. 111, 115. On p. 111 Unwin reminds his readers that parish fraternities were so closely associated with chantries that both shared the same fate at the Reformation.

6 Quoted in Unwin, p. 115.

7 Fullerton, pp. 519-520.

8 A. H. Johnson, The History of the Worshipful Company of the Drapers of London (Oxford, 1914-22), I, 197.

9 Ibid., i, 198-199.

10 Cf. Unwin, p. 77, and Johnson, I, 27.

11 See above.

12 In a note Johnson calls attention to the fact that Simon Eyre, notwithstanding Dekker's characterization in The Shoemakers' Holiday, was a Draper.

13 i, 125-126; also p. 47, n. 2.

14 i, 82-83, 87, 193-195.

15 Johnson, i, 185, 192-193. The reader will recall that Chaucer himself occupied this office from 1374 to 1386.

16 Ibid., i, 27-28, 40.

17 Robinson, pp. xxix and 1.

18 For further discussion see Unwin, pp. 130-154, passim; Johnson, i, 30-42; Ernest P. Kuhl, “Chaucer's Burgesses,” Trans. of the Wis. Acad. of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, xviii, Pt. 2 (Madison, 1916), 652-655.

19 See Kuhl, pp. 652-658; Herndon, pp. 34-35; Fullerton, p. 517; and Carroll Camden, Jr., “Query on Chaucer's Burgesses,” PQ, vii (July 1928), 316.

20 See above, p. 313.

21 Manly states this in Some New Light on Chaucer (New York, ca. 1926), p. 259. His later identification of St. Thomas as the patron of the Drapers in his edition of Canterbury Tales conflicts with this and would appear to be in error, inasmuch as I find no support for it.

22 Cf. Camden, pp. 315-316; Herndon, p. 44; Thomas A. Kirby, “The Haberdasher and His Companions,” MLN, liii (Nov. 1938), 505; Peter Lisca, “Chaucer's Gildsmen and Their Cook,” MLN, lxx (May 1955), 323-325.

23 Ed. The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (Oxford, 1894), v, 36, l. 366, n.