Manciple's Tale
Manciple's Tale, compliments of Brendan- NOW WITH NOTES! WOO!
(done pretty fast, spelling errors are likely)
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
*A few small differences from the comic book and the actual tale:
-In the prologue, the host is the one who tells the manciple he shouldn't taunt the drunk
cook.
-In the actual tale, after killing his wife Phebus also destroys his bow (yeah, it was a bow, not a gun), all his arrows, and his musical intruments before turning on the bird.
Also, its important to remember that the manciple and the cook are a pair of characters with a working relationship on the pilgrimage. A manciple supplys food for his clients, and he must get it from a cook. That is why the manciple immediately shuts up when threatened for insulting the cook- the cook knows how he does business, and knows he is stealing money for himself.
NOTES
Pheobus/Apollo
The tale presents a very different picture of Phebus (the Greek name for Apollo) than the one we would normally think of when imagining a Greek god. Some examples are:
-The begining of the tale makes mention of Phebus slaying Python, a serpent and Apollo's enemy. This is typically described as a heroic battle, but the Manciple downplays in and
actually says Phebus killed him in his sleep.
-Though the Manciple introduces Phebus with a series of compliments, when the crow tells him of his wife's adultury he list them all, saying that despite them he was still made a fool of and tricked, making Phebus look bad.
-Pheobus' fit of violence and rage at the end of the tale seems somewhat ironic, considering
that he is also the god of healing.
There are a few explanations for this unusual portrayal:
-Some say that this is a satire of courtly love because Pheobus was so "halariously unfit for his role."
-Another explanation is that there was a trend in Christian poetry of the time to make the old Greek gods look insufficient or inept. Here, Pheobus, the god of poetry, is tricked and rendered completely speechless for the last forty lines of his tale. The Pardoner, who's tale follows, invokes Christ before his tale and speaks in prose. This shows its superiority over
the flowery language of poetry that represents Apollo.
-Some feel that this actually makes sense as a story for Apollo, because there was an alternative view of him as a god of destruction.
The Manciple
There is little description of the Manciple in the General Prologue, aside from telling us that he works for a group of about thirty lawyers, and that he is more cunning than all of them beacuse he manages to steal from them without them knowing.
The Manciple's story reflects the fact that he isn't as intelligent or well read as some of the other pilgrims because it is poorly told and frequently doesn't make sense:
-He tries to make Pheobus look better by constantly putting down his wife, calling her a brid that leaves a golden cage to chase worms, a cat that leaves a silk pillow to chase mice, etc. These animal similies make some sense in that they show her leaving a luxorious life for something more instinctual, but they also make Pheobus look bad for trying to keep her caged up despite her nature.
-After his long tirade on women, he immediately (and inexplicably) tries to say that this is really all about men. This was probably because he didn't want to offend the women in the
audience, or more likely, because he is not a very good story teller and realized he gave away too much about the wife before she actually comitted any adultery, and wants to salvage his story.
- The Manciple begins to say that the moral of the story is best described by literary greats before him, but then admits that he is not "textual" and rather than quoting any of them he rambles for about forty lines what his mother told him. Too think of the crow, and remember to keep your mouth shut.
-The Manciple's tale also falls short in that there is no character development. Unlike the Miller's similar tale of adultery where the characters all seem like real people, we never even learn their names.
Based On...
This was a very well known tale at the time.
- The original was found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Roman poem in Latin about mythological transformations.
-A contemporary version had actually just been published by John Gower in his Confessio Amantis, another English language frame story. In fact, Gower was actually a friend of Chaucer's and took care of his legal matters while Chaucer was in Italy.
That's pretty much everything. It's a pretty straightforward tale without too much critical study, but feel free to leave some questions. And please somebody read the comic, you have no idea how much of a pain that thing was.
(done pretty fast, spelling errors are likely)
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
*A few small differences from the comic book and the actual tale:
-In the prologue, the host is the one who tells the manciple he shouldn't taunt the drunk
cook.
-In the actual tale, after killing his wife Phebus also destroys his bow (yeah, it was a bow, not a gun), all his arrows, and his musical intruments before turning on the bird.
Also, its important to remember that the manciple and the cook are a pair of characters with a working relationship on the pilgrimage. A manciple supplys food for his clients, and he must get it from a cook. That is why the manciple immediately shuts up when threatened for insulting the cook- the cook knows how he does business, and knows he is stealing money for himself.
NOTES
Pheobus/Apollo
The tale presents a very different picture of Phebus (the Greek name for Apollo) than the one we would normally think of when imagining a Greek god. Some examples are:
-The begining of the tale makes mention of Phebus slaying Python, a serpent and Apollo's enemy. This is typically described as a heroic battle, but the Manciple downplays in and
actually says Phebus killed him in his sleep.
-Though the Manciple introduces Phebus with a series of compliments, when the crow tells him of his wife's adultury he list them all, saying that despite them he was still made a fool of and tricked, making Phebus look bad.
-Pheobus' fit of violence and rage at the end of the tale seems somewhat ironic, considering
that he is also the god of healing.
There are a few explanations for this unusual portrayal:
-Some say that this is a satire of courtly love because Pheobus was so "halariously unfit for his role."
-Another explanation is that there was a trend in Christian poetry of the time to make the old Greek gods look insufficient or inept. Here, Pheobus, the god of poetry, is tricked and rendered completely speechless for the last forty lines of his tale. The Pardoner, who's tale follows, invokes Christ before his tale and speaks in prose. This shows its superiority over
the flowery language of poetry that represents Apollo.
-Some feel that this actually makes sense as a story for Apollo, because there was an alternative view of him as a god of destruction.
The Manciple
There is little description of the Manciple in the General Prologue, aside from telling us that he works for a group of about thirty lawyers, and that he is more cunning than all of them beacuse he manages to steal from them without them knowing.
The Manciple's story reflects the fact that he isn't as intelligent or well read as some of the other pilgrims because it is poorly told and frequently doesn't make sense:
-He tries to make Pheobus look better by constantly putting down his wife, calling her a brid that leaves a golden cage to chase worms, a cat that leaves a silk pillow to chase mice, etc. These animal similies make some sense in that they show her leaving a luxorious life for something more instinctual, but they also make Pheobus look bad for trying to keep her caged up despite her nature.
-After his long tirade on women, he immediately (and inexplicably) tries to say that this is really all about men. This was probably because he didn't want to offend the women in the
audience, or more likely, because he is not a very good story teller and realized he gave away too much about the wife before she actually comitted any adultery, and wants to salvage his story.
- The Manciple begins to say that the moral of the story is best described by literary greats before him, but then admits that he is not "textual" and rather than quoting any of them he rambles for about forty lines what his mother told him. Too think of the crow, and remember to keep your mouth shut.
-The Manciple's tale also falls short in that there is no character development. Unlike the Miller's similar tale of adultery where the characters all seem like real people, we never even learn their names.
Based On...
This was a very well known tale at the time.
- The original was found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Roman poem in Latin about mythological transformations.
-A contemporary version had actually just been published by John Gower in his Confessio Amantis, another English language frame story. In fact, Gower was actually a friend of Chaucer's and took care of his legal matters while Chaucer was in Italy.
That's pretty much everything. It's a pretty straightforward tale without too much critical study, but feel free to leave some questions. And please somebody read the comic, you have no idea how much of a pain that thing was.
posted by L Lazarow | 1:58 PM
2 Comments:
Brendan,
Were there any other examples that you found where the cook and manciple clashed other than the manciple's prologue? Did you find anything in your tale that was a hit at the cook in some way? Just wondering because the cook in my tale mainly was hostile towards the host's profession.
Nope, I really didn't find any other points of contention between the cook and the manciple, and his actual tale had nothing to do with either of their professions. To me it seemed to stem just from that professional rivalry.
Brendan
Post a Comment
<< Home