Dorigen and Aurelius, from Mrs. Haweis's, Chaucer for Children (1877). Note the black rocks in the sea and the setting of the garden, a typical site for courtly love.

"The Franklin's Tale" (Middle English: The Frankeleyns Tale) is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It focuses on issues of providence, truth, generosity and gentillesse in human relationships.

[edit] Structure of the Tale

William Blake. Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims c 1820-23.

A franklin was a medieval landowner, and this pilgrim's words when interrupting the Squire are often seen as displaying his social-climbing tendencies. After stopping the Squire's seemingly endless tale he obsequiously praises him and complains that his own son is not so learned until the Host tells him to tell his own tale, which he does only after warning his audience that he is a "burel" (simple) man. This is an example of the rhetorical device of diminutio and other such devices are employed throughout the tale.

The story opens by recounting how in pagan times a young knight (Arveragus) and a young woman (Dorigen) fall in love. In this the tale differs from most extant stories of courtly love, as the lady is wooed and won by her knight at the very beginning. Unusually for an early English text, the two lovers decide that their marriage should be one of equal status, although they agree that in public, Arveragus should make decisions so as not to draw suspicion. The idea of women having equality with men was unheard of at the time, and would have been socially unacceptable; this is why they choose to conceal it. Arveragus then travels to Britain to seek honour and fame, a common thing for knights to do at that time. He leaves Dorigen alone in France near the coastal town of Pedmark (today Penmarc'h) the province of Armorik (or Brittany as it is now known).^[1]

les Tas de Pais off the Pointe de Penhir in Camaret Brittany.

Rocky coast of Brittany. Sten Porse, 2005.

While her husband is gone, Dorigen falls into a deep depression. In an attempt to cheer her up, Dorigen's friends encourage her to take a walk by the sea. As she does this she catches sight of the rocks below and memorably describes them as thise grisly feendly rokkes blake- She obsessively sees them as a threat to her husband's life. Her friends do not give up on consolation and invite her to a garden. There a squire, Aurelius, declares his secret love for Dorigen. She refuses his love because of her great devotion to her husband. However, she jokingly says that she will be his lover if he can make the rocks in the sea, upon which she fears her dearest's ship will wreck, disappear. Aurelius calls upon the gods to grant him an exceptionally high tide to hide the rocks, but when he is not rewarded he takes to his bed and "lies in languor and torment for two years and more".

Aurelius finally manages to secure the services of a magician-scholar of the arcane arts, who, taking pity on the young man, for the princely sum of a thousand pounds agrees to make an illusion whereby the rocks disappear. Aurelius then meets Dorigen and tells her what he has done. Dorigen sees the absent rocks and laments for several days, agonizing over her predicament; for by this time Arveragus has returned safely. During this period Dorigen lists numerous examples of legendary women who killed themselves rather than submit to losing their virginity (Dorigen is considering suicide to avoid losing her honour). This passage occupies more than a tenth of the entire tale. Dorigen explains her moral predictament to her husband who calmly says that in good conscience she must go and keep her promise to Aurelius.

However, Aurelius himself defers to nobility when he recognizes that the couple's love is true, and Arveragus noble; he releases Dorigen from her oath. The magician-scholar is so moved by Aurelius' story that he cancels the enormous debt that Aurelius owes him.

The Franklin concludes by asking the rhetorical question about the three characters, "Which was the mooste fre?" (that is, "Who was the most generous/noble?")

[edit] Background to the Tale

Geoffrey Chaucer. Treatise on the Astrolabe addressed to his son Lowys AD 1391.

As the Franklin says in his prologue, his story is in the form of a Breton lai, although it is in fact based on a work by the Italian poet and author Boccaccio (Filocolo 1336 retold in the 1350's as the 5th tale on the 10th day of the Decameron) in which a young knight called Tarolfo falls in love with a lady married to another knight, extracts a promise to satisfy his desire if he can create a flowering Maytime garden in winter, meets a magician Tebano who performs the feat using spells, but releases her from the rash promise when he learns of her husband's noble response.^[2] But in Chaucer's telling, the Franklin adapts the style so that it is barely recognizable as a Breton lai. The relationship between the knight and his wife is explored, continuing the theme of marriage which runs through many of the pilgrims' tales. Whereas most of the Breton lais involved magic and fairies, the usual fantastical element is here modified by the use of science to make rocks disappear rather than a spell. This is fitting for a writer like Chaucer who wrote a book (for his son Lewis) on the use of the astrolabe, was reported by Holinshed to be "a man so exquisitely learned in al sciences, that hys matche was not lightly founde anye where in those dayes" and was even considered one of the "secret masters" of alchemy.^[3]

While the idea of the magical disappearance of rocks has a variety of potential sources, there is no direct source for the rest of the story. The rocks possibly come from the legends of Merlin performing a similar feat, or might stem from an actual event. In 2000 a paper was published showing that the magician in the Franklin's Tale attempts to make the rocks disappear in December. In fact, on December 19 1340 (commonly viewed as the year of Chaucer's birth) the sun and moon were both at their closest distance to earth; an event which will not recur till 3089 and which causes massive high tides.^[4] The theme of the story, though, is less obscure—that of the "rash promise", in which an oath is made that the person does not envisage having to fulfill. The earliest examples of the "rash promise" motif are found in the Sanskrit stories of the Vetala as well as Bojardo's Orlando Innamorto and Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor.^[5]

[edit] Commentary

French miniaturist (15th c) Fortune and Her Wheel. Illustration from Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium 1467.

Boethius. Consolation of Philosophy. 1485.

Gerald Morgan argues that the Franklin's Tale is organised around moral and philosophical ideas about the reality of Providence and hence of man's moral freedom, as well as the need for generosity in all human contracts.^[6] Morgan considers that Aquinas' Summa Theologiae and Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae were important influences on Chaucer in writing the Franklin's Tale.^[7] Hodgson likewise emphasizes how in phraseology reminiscent of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae, Dorigen ponders why a wise and benevolent God could create in "thise grisly feendly rokkes blake" means to destroy and to produce no good "but evere anoyen".^[8] DW Robertson considers that Arveragus comes across as "not much of a husband"; he exerts himself with many a labour and many a "great emprise" not for the sake of becoming virtuous, but to impress his lady and when he learns of her rash promise he advises her to go ahead and commit adultery, but only to keep quiet about it "up peyne of deeth."^[9] This sour view of Arveragus is disputed by Bowden who refers to Arveragus' honest belief that "trouthe is the hyest thyng that man may kepe" so that he too may be called "a verray parfit gentil knyght".^[10]Gardner considers that the Franklin's Tale comes close to Chaucer's own philosophical position that all classes must be ruled by "patience."^[11]

On the theme in the Canterbury Tales about freedom and sovereignty in marriage, the Franklin's Tale arguably explores three successive acts of conscience or gentilesse springing from rich human generosity: by Dorigen's husband, her suitor and the magician who cancels the debt owed to him.^[12] Howard, however, considers it unlikely that the Franklin's Tale represents Chaucer's view on marriage, the Franklin being "not the sort of character to whom Chaucer would assign a tale meant to settle an issue."^[13] Cooper expresses the view that the absolutes considered in the tale are moral qualities (patience, fredom or generosity, gentillesse, trouthe): "Averagus comforts his wife, and then bursts into tears. He and the other men make their choices for good without privileged knowledge and out of free will: a free will that reflects the liberty given to Dorigen within her marriage. A happy ending requires not that God should unmake the rocks, but that a series of individuals should opt to yield up and give, rather than take."^[14] Whittock considers that this Tale represents, beyond the Franklin's own consciousness of it, a 'fearful symmetry' in the universe; where acting from conscience on qualities of truth, generosity and gentillesse must shift from being a secular ethical attitude to one that represents man's grateful (but always imperfect) response to the bounty of a transcendent consciousness.^[15]

Spearing writes that one of the important messages of the Franklin's Tale is that our vision of the right way to live, or how to do the right thing in problematic circumstances "does not come to us directly from God or conscience, but is mediated by internalised images of ourselves as judged by other human beings. The very terms we use to assess conduct (right, decent, mean, rotten,, and so on) belong to languages we did not invent for ourselves, and their meanings are given by the communities to which we belong."^[16]

[edit] References

1. ^ Robinson FN (ed). The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, London. 1957. pp723 n801.
2. ^ Spearing AC. Introduction to The Geoffrey Chaucer. The Franklin's Prologue and Tale. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997. pp2-4.
3. ^ John Gardner. The Life and Times of Chaucer. Jonathan Cape, London. 1977. p88.
4. ^ Olson DW, Laird ES, Lytle TE. High tides and the Canterbury Tales. Sky and Telescope 2000; April: 44.
5. ^ Robinson FN (ed). The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, London. 1957. pp721-726
6. ^ Gerald Morgan. Introduction. Geoffrey Chaucer. The Franklin's Tale from the Canterbury Tales. Hodder and Stoughton, London1985. pvi.
7. ^ Gerald Morgan. Introduction. Geoffrey Chaucer. The Franklin's Tale from the Canterbury Tales. Hodder and Stoughton, London1985. pp15-16.
8. ^ Phyllis Hodgson Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer. The Franklin's Tale. The Athlone Press, London. 1961 p 26.
9. ^ DW Robertson. A Preface to Chaucer. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1973. pp471-472.
10. ^ Muriel Bowden. A Reader's Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer. Thames and Hudson, London. 1965. pp34-35.
11. ^ John Gardner. The Life and Times of Chaucer. Jonathan Cape, London. 1977. p255.
12. ^ John Speirs. Chaucer The Maker. Faber and Faber, London. 1972. p 167-168.
13. ^ DR Howard. The Idea of the Canterbury Tales. University of California Press, Berkeley. 1976. p268-269.
14. ^ Helen Cooper. The Canterbury Tales. Oxford Guides to Chaucer. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1989. p 240.
15. ^ Trevor Whittock. A Reading of the Canterbury Tales. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1970. p 178.
16. ^ Spearing AC Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer. The Franklin's Prologue and Tale. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1997. p 37.

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Canterbury Tales/The Franklin's Prologue and Tale

• Read "The Franklin's Tale" with interlinear translation
• Modern Translation of the Franklin's Tale and Other Resources at eChaucer