Chaucer: Wordcrafter

This world with byndyng of your word eterne,

And written in the table of atthamaunt

Youre parlement and youre eterne graunt,

What is mankynde moore unto you holde

Than is the sheep that rouketh in the folde?

For slayn is man right as another beest,

And dwelleth eek in prison and areest,

And hath siknesse and greet adversitee,

And ofte tymes giltelees, pardee.

[The Knight's Tale, lines 1303-1312 (of CT)]

In the Knight's Tale, as in his other works thus far, Chaucer proves to be skilled at layering his poetry. On the first reading, these ten lines of The Knight's Tale just sounded like beautiful poetry. Read aloud, the words flow together immaculately. However, after several close readings, and much contemplation, they intensify in meaning and beg for further exploration.

The basic categories of poetry, such as the genre and plot, are the first layer of The Knight's Tale, or of any other writing, that is revealed when one reads. The Knight's Tale is of the "romance" genre. However, these ten lines in particular deal with the idea of chance versus fate. These lines are part of Palamon's speech, in which he criticizes the ways of the seemingly unfair world: "...And ofte times giltelees, pardee." In these lines, Palamon describes the ideas of a philosopher, Boethius, because neither he, nor Arcite are able to marry Emeleye. One of Boethian Philosophy's tenants is that life is hopeless, and is full of meaningless suffering, and Palamon's speech describes life as such.

As part of the overall "plot" category, ideas of "time" and "setting" are important. The passage is written in the past tense, but since Palamon speaks in the present, it is as if Palamon is saying these words as one reads them. This makes the reader feel as if the ideas stated by Palamon are more significant.

The next components of this passage that become clear are the poetic devices. The most obvious is the rhyme scheme-the passage is comprised of rhyming couplets. Rhyming couplets are two consecutive lines with the same end rhyme, and the pair of lines usually makes up one complete thought. This is the case in these ten lines. The passage can be broken up into couplets to clarify Palamon's separate thoughts.

The metaphor in lines 1307-1308 likens men to sheep. Sheep are generally thought of as passive creatures that have no control over their own lives, and Palamon argues that men are the same way- implying that the gods are like shepherds. In the next two lines, a simile ("For slayn is man right as another beest") prolongs the previous metaphor, this time characterizing man as any type of beast.

By using metaphor and simile to compare humans to animals, he is furthering the expression of Boethian ideas (of Palamon) without just saying, "everyone should commit suicide because life is hopeless" (however, by the ending of The Knight's Tale, Palamon would disagree). Chaucer constantly forces the reader to interpret his meanings, and to question whether Chaucer himself really means what he says, or if by being somewhat elusive, he is trying to motivate the reader to think for himself/herself. It is obvious that he does want the reader to pick his poetry apart to discover their true meanings, or else he would probably not have bothered to layer them so richly. It is apparent, both from his writing techniques and from some ideas contained in his poetry, that Chaucer had very high expectations of his readers.

Chaucer uses atthamaunt as a symbol of strength, as adamant is a stone that was thought to be unbreakable. In this case, what is strong is the word of the gods-that figurative law which states that men will suffer undeservingly, and such things will never change. This symbol adds to the ominous tone of Palamon's speech.

The passage begins with an apostrophe- "The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a speech or composition" (dictionary.com)- in the form of Palamon's cry to the "cruel gods." The fact that he appeals to the gods is part of Chaucer's way of portraying the helplessness that Palamon feels in his situation, and also the mind-set of Palamon's time (an historical reference).

The passage is contains several lexicons ["A stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject, or style; a vocabulary" (dictionary.com)]. Some words can be "cross-referenced" in more than one lexicon, while others are exclusive. One lexicon is that of mortality. The words crueel, goddes, world, eterne, atthamaunt, mankynde, sheep, slayn, beest, dwelleth, sikness, adversitee, and tyme are all associated with the idea of life and death, of mortality (mankind, sheep, siknesse, slayn, cruel, etc) and immortality (goddes, eterne, atthamaunt, time, world). This idea of mortality and the concept of life on earth are very important, both in this passage, and in the entire Knight's Tale.

Another is the lexicon of law. Law insinuates power and rule. The words in this passage that are related to such are goddes, governe, byndyng, word, written, parlement, graunt, holde, folde, right, prison, arreest, and giltelees. Binding (obligation), word, written, parlement, graunt, and holde are words that are associated with laws; Gods and govern are associated with ruling; And guiltless, arrest, prison, binding, holde, and folde are associated with the action (or more appropriately, inaction) of being subject to law and another's power. This lexicon is especially useful since one of Chaucer's main themes is that of the relation between men and gods, or the powerful and the weak.

Another prominent lexicon is that of love. The Knight's Tale is considered a romance, so it is not surprising that many of the words have a correlation to love. Crueel, goddes, byndyng, eterne, atthamaunt, mankynde, holde, rouketh, folde, man, beest, prison, arreest, siknesse, greet, adversitee, tymes, and gilteless can be associated with love. Love can be cruel; Gods can represent love; Love can be binding, eternal, and strong; Love is associated with humans; Love can have a hold, or be a kind of enclosure; Love can cause cowering or fear, or siknesse; Love can be innocent, etc. Love is such an important theme in The Knight's Tale, and to Palamon in regards to the emotion behind his speech. At another point in the story Arcite says, "Who shall give a lover any law? Love is a greater law..." and that seems to be the most important idea when the story is taken as a whole, so the conflict between law and love is an important one that is shown in the two lexicons.

A less imposing lexicon is that of communication. Many of these words are related to law, but can be interpreted in a slightly different way to represent writing and speech (things that Chaucer was very concerned with). Seyde, word, written, parlement, and graunt are all acts of communication-an idea that is less important in this particular passage, but one that is salient to Chaucer in general.

Other than using language to make associations in the text, Chaucer chooses each individual word carefully so that it can be perfectly plants into the poem. For instance, not only is there end rhyme (A, A, B, B, C, C, etc.), but there is also internal rhyme in the passage. Mankynde and holde (line 1307), greet and adversitee (line 1311), giltelees and pardee (line 1312), etc. The internal rhyme serves to unite words within a line, just as end rhyme serves to unite the two lines. Both types of rhyme help the flow of the language and the fluidity of the poetry when spoken.

Another device to help with the flow of the language is the use of iambic pentameter (loosely). The two lines of the passage that do not contain ten syllables (depending on pronunciation) are the first and last lines. However, putting the first line and last line together makes twenty syllables, the same amount that would be in any other two lines of the passage.

I'm sure there are other components of the poem that Chaucer intended to add, however, I have enumerated a majority of them, and in finding them I came to some conclusions about the passage and about Chaucer. It was apparent just how much thought Chaucer put into his writing, and his poetry deserves the same amount of thought from his readers, which is what he intended. He was concerned with the place of reading in the lives of others, and that is shown by his writing technique, not just by subject (i.e. The Parliament of Fowls, etc). This passage of The Knight's Tale is made up of so many layers that it is hard to gain a true understanding from just one, or even two readings.