Flatulence on the Road to Canterbury

Perhaps it's the oldest joke in the world: picture two Neanderthal huddling near a small flame under the shelter of a rock outcropping, cold wind and rain battering the earth before them; one leans in to turn a twig and, (insert expletive here) they both erupt in laughter. It never gets old. Much like the wheel and the wedge, the early men discovered in flatulence, a tool that made laughing come easier. Perhaps they even used it for this purpose. There's no way of knowing, but one begins to wonder how old this trick is, if Geoffrey Chaucer was using the comedic device of flatulence in the 14^th century. Chaucer's characters in the Canterbury Tales break wind necessarily, unnecessarily, to offend, to make a joke, and in one case with the most unexpected results. In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer shows us that there is more to a story that courtly love, chivalry, virtue and morals. He reminds us that humans are at times vulgar, and depraved. Chaucer paints a picture of the lower and middle classes untouched by the chivalric caution (eggshells) of the higher aristocracy. He shows us that stories should be truthful, whether vulgar or not, and that sometimes it may require a touch of the human condition (physical human condition). I would like to focus on the Miller's Tale and the Summoner's Tale, two instances where the device of flatulence plays an integral role in the development of character and plot.

It is clear from the General Prologue that the miller is, at least, an unsavory fellow. At the outset of the pilgrimage he is drunk and barely able to ride his horse. By the end of the first tale (Knight's Tale) he is interjecting, as our drunk friends often do. The host calls on the monk to tell a tale that will balance the knight's long courtly romance, but the miller insists that he tell his piece now. After a moment of hesitation, the host allows the miller to continue, seemingly to expedite the process. Pleased with this, the miller begins his address by announcing his drunkenness, "But first I make a protestacioun, / That I am dronke, I knowe it by my soun." (3137-3138). The miller then makes it clear that if he speaks poorly or messes up the tale, then you can blame it on the "ale of Southwerk" (3140).

The tale begins when Nicholas the student convinces his landlord's young wife Alisoun to spend the night with him. He fools the landlord into thinking a great flood of biblical proportions is coming and the only way to prepare is to tie bathtubs to the ceiling and then cut them down when the water rises. The landlord and Nicholas tie their tubs to the rafters and when the landlord falls asleep, Nicholas sneaks down and get into bed with Alisoun. While Nicholas and Alisoun are enjoying each other in the bed chamber, the parish clerk Absolon comes to the small "privy vent" at the chamber and asks Alisoun for a kiss. It is dark so she says yes and puts her backside into the hole, expecting to fool and embarrass the clerk. Absolon kisses her arse "full savourly." It is what unfolds here at the privy vent that is most startling. Outraged at kissing Alisoun's backside, he fetches a hot iron coulter and returns to ask Alisoun for another kiss, intending to burn her. When he returns, however, Nicholas is at the privy vent getting ready to relieve himself. Absolon looks up into the hole and Nicholas releases a blasphemous fart in his face. It is important to recall a seemingly insignificant passage earlier on in the tale, as Margaret Hallissy points out,

In al the toun nas brewhous ne taverne

That he ne visited with his solas,

ther any gaylard tappestere was.

But sooth to seyn, he was somdel squaymous

Of farting, and of speche daungerous. (3334-3338)

Hallissy cleverly points out this small detail that Chaucer inserts to create reason for Absolon's anger at the fart (81). And so this flatulence sets off a chain of events leading to the story's end. Absolon burns Nicholas, Nicholas screams for water, the landlord hears "water!" and cuts his bathtub from the rafters. The landlord falls to the floor and breaks his arm and the townspeople all come and gawk.

Here, as a result of the fart, we have several outcomes: the development of Absolon's rage, the fulfillment of Nicholas' punishment for adultery, and the humiliation of the landlord. This single act of vulgarity (albeit unexpected) is the catalyst for the story's culmination. It is possible that the story couldn't have unfolded thus without the flatulence. It is difficult to imagine the story unfolding without this scene at the privy vent. In this singular catalytic event, Chaucer exhibits his master knowledge of human interaction. He allows a fart to unravel the story, where a dialogue or monologue might not.

Our second example of flatulence in motion comes in the Summoner's Tale which is essentially a response to the Friar's Tale. In the summoner's prologue, he tells a tale of a friar making a trip to hell accompanied by an angel. When they arrive, the friar sees that there are no friars there, so he thinks that all friars must be good people and that is why they are not in hell. However, upon hearing this, the angel speaks to Satan, "Hold up thy tayl, thou Sathanas" (1689). Satan holds up his "tail" and twenty-thousand friars swarm out like bees, buzzing and flittering around the room. Then the friars fly back into the backside of Satan. This portrayal of friars being the flatulence of Satan, shows us something about the summoner's view of a friar in Chaucer's time. Again, Chaucer uses the "ers" to show animosity between professions, as well as to make a joke for the reading audience. The fact that friars fly out of the devil's behind is quite a blow to the friar's order. It's true that had the friar's flown out from the devil's mouth, the insult would have less impact. The summoner does not stop here with his insults.

His main tale is about a mendicant friar who begs for alms and writes the names of his donors on paper, but the summoner states that the friar erases the names after receiving the donations. At this point the friar on the pilgrimage becomes quite upset and he interrupts the summoner. After a brief argument the host breaks it up and the summoner continues. The friar in the tale comes to a sick man's house and demands a dinner of roasted pig's head. After a little while the sick man tells the friar that he has been giving to friars for a long time but that he is still sick. The friar explains to him that this type of sentiment is not appropriate because friars help to keep society in check. So then the sick man says that he has something for the friar, but that he must share it equally with all the friars of his order. He tells the friar that his gift is in his pants so the friar reaches into the sick man's bottom,

And doun his hand he launcheth to the clifte

In hope for to find ther a yifte,

And whan this syke man felte this frère

Aboute his towel grope there and here,

Amidde his hand he leet the frère a fart.

Ther nis no capul drawinge in a cart,

That mighte have lete a fart of swich a soun. (2145-2151)

Here again, Chaucer resorts to flatulence to end his tale, but the tale is not over. The friar is so outraged at this "donation" that he travels to the local lord. He tells the lord about the sick man's gross trick and the lord doesn't seem to have any sympathy for the friar. Instead, the lord tries to think of a way that the friar can share the fart with all the friars of his order. The lord's young squire says that on a clear day, one could place a gaseous man at the center of a cartwheel and place the friars all around the spokes of the wheel. The gaseous man in the middle could break wind and it would travel equally across the spokes for all the friars to enjoy. The lord rewards the quire with a nice new coat and the tale ends.

In both of these tales, perhaps flatulence is not a poetic/literary device and maybe it is only a physical reaction to a build-up of gas. Either way, Chaucer's repeated use of it sheds light onto the social norms of the time. Medieval culture must have been dichotomous in its social expression, as we see in the contrast between the knight's well-spoken courtly romance and the crude accounts of the lower class miller and summoner. Flatulence plays a large role in the lives of the lower class characters of medieval London as we see in the end of the Summoner's Tale. The amount of time spent on the friar's gift is testament to a subculture uninfluenced by aristocratic prudence. Even the local lord engages in the dialogue and rewards the squire for his excellent idea on how to spread the "gift" around. The openness in which he talks about flatulence and his ability to tie it into integral plot themes shows us much about medieval expectations. In Chaucer's day, or at least in his work, a fart is not just a fart; it is something that can simultaneously insult, instruct and entertain.