Chaucer summer exam 2011-12
2 hours.
Students should answer questions 1-3.
Do not substantially repeat material from assessed essays.
1. Write a critical commentary on ONE of the following passages, drawing attention
to any points of interest in the passage itself and its relationship to the work from
which it is taken. (25 marks)
a)
‘Thow art my mortal fo and me werreyest,
And of myne olde servauntes thow mysseyest,
And hynderest hem with thy translacyoun,
And lettest folk to han devocyoun
To serven me, and holdest it folye
To truste on me. Thow mayst it nat denye,
For in pleyn text, it nedeth nat to glose,
Thow hast translated the Romauns of the Rose,
That is an heresye ageyns my lawe,
And makest wise folk fro me withdrawe;
And thynkest in thy wit, that is ful col,
That he nys but a verray propre fol
That loveth paramours to harde and hote.
Wel wot I therby thow begynnyst dote,
As olde foles whan here spiryt fayleth;
Thanne blame they folk, and wite nat what hem ayleth.
Hast thow nat mad in Englysh ek the bok
How that Crisseyde Troylus forsok,
In shewynge how that wemen han don mis?
Why noldest thow as wel [han] seyd goodnesse
Of wemen, as thow hast seyd wikednesse?
Was there no good matere in thy mynde,
Ne in alle thy bokes ne coudest thow nat fynde
Some story of wemen that were goode and trewe?
from The Legend of Good Women, G Prologue
werreyest: wage war on
b)
‘O God,’ quod she, ‘so worldly selynesse,
Which clerkes callen fals felicitee,
Imedled is with many a bitternesse!
Ful angwissous than is, God woot,’ quod she,
‘Condicioun of veyn prosperitee:
For either joies comen nought yfeere,
Or elles no wight hath hem alwey here.
‘O brotel wele of mannes joie unstable!
With what wight so thow be, or how thow pleye,
Either he woot that thow, joie, art mutable,
Or woot it nought; it mot ben oon of tweye.
Now if he woot it nought, how may he seye
That he hath verray joie and sekynesse,
That is of ignoraunce ay in derknesse?
‘Now if he woot that joie is transitorie,
As every joye of worldly thyng mot flee,
Than every tyme he that hath in memorie,
The drede of lesyng maketh hym that he
May in no perfit selynesse be;
And if to lese his joie he sette a myte,
Than semeth it that joie is worth ful lite.
‘Wherfore I wol diffyne in this matere,
That trewely, for aught I kan espie,
Ther is no verray weele in this world heere.
But O thow wikked serpent, jalousie,
Thow mysbyleved envyous folie,
Why hastow Troilus mad to me untriste,
That nevere yet agylte hym, that I wiste?’
from Troilus and Criseyde, Book 3
selynesse: happiness
diffyne: conclude
mysbyleved: misbelieving
agylte: did him wrong
2. Write a critical commentary on ONE of the following passages, drawing attention
to any points of interest in the passage itself and its relationship to the work from
which it is taken. (25 marks)
a)
‘But shortly myn entente I wol devyse:
I preche of no thyng but for coveityse.
Therfore my theme is yet, and evere was,
Radix malorum est Cupiditas.
Thus kan I preche agayn that same vice
Which that I use, and that is avarice.
But though myself be gilty in that synne,
Yet kan I maken oother folk to twynne
From avarice and soore to repente.
But that is nat my principal entente;
I preche nothyng but for coveitise.
Of this mateere it oghte ynogh suffise.
‘Thanne telle I hem ensamples many oon
Of olde stories longe tyme agoon.
For lewed peple loven tales olde;
Swiche thynges kan they wel reporte and holde.
What, trowe ye, that whiles I may preche,
And wynne gold and silver for I teche,
That I wol lyve in poverte wilfully?
Nay, nay, I thoghte it nevere, trewely!
For I wol preche and begge in sondry landes;
I wol nat do no labour with myne handes,
Ne make baskettes and lyve therby,
By cause I wol nat beggen ydelly.
I wol noon of the apostles countrefete;
I wol have moneie, wolle, chese, and whete,
Al were it yeven of the povereste page,
Or of the povereste wydwe in a village,
Al sholde hir children sterve for famyne.
from The Pardoner’s Prologue, Canterbury Tales
Radix malorum est Cupiditas: greed is the root of all evil [1 Tim. 6:10]
twynne: depart, turn away from
in poverty wilfully: in voluntary poverty (like a monk)
b)
‘We shul first feyne us cristendom to take –
Coold water shal nat greve us but a lite! –
And I shal swich a feeste and revel make
That, as I trowe, I shal the Sowdan quite.
For thogh his wyf be cristned never so white,
She shal have nede to wasshe awey the rede,
Thogh she a font-ful water with hire lede.’
O Sowdanesse, roote of iniquitee!
Virago, thou Semyrame the secounde!
O serpent under femynynytee,
Lik to the serpent depe in helle ybounde!
O feyned womman, al that may confounde
Vertu and innocence, thurgh thy malice,
Is bred in thee, as nest of every vice!
O Sathan, envious syn thilke day
That thou were chaced from oure heritage,
Wel knowestow to wommen the olde way!
Thou madest Eva brynge us in servage;
Thou wolt fordoon this Cristen mariage.
Thyn instrument so – weylaway the while! –
Makestow of wommen, whan thou wolt bigile.
This Sowdanesse, whom I thus blame and warye,
Leet prively hire conseil goon hire way.
What sholde I in this tale lenger tarye?
She rydeth to the Sowdan on a day,
And seyde hym that she wolde reneye hir lay,
And cristendom of preestes handes fonge,
Repentynge hire she hethen was so longe.
from The Man of Law’s Tale, Canterbury Tales
lede: bring
Virago: woman usurping man’s office
Semyrame: Semiramus, a queen famed for her wickedness
under femynynytee: in a female form
fordoon: destroy
warye: curse
reneye hir lay: renounce her religion
fonge: receive
3. Write an essay in answer to ONE of the following questions. (50 marks)
a) What do the Canterbury Tales have to say about the relative authority of secular
and religious literature? Refer to at least THREE tales in your answer.
b) Compare the presentations of magical / alchemical transformation in any TWO of
the following Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Franklin’s Tale,
The Canon Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale.
c) What do the religious tales and their fictive tellers reveal about the state of the
English Church in the late fourteenth century? Refer to at least THREE Tales and
tellers in your answer.
d) How does Chaucer respond to Boccaccio’s Il Teseida in The Knight’s Tale?
e) Discuss the relationship of sexuality and Christianity in any TWO or THREE
Canterbury Tales.
f) What picture does Chaucer give of late medieval urban life in any THREE of the
following tales: The Miller’s Tale, The Reeve’s Tale, The Shipman’s Tale, The
Cook’s Tale, the Canon Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale.
g) Examine the ways in which Chaucer varies the genre of romance in the mouths of
different tale tellers in the Canterbury Tales. Refer to at least TWO Tales.
h) ‘Conjugality [marriage] becomes an important category with which to think
through the complex and contradictory desire of a newly emerging late medievalearly modern “middle” class.’ (Glenn Burger, 2005). Do you agree?
i) Does the Parson’s Tale adequately terminate the carnivalesque disruptions of
order that characterise the Canterbury Tales?
j) For Elaine Tuttle Hansen, the Wife of Bath remains ‘a dramatic and important
instance of woman’s silence and suppression in history and language’ that
endorses the anti-feminism the Wife rails against and that reaffirms traditional
binaries (1992). Argue for or against this assessment of the Wife of Bath.
k) How productive is it to read the Tales with reference to the Fragments in which
they are situated?