Monday, March 1, 2010

Of queynte mirours and of perspectives: the Squire's Tale

Hello, friends! I hope you all enjoyed the Squire's Tale, as it is probably my favorite of the Canterbury Tales by virtue of its weirdness.

How is it weird and/or notable?

(a) The Squire's Tale is a pastiche of different kinds of stories (the epic, the romance, the beast fable) without really going anywhere. This is frequently ascribed to the Squire's youth and immaturity-- he wants to tell a cool tale like his dad, but he's not quite there-- but that seems to run counter to the Squire's portrait in the General Prologue:

He koude songes make and wel endite,
Juste and eek daunce, and weel purtreye and write.

(b) If you'll recall, Canacee (the main character of the Squire's Tale) shares her name with the main character of the story that the Man of Law descried in the introduction to his Tale, citing:

But certeinly no word ne writeth he [Chaucer]
Of thilke wikke ensample of canacee,
That loved hir owene brother synfully;
Of swiche cursed stories I sey fy!

(c) The Tale begins with the Host entreating the Squire to "sey somwhat of love; for certes ye / Konnen theron as muche as any man." The Squire replies,

Nay, sire... but I wol seye as I kan
With hertly wyl; for I wol nat rebelle
Agayn youre lust

Is he saying No, that he won't say somewhat of love, or that he doesn't know all that much about love? Either way, the Squire says that he will not rebel against the Host's lust, and then he heads into (1) a weirdo deliberate distortion of a romance, or (2) a story about incest. Either is an odd choice.

(d) A sundry internal discrepancies-- such as the falcon using a bird's preference for worms over "sugre, hony, breed and milk" (the food of the cage) to illustrate "newefangelnesse." Which doesn't make any sense.

(e) Telling her story of romantic woe, the falcon says that she "made vertu of necessitee"-- an echo of King Theseus' speech in the Knight's Tale.

(f) PITEE RENNETH SOONE IN GENTILE HERTE.

I reviewed a number of sources on the Squire's Tale for my annotated bibliography, so I can share some published suggestions, re: the Squire's eccentricities, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

What do you think? Squire's Tale: incomplete or deliberately truncated? Squire: wry? rebellious? confused? inept?

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