harry bailly's contribution to the realism of chaucer's ...

F~Y BAILLY'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE REAJ~ISM

OF CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES

by

Anne Fredrica Wall

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the

College of Humanities

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Haster of Arts

Florida Atlantic University

Boca Raton, Florida

June 1978

HARRY BAILLY'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE REALISM

OF CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES

by

Anne Fredrica Wall

This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Allen w. Greer, Department of English, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the College of Humanities and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.

SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:

Thes~ u1~

of English

1'178

ii

Author:

Title:

Institution:

Degree:

Year:

ABSTRACT

Anne Fredrica Wall

Harry Bailly's Contribution to the Realism of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Florida Atlantic University

Master of Arts

1978

Harry Bailly, the Host figure in the Canterbury Tales, is used by

Chaucer as an artistic device to bridge the gap between the worlds of

reality and fiction. His existence is central to the believability of

the entire poem; as he developes as a convincing character, his inter-

action with the pilgrims reveals aspects of their characters also.

Thf.s investigation examines Chaucer's method of using Harry Bailly an

an "authenticating device" to create an illusion of reality in his

poem, beginning in the first chapter ~Yith a review of the background

scholarship concernin8 Harry Bailly's functions throughout the

narrative. The secon1 chapter considers the Host's interaction with

various pilgrims, as s.:en in his regular appearances in the frame.

Fiaally, the third chapter is devoted to two views of Harry Bailly

which serve t o depict him at his most real, in his confrontation with

the Pardoner and ia his corrnnents on his own marriage.

iii

CHAPTER

I.

II.

III.

CONI'ENTS

HARRY BAILLY'S VARIOUS ROLES IN THE CANTERBURY TALES .

HARRY BAILLY AND THE PILGRIMS

HARRY BAILLY'S SELF-REALIZATION

LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED

i v

PAGE

1

13

24

36

CHAPTER I

HARRY BAILLY'S VARIOUS ROLES IN THE CANTERBURY TALES

Critics have taken various lines of argument in studying Chaucer's

Host figure. Clearly Harry Bailly does not carry out one simple

function, and because his role is so complex, it is possible that the

intricacies of his position and the continuous development of his

character, as the pilgrimage to Canterbury proceeds, have yet to be

fully determined.

A recent article (1977) by David Pichaske and Laura Sweetland,

to be discussed later, has conveniently summarized the scholarship

concerning the roles the Host plays throughout the pilgrimage: he

is a historical reality; in narrative terms a tour guide, master of

ceremonies, manager and literary critic; a Greek chorus and embodiment

of middle-class values and attitudes; structurally a unifying device

and audience; and a judge. 1 Additional roles cited by other critics

include Harry's function as a timepiece; as Chaucer's means to express

his own aesthetics; and as a character who contributes a high degree

of realism to the entire poem. In my opinion the roles cited above

are all plausible activities of the Host, but it is the last function

~avid R. Pichaske and Laura Sweetland, ;'Chaucer on the Medieval Monarchy: Harry Bailly in the Canterbury Tales," Chaucer Revie•.v, 11 (1977)' 179.

1

2 .

mentioned which, in light of previous studies, is in need of further

examination and will conscitute this study of Harry Bailly.

First, however, a closer look at some of the other ways Chaucer's

Host has been regarded will be helpful to our entire view of his

character. In two of the earliest studies of Harry Bailly, he is

proclaimed to be a model of an actual hosteler of the Tabard Inn in

Southwark, England, named "Henri Bayliff. "2 The documented proof of

the existence of this fourteenth century Englishman, similar to the

Host in name and occupation, is important because it lends a sense of

historical reality to Chaucer's pilgrim leader. 3

The Host's self-elected position as a ·guide, master of ceremonies,

and manager is cited by many critics. 4 He is spoken of as "the King of

innkeepers, who knows how to start the fun and how to moderate it,"

and that "whether disrespectful or kindly in turn, by disregarding

2Geoffrey Chaucer, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. Rev . \~.w. Skeat (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894), I, 58-9. This idea is also discussed by John M. Manly, Some New Light on Chaucer (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1926), pp. 78-9, who attempts to prove that Chaucer did not create Harry Bailly but merely modelled him after this once existing person. Both Skeat and Manly cite documented evidence that there are records of a certain Henri Bayliff, Southwark innkeeper of the Tabard, who was also representative to parliament from that borough.

3Kemp Malone, "Harry Bailey and Godelief," English Studies, XXXI (1950), 209-15. Malone, in a rebuttal to this idea, deals with the Host (and his wife) as fictive characters, holding that the poet did not model Harry after an actual man, and that he is only a creation of the poet's fictive imagination for humorous intent.

4In almost every case critics ~ite'Harry Bailly's role as a guide, master of ceremonies, and manager of pilgrims.

3

the condition of the pilgrims, he puts them on a temporary footing of

equality--it invites and enforces cordiality."5

As a literary critic the Host is considered both a success and a

failure. On one hand, Legouis long ago said that Chaucer gives Harry

Bailly "a quick and sure aesthetic taste, as he seems to know exactly

what he wants in a story and what he has contempt for in form."

Furthermore Legouis points out that in the Host's distaste for fantasy

he reveals his scorn for "affectation of form and support for utili-

tarian literature which creates part of the importance and stature of

his function in the narrative as critic."6

On the other hand, some critics, R.M. Lumiansky among them, view

his critical ability in a more unfavorable light, feeling that he is

proud of his competence as a critic without good reason. 7 It is felt

that the Host's role as literary reviewer is a part of Chaucer's

technique of humor in the narrative. He is dealt with as a figure

whose literary taste and judgment are to be appreciated for their

comic worth to the poem. 8

5Emi1e Legouis, Geoffrey Chaucer, trans. L. Lailavoix (London, 1913; rpt. New York: Russell & Russell, 1961), pp. 176, 177.

6Legouis, pp. 179-80. Harry's distaste for fantasy refers to the

Tale of Sir Thopas which he could not accept.

7 R.M. Lumiansky, Of Sondry Folk (Austin: University of Texas Press,

1955), p. 85.

8 Charles Owens, "The Development of the Canterbury Tales," JEGP,

57 (1958), 449-76; and Alan Gaylord, "Sentence and Solaas in Fragment VII of the Canterburv Tales: Harry Bailly as Horseback Editor," PMLA, 82 (1967), 226-235. Both critics maintain that the Host is used as a comic figure in his job as critic, discussing the satire Chaucer creates by having him, merely an innkeeper, playing the competent critic.

4

Still another interpretation sees the Host as an embodiment of

middle class attitudes, "a picture of the truest typical Englishman

that has ever been delineated," representing middle class standards

in his behavior to~.,ards his fellow pilgrims and in his treating each

individual according to his or her "estate."9 It is said that Harry

Bailly is an "indicator and determinant for the overall and specific

changes of mood and general atmosphere throughout the pilgrimage."10

In terms of structure, critics have viewed the Host both as a

unifying device and as an audience for Chaucer. 11 The idea of unity

lies in the very word "links" applied by editors to the interludes

where the Host appears, providing organization, helping to construct

a "well-defined and well-lit" group of pilgrims with connecting tales,

and creating a unified framew·ork. 12 Legouis, for example, in 1910

says that "he is always present on stage and is the real centre of

the comedy which is being enacted on the road. He gives unity to the

whole poem, where he plays the part of the ever-present protagonist. "13

9Henry D. Sedgwick, Dan Chaucer (New York: AMS Press, 1934),

pp. 237-39. Sedgwick calls Harry the truest, typical Englishman. The term "estate" is central to a study by Jill Mann, Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire (Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 1-7. Hann discusses "estate consciousness," saying that the pilgrims are of different "estates" (social levels) and the Host is aware of these differences.

10 John Lawlor, Chaucer (London: Hutchinson Univ. Library, 1968),

PP• 105-40.

11The word "structure ~ ' is used here in terms of the physical make-up of the Canterbury Tales, referring to the form of the tales and links.

12Lurniansky, p. 85 . Lumiansky also ~.,rites that "it must not be

forgotten that the Host is Chaucer's chief unifying device for the group of stories and also for the group of pilgrims.''

131 . 17" . egou~s, p. ~.

5

In one of the most widely acclaimed studies of the past twenty-

five years, Charles Muscatine writes of the structural unity of the

poem in terms of "inner and outer frames," asserting that the Host

closes the gap between both worlds. 14 The view of the Host as a

unifying device is therefore longstanding. Muscatine discusses the

effect of Harry's role as a "Greek chorus" in the framework of the

poem, saying that he stands "as a mediator between the worlds of the

tales and the tellers, director of both, with his choric activity

linking both."15 He is further viewed as a "barometer of sensibili-

ties" for the pilgrim company, commenting on the tales and pilgrims,

and he "affords a kind of focus and reflection of middle range opin-

ion."16

14charles Muscatine, Chaucer and the French Tradition (Berkeley: Univ. of Cal. Press, 1957), p. 171. Muscatine speaks of the structure of the Canterbury Tales in terms of the "two processions"-­the tales and the travellers as two different worlds. "The tales take in the universe of time and space: ancient Thebes, Asia, Tartary, imperial Rome, modern Flanders, London, Oxford and the North Country. The travellers take in the small circle of those present. In this framework, of outer and inner frames, the Host stands as a mediator between both.

Donald R. Howard, The Idea of the Canterbury Tales (Berkeley: Univ. of Cal. Press, 1976), p. 188. Howard also writes of the structure in terms of frames, saying that the "inner form of the tales is a microcosm embraced by the outer macrocosm of the pilgrimage."

l5Muscatine, p. 171.

16Paul G. Ruggiers, The Art of the Canterbury Tales (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1967), p. 6. Ruggiers bases his assertion on the Host's agreeing with the Knight on the relationship between literature and life, quarrelling with Chaucer on the same matter, and yielding to the Parson on other matters. He says the Host is not Chaucer's "voice of reason," or the "monitor of grace," or "a guide in any spiritual sense," but concludes that he does function as a sort of "barometer of the sensibility and general opinion along the pilgrimage."

6

Related to the Host's position as a sort of "Greek chorus" is . his

role as an audience for Chaucer. One critic speaks of Harry Bailly's

consciousness as being so broad that "he personifies the thread of

local, human response, various yet always the same, which the natural­

istic links constitute as a whole."17 Another writes that "the very

nature of Harry's role is to be an official audience, and an audience

very much in command," feeling that his reactions to the tales serve

as a sort of general mirror of Chaucer's contemporary audiences. 18

Acting as a general audience, the Host is viewed as a typical listener

or reader of the day, reacting to the tales as the poet would expect

19 his fourteenth century audience to respond.

Inheriting many of the observations from earlier studies, there

are three key discussions of Harry Bailly, published in the 1970's,

which deal in depth with his activities during the pilgrimage,

offering a rather larger view than before of his importance as a

character for Chaucer. The first is the article referred to earlier

by David Pichaske and Laura Sweetland which examines the Host's role

as judge of the pilgrims and their tales. They study the change of

17Huscatine, p. 171. He writes that "Chaucer has broadened the Host's consciousness to include at least the verbal edges of a variety of spheres. He is the most explosive swearer on the pilgrimage, yet capable of fine, bourgeois overpoliteness. He has a smat t ering of Latin (imperfect), medicine, law and rhetoric. He can invoke Bacchus and sermonize on Time. ''

18Gaylord, pp. 231-2.

19Howard, p. 76. Howard says (about Harry's function as an audience) that "because writing is a solitary occupation during which the audience can only be imagined or supposed, it makes more sense to say that a writer writes for an imagined or supposed audience."

7

Bailly's "governance" as the journey progresses, viewing the relation-

ship between his place as a "ruler" and the tales and attempting to

discover whether any relationship exists between his place as judge

and medieval political theory. They feel that Harry Bailly may be a

symbol for Chaucer's "oblique connnentary on English politics of the

last decade of the fourteenth century." Their argument is essentially

that the Host is portraying Chaucer's own political ideas: "the

political statement of the Canterbury Tales, embodied in the Host,

can be taken as an indication of Chaucer's position and sympathies

20 regarding the English monarchy at the end of the century."

Cynthia Richardson, in the second article, considers Harry

Bailly's major function to be that of a "timepiece": "Harry Bailly

represents the forces external to the artist that press him to be

creative." These forces are "the needs of society and the confronta-

tion by the artist of time, death, and his own mortality--the need,

as Harry puts it, to be 'fructuous, and that in litel space. '"21 The

element of time is felt to be important to his role, there being

numerous references throughout the poem to idleness and wasted time

while Harry urges his pilgrim company along their way. Richardson

feels that "there is a special ring and intensity to the frequency of

the Host's references to time. 1122

20Pichaske and Sweetland, p. 180.

21cynthia Richardson, "The Function of the Host in the Canterbury

Tales," TSLL, 12 (1970), 326.

22Richardson, p. 333.

8

Harry's continuous concern with time and haste along the journey

is said to "have a language and a cadence all its own, which is

symbolically sharpened by references to milestones, clocks, crowing

cocks, and flowing streams," and Richardson states that Chaucer was

depicting the "effects of time (the Host) on art (the tales). 1123

Possibly Chaucer is also "making a comment on the character of Harry

through a medieval and Christian concept of time that is very likely

applicable to all Harry's references to it." Finally, Richardson

believes that Chaucer has "created a distance between the commentator

and the tales he hears, and this distance frames the stories more

sharply and makes the reader increasingly sensitive to the relation­

ship between past and present."24

A third and equally important view of the Host's role in the

Canterbury Tales is in his contribution to and participation in the

realism of the poem--a realism that goes beyond politics and time to

the life of feeling itself, where Harry Bailly becomes such a

convincing figure. 25 Barbara Page studies Chaucer's characterization

of the Host and cites his importanceto the reality of the entire work,

writing that "the Host is a time-bound and earth-bound man, and in

the scheme of the Canterburv Tales he represents the immediate present.

23Richardson, p. 329.

24Richardson, p. 340.

25This theory forms the basis of Chapter II, a study of the Host's interaction with various pilgrims which reveals his true character.

9

He is both in and of this world."26 She concludes that Harry is "not

only a convenient device by which the frame story of the Tales is

organized, but also the figure through which the so-called two worlds

of the travellers and tales--that is the dramatic and thematic

aspects--are unified."27

Such a review as I have given of the background scholarship

concerning the Host's various roles throughout the Canterburv Tales

serves primarily to reveal the complexity of Harry Bailly's character.

He is never "off stage," although his appearances are brief and

scattered, and at first only barely outlined; and he is gradually

revealed to us during the course of the pilgrimage, with his various

comments and responses, as a human being of real substance, that is,

as exhibiting what in literature has come to be called "realism."

Harry Levin speaks of realism as "a matter of degree, varying

with choice of subject and emphasis on detail," and what I am concerned

with fundamentally is the degree of realism Chaucer has achieved and

Harry Bailly's place in that achievement. 28 But, as Morton Bloomfield

has said, "in order to make use of such a protean word as 'realism'

26Barbara Page, "Concerning the Host," Chaucer Review, 4 (1970), 11.

Page relies on Muscatine's discussion of "naturalistic" literary tradition which asserts that the Host represents the naturalistic world in the structure of the Tales, and also the "naturalistic" literary tradition. She feels that Muscatine's description of the bourgeois style may be applied to the Host as a character of descrip­tion, and believes that possibly Chaucer was delineating a critical view of the "bourgeois" man in his characterization of the Host.

27 Page, p. 13.

28 Harry Levin, ''What is Realism," Comparative Literature, 3 (1951),

195.

10

at all, we must give it, as we must to all general words in the

humanities, many meanings if appearances are to be saved," and so

in the following discussion I will define the meaning of realism in

terms of Chaucer's illusion of reality in the Canterbury Tales. 29

Bloomfield cites four conventional devices which are used to

establish plausibility in literature and sees them as a part of what

he calls "authenticating realism": the use of various sorts of

frames; an "I" in the story who is the narrator, usually the

"literary equivalent of the author"; "the tone of an authorial

·voice"; and "details of background" in a work, such as mention of

30 specific localities, names and dates. Chaucer does use all of

these techniques to create an "air of truth'' in the Canterbury Tales,

but I wish to add another category which is relevant to Harry Bailly--

the realm of realized feeling. My concern is not with the range of

our feelings towards the pilgrims and Harry, since Chaucer distances

us from his poem in order to create a relative objectivity, but

rather with the pilgrims' sensibilities and with Harry's ultimate

confrontation with himself.

Chaucer's use of a frame in the poem is crucial as a device for

realism, because it is in the frame's links that we view Harry's range

of emotional response through his interaction with the pilgrims. The

frame is essential to the degree of reality of the three worlds with

which we are concerned--the inner, fabricated world of the tales, the

29Morton w. Bloomfield, "Authenticating Realism and the Realism of Chaucer," Thought, 39 (1964), 337-38.

30Bloomfield, 338-40.

11

outer and less "fictional" world of the links, the pilgrims, and Harry

Bailly, and finally the real world of Chaucer and fourteenth century

England. Of the frame Bloomfield says, "it is in the authenticating

device of the work, in the frame, that Chaucer's circumstantial and

dramatic verisimilitude most strongly appears," and it is this "circum-

stantial" realism that affords us a picture of contemporary English

l 'f 31 ~ e.

Less important than the frame, but still evident in the Canterburv

Tales as devices, are the "I" and the authorial tone of voice. The "I"

appears in the frame, gives an 11 air of truth" to the entire poem, and

makes us feel that what he is relating is true. The narrator, who of

course is really the poet Chaucer's voice, keeps us in touch with the

circumstances of the pilgrimage, such as the description of the time

of year in the General Prologue. On the authorial tone, Bloomfield

cites Anne Ferry's comment on Milton's Paradise Lost. Her observing

that the tone "is controlled by his personal experience of this mortal

12 world" applies equally well to Chaucer.-

The fourth device mentioned is apparent throughout the frame of

the poem where we find specific mention of the travellers' locale

along the way to Canterbury, names of various pilgrims, and the date

and time of year. The narrator and Host fill us in on these various

"naturalistic and realistic" details to draw us into their story and

to make their fiction more of a reali'ty. Bloomfield has said that

31Bloom£ield, 349.

32Blcomfield, 347-8.

12

"in the Canterbury Tales it is a social as well as a personal world

which authenticates the inner stories. Chaucer has moved f rom dream

and past history to a report on the contemporary world and present

history, producing thereby yet another variation on the numerous ways

of giving a realistic effect."33

And, finally, the additional element of a "realized feeling" for

each pilgrim and ultimately for Harry Bailly constitutes an aspect of

Chaucer's realism for it is only in the Host's interaction with the

pilgrims that we see how he operates as a catalyst for their responses,

which subsequently moves them from the fairly static and conventional

portraits in the General Prologue to the more dynamic and convincing

34 characters they later become. It is finally Harry's own self-

realization and subsequent confession which prove him to be the most

convincing character of all.

33Bloomfield, 347-8.

34Even in the General Prologue, however, the pilgrims are static only in relation to their later vitality. Jill Y~nn makes the point well: "Chaucer forces us to feel that we are dealing with real people because we cannot apply to them the absolute responses appropriate to the abstractions of moralistic satire." Chaucer and Hedieval Estates Satire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 189.

CHAPI'ER II

HARRY BAILLY AND THE PILGRll1S

Harry Bailly is present in every link of the frame, but I am

citing only those instances which are especially charged emotionally

through his interaction with various pilgrims. 1 The frame's major

"link" is the General Prologue, for it constitutes our introduction

to the world of the Canterbury pilgrims, sets the stage and mood for

the coming action, and places the narrative against a background of

contemporary English life. Important here is the narrator, the "I,"

who affords an "air of truth" to the poem by establishing the time of

year, the locale, the reason for the journey, and the participants,

all before he introduces the Host.

1I am following the Ellesmere order of the Canterbury Tales. F.N. Robinson writes that although he recognizes the Bradshaw order, adopted by Professor Robert Pratt, he follows the Ellesmere order, leaving the text in the form in which it has come down in the manuscripts.

John H. Fisher, whose text I am using, supports his use of the Ellesmere order saying: "The Ellesmere was compiled in the same decade as Hengwrt (1400-1410), probably by the same scribe, but under the editorial supervision of 'an intelligent person, who was certainly not Chaucer 1 (Manly-Rickert, I. 150). The result is a text more regular in dialect and spelling than Hengwrt and more complete, with the tales in the order which many scholars today regard as nearest to Chaucer's intention. For these reasons, the Ellesmere has been the text on which most editions have been based," p . 967. For further discussion of the various orders of the Canterbury Tales, see Robert A. Pratt, "The Order of the Canterbury Tales," PMIA, 66 (1951), 1141-67.

13

14

During that final introduction, there are three views of the Host

which gi'Je us our first glimpse of his character: the narrator's

description of his physical attributes; his proposal to the pilgrim

company of a storytelling game over which he would officiate; and

his words to three of the pilgrims--the Knight, Prioress, and Clerk.

Harry's respectful attitude towards the Knight, courtesy to the

Prioress, and lighthearted entreaty to the Clerk show us immediately

a Harry Bailly who knows his place in society and has the good sense

to obseL~e class distinctions, as he perceives them. As he asks the

travellers to draw near to begin the game, we are also drawn from

one world of fiction, the frame (though scarcely seeming like fiction

at all), to another world, which is quite unmistakably fiction. This

~arks the beginning of the movement of our awareness between the tales

and the frame and our constant shifting between degrees of reality,

as we simultaneously watch the Host's character develop.

The Host's reaction to the Knight's Tale is enthusiastic, "Oure

Hooste laugh and swoor ... " (I, 3114), and he demonstrates his

approval of the Knight, saying "For trewely the game is wel bigonne"

(I, 3117). Harry Bailly's interaction with the Miller, Reeve, and

Cook in the subsequent links depicts the Host operating as something

of a catalyst, causing the pilgrims to then react according to their

respective characters. For the drunken Miller insists that he will

tell his story despite the fact that it is not his turn, and, although

Harry off-handedly suggests that he seems too drunk at the moment to

relate a tale, the ~llcr overlooks the remark, and with evident

stubbornness, proceeds.

15

The Miller's comment to the Reeve, in which he implies that

Oswald has been cuckolded by his wife, sets off the Reeve's anger,

revealed after the Miller has finished his tale. Oswald vents his

irritation by complaining about old age in his Prologue, and, conse­

quently, annoys the Host. There is a chain reaction evident among

these three men, with each one managing to provoke the next. Harry

rebukes the Reeve for his unnecessary words on the topic of growing

old and passing time, speaking down to the pilgrim "as lordly as a

kyng" (I, 3900), and the Host's admonishment reflects a certain

attitude towards time.

It is clear from Harry's impatience with Oswald and from his other

references to passing time that he is alert to the quick passage of

man's time on earth and the importance of spending as few moments as

possible in idle activity. His anxious mention that the company is

almost at Depeford and the first quarter of the day almost gone, "Lo

Depeford, and it is half-wey pryme" (I, 3906), further suggests that

the real world impinges on the fictional world. The urgency of time

is a real concern for Harry Bailly, as it is for us.

The Host and Roger, the Cook, are previously acquainted· through

their business dealings, it appears, and through their interaction

a bit of each character is revealed. Harry's teasing, however

good-naturedly, about Roger's habit of selling warmed-over pies,

causes the Cook to make a slight rebuttal, saying that he hopes

Harry won't mind if he tells a tale of a hosteler! But the Cook,

evidently on amiable terms with Harry, decides not to provoke him,

and instead laughs and begins his tale of Perkyn Revelour.

16

Although Harry may be prudent, usually, with the "gentils" (the

Knight and the Prioress, for example), and rough with those such as

the Cook, he treats the pilgrims who have professions in still another

manner. His use of legal terminology with the Man of Law, and later

of medical terms, both correctly and incorrectly, with the Physician,

as well as rhetorical terms with the Clerk, shows Harry to be very

much concerned with his self-image. His pride makes it necessary for

him to let these pilgrims, whose estates are higher than his own,

know that he is not uninformed. His individualized treatment does

seem appropriate, for in his occupation as a hosteler, one would

expect him to be experienced in dealing with people from all walks

of life.

To Harry's polite and somewhat formal request for a tale, the

Man of Law responds that he has no intention of breaking his agreement

to tell a tale, saying further that "For swich lawe as a man yeveth

another wight,/He sholde hymselven usen it, by right; ... " (II,

43-44). But the lawyer appears humble, saying that he cannot tell

a tale as well as Chaucer could: " . But nathelees, certeyn,/I kan

right no\v no thrifty tale seyn/That Chaucer, thogh he kan but lewedly/

On metres and on rymyng craftily,/Hath seyd hem in swich Englissh as

he kan/Of olde tyme, as knoweth many a man" (II, 45-50). And he says

finally that he will tell a tale in prose. His mention of Chaucer

is important to the reader's sense of historical reality, and the

logic is compelling: if Chaucer is real, as we know he is, then

so must be the Man of Law, the Host, and the other pilgrims.

17

Harry's response to the Man of Law's tale of Constance is again

enthusiastic, for the "authorial voice" tells us that he stood up in

his stirrups in excitement. But his ebullience is cut short by the

Parson's prudish denunciation of his oaths, evoking a response from

Harry about Lollards which appears to be contemptuous, in its four­

teenth century setting. 2 The Host's rude reaction to the Parson

serves to depict certain aspects of their personalities--the angry,

strongly religious Parson in contrast to the obviously conservative

innkeeper.

It seems that there are also others who do not care to hear a

long sermon, and the Wife of Bath, more logical in the context than

the Shipman, steps in with a promise of a tale which will be sure to

keep the company awake, and, consequently, the Parson loses his place

in the storytelling line. 3 Harry Bailly's treatment of the Wife of

Bath, when after her prologue he settles the dispute between the

Summoner and the Friar, is brief yet courteous. His deference towards

2Geoffrey Chaucer, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. F.N. Robinson, 1st ed., 1933; 2nd ed., 1957 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin), p. 664. Robinson writes that "The Parson too, is contemptuously addressed as a Lollard in the Man of Law's Epilogue (II, 1173). Probably Chaucer would not have described him in just the terms he uses if reform had not been in the air.

3Fisher's edition places the Epilogue to the Man of Law's Tale after line 1162 of the tale, with the Wife of Bath speaking the Shipman's words. Fisher notes that: "This reading is not found in any MS. All read "Squyer," "Sumnour," or "Shipman." ''Wif of Bath" is assumed to have been Chaucer's original reading when this link conneeted with the ShT, VII. lff. With this conjectural amendation, the passage can serve as a link to Part III (following), which begins with the prologue and tale Chaucer eventually assigned to the Wife of Bath, p. 101.

18

her is curious, for he has no comment about her prologue or tale.

While Alisoun's prologue depicts her sensibility, and her tale further

backs up her feelings on love and marriage, the Host does not respond

with rebuttal or agreement. His civility along with a strange lack

of opinion is a hint about his personal situation--the state of his

real-life circumstances in his marriage.

The Clerk of Oxenford responds to Harry's bandying about of

rhetorical terms in a manner reflective of his character and position

in life, for as ~.re are told in the General Prologue, he is a solemn,

serious man of few words. Harry's taunting does little to provoke

him, and he merely replies humbly: '"Hooste,' quod he, 'I am under

youre yerde./Ye han of us as now the governance,/And therfore wol I

do yow. obeisance/As fer as resoun axeth, hardily" (IV, 22-25).

Before the Merchant begins his tale, he comments on the Clerk's

Tale, comparing his own wife to patient Griselda and confessing the

unhappiness of his newly married state. Harry, beginning to question

the Merchant in hopes for an entire tale about his marriage difficul­

ties, is disappointed when the pilgrim refuses to accommodate him,

saying: II . . but of myn owene soore/For soory herte I telle may

namoore" (IV, 1243-44). Chaucer does, however, weave the Merchant's

Tale of January and May into the fabric of the outer frame by having

one of the story's characters, Justinus, mention the Wife of Bath in

reference to her previously stated attitudes toward mastery in

marriage. As Harry induces the pilgrims' responses to his words, so

the Merchant, by his story, evokes a reply from the Host. His

excited comments betray something of his personal concerns, for he

19

places the blame of perfidy solely on May, ignoring the possibility

that the character of her blind, old husband is the guilty one.

Harry Bailly's interaction with the Physician, in the Prologue

of the Pardoner's Tale, is a combination of his use and misuse of

professional terms and mild mockery. If one considers Chaucer's

description of the "Doctour of Phisik" in the General Prologue, a

portrait of a knowledgeable and wealthy physician, it is understand-

able why Harry explains his occasional malapropisms, saying: "Seyde

I nat wel? I kan nat speke in terme;/But wel I woot thou doost myn

herte to erme ." (VI, 311-312). The Host does seem to find

something oddly incongruous in that the Physician relates a tale so

out of keeping with his character, and this may account for his

mocking tone. 4 Furthermore, he adds that he is so moved by the tale

that he needs a drink, which adds to his joke on the Physician and

also matches the Pardoner's thrust in a scene to be discussed in the

next chapter.

As mentioned previously, Harry displays unusual graciousness

and deference to one female pilgrim, the Wife, and his treatment of

the Prioress manifests this manner again. Even in their short

exchange, the Hoot manages to exhibit numerous amenities, beneath

which, however, seems to lie implicit sa~casm:

"My lady Prioresse, by youre leve, So that I wiste I sholde yow nat greve, I wolde demen that ye tellen sholde A tale next, if so were that ye wolde. Now wol ye vouchesauf, my lady deere?" (VII, 447-51)

4Lumiansky, p. 198.

20

Harry's excessive gallantry to the Prioress, as with the Wife of Bath,

may serve as a preview· of what will later be seen of his experience

with his wife.

From the Prioress' Tale our awareness is shifted to the outer

world of the frame and the confrontation between the Host and Chaucer-

the-pilgrim. Chaucer's behavior is in sharp contrast to Harry Bailly's.

Initially the Host teases Chaucer, in a way reminiscent of his attitude

towards the serious Clerk, remarking on his quiet and humble demeanor,

saying: "Thou lookest as thou woldest fynde an hare,/For evere upon

the ground I se thee stare./Approche neer and looke up murly" (VII,

696-98). This address provokes nothing but the most modest response

from Chaucer: '"Hooste,' quod I, 'ne beth nat yvele apayd,/For oother

tale certes kan I noon,/But of a rym I lerned lange agoon"' (VII,

707-09), while his words prepare us for something entertaining, as

indicated by his total submission to the pilgrim leader.

Harry's subsequent interruption of Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas,

a burlesque of a metrical romance, is outspokenly rude, for he is

truly offended by the parody--a literary style that he does not

recognize and cannot accept. The result is that the Host shows

himself to be less sophisticated than we thought, not because he does

not understand literary techniques, but because he takes Chaucer so

seriously:

l!Namoore of this, for Goddes dignitee," Quod oure Hooste, "For thou makest me So wery of thy verray lewednesse That, also wisly God my soule blesse, Myne eres aken of thy drasty speche. Now swich a rym the devel I biteche! This nay wel be rym dogerel," quod he. (VII, 91 9-25)

21

In general, critics have concluded that this episode reveals

Harry as an unqualified and inept literary critic. But along with

what it may tell us about Harry as critic, it also fixes the Host

more firmly as an historical reality who might not be expected to

recognize a rather sophisticated piece of poetry. Chaucer's second

attempt, this time to assuage Harry with "som murthe or sam doctryne"

(VII, 935), evokes a spirited response from the pilgrim leader, for

he is able to appreciate the patience of Melibeus' wife, Prudence.

Harry Bailly and the Monk are two men who evidently are totally

at odds with one another, for their interaction in the Prologue to

the Monk's Tale portrays a certain tension, the outcome of which is

a series of lengthy and boring tragedies which constitutes the Monk's

Tale. Harry arouses the Monk's antagonism, beginning with the patron-

izing manner in which he addresses him. Lumiansky points out that

Harry's lack of respect in calling the Monk ''daun John," reminiscent

of the sly monk in the Shipman's Tale, and the Host's use of familiar

pronouns of address which result in overfamiliarity, not to mention

Harry's "satirization of the licentious practices of contemporary

churchmen," does not provoke an outburst from the pilgrim, as one

. h 5 m1. g t expect. Instead, the Monk punishes him and the entire company

for his "vulgar familiarity'' by subjecting them to his lugubrious

accounts of Fortune's wheel.

Harry's initial interaction with the Nun's Priest is reflective

of the preceding episode with the Monk, for when the Host turns to

5Lumi.ansky, p. 101.

22

the Priest, we are told that: "Thanne spak oure Roost with rude speche

and boold ... " (VII, 2808) and as Lwniansky says, "Harry has picked

out another churchman to whom he feels free to speak patronizingly

and rudely."6 But Harry's attitude affects the Nun's Priest very

little, and he replies htunbly that he will obey the Host, and further-

more, will tell a merry tale so that he will not incur his wrath.

Lumiansky further feels that Harry's rudeness to the Nun's Priest is

caused by the Host's contempt for a man who is under the supervision

of a woman (the Prioress). 7 For after he has heard his tale of

Chaunticleer and Pertelote he continues to tease him, and in fact

compares him to a "trede-foul. "8

The "authorial voice" once again informs us of the company's

location, "Bobbe-up-and-doun,/Under the Blee, in Caunterbury weye"

(IX, 2-3), preceding the confrontation between Harry Bailly, Manciple,

and Cook. Harry calls attention to the sleeping Cook, who has over-

indulged in ale, teasing him about spending the night with "sam quene,"

and subsequently causing the Manciple to come to the aid of the

besotted Cook. This episode illwninates the relationship between

6Lumiansky, p. 108.

7Lumiansky, p. 110.

8 Fisher, p. 307. He footnotes Harry's use of the term "trede-foul,"

as meaning "rooster" or breeding fowl, which Harry teases the Nun's Priest about, inferring that if he were not a man of the church, he would have all the women after him.

23

these two pilgrims, for evidently they are friends through their

business dealings. 9

It is doubtful whether the Parson has forgotten Harry's previous

treatment of him, and when he is called upon to finish the game by

telling the last tale, we might expect the Parson to react unfavorably

towards the Host. But he agreeably declares he will " enden in

som vertyous sentence . ." (X, 63) to which Harry seems a bit

apprehensive, for he urges the Parson to " ... hasteth yow, the sonne

wole adoun;/Beth fructuous and that in litel space ... " (X, 70-71),

again revealing his c·oncern with wasting time--real time. But the

Parson has no intention of letting the Host or the rest of the pilgrims

off easily, for the Host's antagonism has incited the Parson to get

his "just deserts," which he does by sermonizing with an exceptionally

long religious treatise.

This view of Harry Bailly's interaction with various pilgrims,

as seen in the frame of the poem, has served to show his range of

emotions and those of the pilgrims, depicting them as characters who,

after their portraits in the General Prologue, tend to become more

dynamic as the Host provokes their responses. However, to see Harry

as a realistic character, we have yet to viet-7 him in two key develop-

ments where the complexities of his personality are fully realized.

9Fisher explains the relationship between the Manciple and Cook,

saying that the Manciple, as a business agent for an institution, purchases from the Cook and then submits his accounts for reimburse­ment to his superiors at the Inn, obviously making a profit in the transaction (p. 339).

CHAPTER III

HARRY BAILLY'S SELF-REALIZATION

The aim of this final chapter is to follow Harry Bailly's volatile

encounter with the Pardoner and to examine his ultimate confrontation

with himself, both of which reveal the Host as a most convincing figure

and as a useful device for Chaucer's illusion of reality.

Harry Bailly's clash with the Pardoner proves to be an infuriating

episode for both men. Harry's initial presumptuous and overtly

sarcastic words to the Pardoner, after the Physician's Tale, set the

tone for the interaction between them: "'Thou beel amy, thou Pardoner,'

he sayde,/'Telle us som myrthe or japes right anon"' (VI, 318-19).

John Halverson, who has written on the relationship between the two

men, points out that the Pardoner's reply, 11 'It shal be doon,' quod

he, 'by Seint Ronyon "' (VI, 320), implies that he has it in mind to

somehow pay Harry back for his effrontery, seen in the phrase 11 thou

beel amy, 11 and in his use of the name 11Seint Ronyon 11 --a repetition of

Harry's previous words. 1

The Pardoner, whether consciously or forgetfully, does not end

his tale just once, but after a brief drink, resumes his story, and

then once again seems to have reached the conclusion. But finally ce

1John Halverson, 11 Chaucer's Pardoner and the Progress of Criticism," Chaucer Review, 4 (1970), 198.

24

25

moves from his tale into a speech to the pilgrim company which leads

to his insinuation about the Host and begins the drama between these

two men. It is noteworthy that the Pardoner, in a sly manner suited

to his character, smoothly turns from his tale to the Host, a transi-

tion which possibly catches Harry Bailly by surprise and partially

accounts for the Host's vehement reaction to the Pardoner's request.

"I rede that oure Roost heere shal bigynne, For he is moost envoluped in synne. Com forth, sire Roost, and offre first anon, And thou shalt kisse my relikes everychon-­Ye, for a grote: unbokele anon thy purs."

(VI, 941-45)

Halverson points out that Harry really should have seen that he was

merely being teased by the pilgrim, "made an ape," but he does not,

and takes the Pardoner totally seriously, losing his perspective and

his control of the situation. Furthermore, Halverson says that it is

this response that "completely deflates the Pardoner, striking him

dmub with anger and frustration," for the Host ' s "naivety" upsets the

Pardoner's whole purpose of the joke. 2 Harry's subsequent words depict

how he is suddenly transformed from a rather jovial pilgrim leader to

an cutraged and savagely vindictive man.

2

'" Nay, nay,' quod he, 'thanne have I Cristes curs.

Lat be,' quod he, 'it shal nat be, so theech! Thou woldest make me kisse thyn olde· breech And swere it were a relyk of a seint, Though it were with thy fundement depeint. But by the croys which that Seint Eleyne f ond I wolde I hadde thy coillons in myn hond Instide of relikes or of seintuarie.

Ha lverson, p . 199.

26

Lat kutte hem of, I wol thee helpe hem carie. They shul be shryned in an hogges toord. '"

(VI, 946-55)

The pilgrims' outburst of laughter following this clash appropri-

ately demonstrates their amusement at Harry's obvious lack of sophisti-

cation in letting the Pardoner's attack affect him, and also their

surprise at the Pardoner's sudden loss of speech. As Harry has been

shown to be a catalyst for the pilgrims, we see here the Pardoner

operating in much the same way, for his words cause a response from

the Host which is quite unexpected yet powerfully evocative of the

real world. He has been threatened in his pride and virility. The

abuse which he pours forth and the overt sexual insinuations concerning

the eunuchry of the Pardoner reveal Harry's deep pride in himself and

his station in life, for he has been insulted so deeply that his true

feelings cannot be contained. His position as leader and master of

ceremonies on the pilgrimage has even been jeopardized, for it is the

Knight that must finally restore peace and coax the Host into a better

frame of mind.

"Namoore of this, for it is right ynough. Sire Pardoner, be glad and myrie of cheere; And ye, sire Roost, that been to me so deere, I prey yow that ye kisse the Pardoner. And Pardoner, I prey thee drawe thee neer, And as we diden lat us laughe and pleye."

(VI, 962-96 7)

But Harry's final words to the Pardoner, "'Now,' quod oure Roost,

'I wol no lenger pleye/With thee ne with noon other angry man"' (VI,

958-59), indicates that he, having suddenly recovered his senses,

realizes that he has momentarily exposed his true self to the entire

group, and also to himself, and he can only end this dramatic

27

confrontation by ''beating a retreat,'' and saying no more. Halverson

says that "The Pardoner has not underestimated the Host, but over-

estimated him, taking him to be more worldly and acute than he actually

is. He has misjudged--from the Host's eternal swearing and banter and

teasing of the clerics--the simple piety of a simple man." Halverson's

reversal of Kittredge's famous interpretation--that the Pardoner has

had to face his own depravity--showed Harry, by his passionate reaction,

to be more real than at any other time so far. 3

The second critical development for Harry Bailly is in his

confrontation with himself and his confessions about his marriage.

These occur thematically against the background of other pilgrims'

tales of marriage, one of Chaucer's major themes in the Canterbury

Tales, and they become Harry's autobiographical story.

The Host's story is not a complete tale, as are most of the

pilgrims' stories, for it would, of course, have been inappropriate

for him to enter a contest of which he is the judge, yet his references

to his wife and their marriage, however fragmented, constitute what may

be considered his own story. The group of tales through which this

4 development takes place have been called the "marriage group."

The pilgrims included are the Wife of Bath, Clerk, Merchant and

Franklin, and their tales, prologues or epilogues deal in some way

'l

-Halverson, p. 199. Also see G.L. Kittredge, Chaucer and His Poetry (Harvard University Press, 1915), p. 147.

4Fisher (p. 104) cites Eleanor Prescott Hammond as long ago

dubbing these tales the "marriage group," because they deal with certain tensions between married people. This "group" is also proposed by G. L. Kittredge, "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage," Modern Philology, Vol. IX, No. 4 ( 1912), 33.

28

with the subject of marriage, setting the scene and mood for Harry's

own story. His account has a larger measure of reality than any of

the others, perhaps because \ve are exposed to only parts of it at a

time, and Harry's innuendos and scattered hints finally add up to a

fairly complete view of his marital situation.

The tales of the "marriage group" are really a kind of debate in

narrative form, with the participating pilgrims telling stories of

marital relationships, the main point in question being: 'Who should

rule the family?" We first hear from the pilgrim who seems to be most

knowledgeable on the subject of marriage, Alisoun of Bath. In her

autobiographical Prologue she presents her "anatomy of marriage,"

maintaining that although chastity is an ideal state, it is not for

her, and she is scornful of the Church's rules on this matter. Further-

more, she contends that wives should attain and maintain dominance over

their spouses, supporting her doctrine in a personal account of her

experience of five marriages and also in her tale of King Arthur's

Court.

Although Alisoun's prologue and tale seem likely enough opportuni-

ties for the Host to make his usual jokes, sexual and otherwise, as

we have seen him do previously, he has surprisingly little to say in

response. In fact, he seems wary of her, possibly because of her

aggressive, domineering manner which may remind him of his o~~ wife. 5

Alisoun's prologue prepares us for Harry's story in its unself-conscious

5At this point, of course, we do not know that Harry is married to

this sort of formidable woman, but this may be one of Chaucer's hints to the alert reader.

29

delineation of her personal life, similar to his exclusive confession

which we witness later in bits and pieces. But the Clerk's reaction

to the Wife of Bath's personal account and tale, and his own subsequent

tale constitute another view of the "group."

In his position as Clerk of Oxenford, he no doubt lived a quiet--

we are told he is studious--and celibate life of moral virtue, and so

when confronted by Alisoun's obvious lust and energy for men and life,

he must have viewed her as a dangerously rebellious woman. He treats

her tirade on the female's role in marriage as if she were trying to

lead every married woman to the belief that she must dominate her

husband, and the fact that her fifth and last husband was a clerk must

have hit this Clerk's most sensitive nerve. Consequently, his answer

is the tale of Walter and Griselda, with Griselda's marriage principles

clearly the antithesis of Alisoun's.

Chaucer's presentation of this conflict of views on mastery in

marriage, much discussed in general, has a special relevance to the

Host's view of his own marriage. The Clerk has offered a retort to

the Wife of Bath's belief that wives should have mastery, and he

appears to want to warn the rest of the pilgrim company to beware of

this sort of domestic revolutionary if they are planning to marry.

His Lenvoy de Chaucer is his ~varning, and it has hit home for Harry,

for it evokes a response which affords us a glimpse of his own

domestic arrangements:

"Me were levere than a barel ale My wyf at hoom had herd this legende ones. This is a gentil tale for the nones As to my purpos, 'rliste ye my wille." (IV, 1212c-f)

30

Only by Harry's allusion do we learn that his wife is not quite like

patient Griselda, much to his chagrin, and he evidently is too

embarrassed to expound on her character at this moment, for he

concludes, "But thyng that wol nat be, lat it be stille."

Harry is not alone in his unhappy marital circumstances, for the

Merchant too seems to be suffering some sort of emotional crisis in

his newlywed state. Harry is alert and curious to hear more about the

Merchant's sorrow with his bride of two months, and urges him, "syn

ye so mucher knowen of that art" (IV, 1241), to tell part of it in a

tale, perhaps wanting to hear such marriage problems as will make the

Merchant a partner in misery. The Merchant, having confessed his

bitterness, gives further vent to his anger and disgust with himself

in his tale about old January and young May, and his contempt and

hatred is aimed at women in general.

Chaucer has thus launched a discussion of marriage in which

various pilgrims have become absorbed, not least of all Harry Bailly.

The Wife of Bath, Clerk and Merchant may all be viewed as setting up

Harry's prologue, for his story actually commences after the Merchant

has finished. As the Me~chant commented on the Clerk's Tale by

speaking of his own wife, so the Host comments on the Merchant's Tale

in the same manner: 11Ey, Goddes mercy,/Now swich a wyf I pray God

kepe me fro!" (IV, 2419-20).

The irony is that God has indeed kept him from such a wife as

May, but Goodelief, although truer than May, has nothing else in her

favor. There is pathos in his comment that she is ". . . as trev:e as

31

any steel" (IV, 2426), for her other activities are worse than

infidelity:

"But doutelees, as trewe as any steel I have a wyf, though that she poure be, But of hir tonge a labbyng shrewe is she, And yet she hath an heep of vices mo--" (IV, 2426-29)

Harry breaks off his story as suddenly as he began, saying that it is

almost useless to say any more for he is tied to her. Even more

revealing is his next comment that he will say no more because someone

might tell his wife what he has said. The Wife of Bath is the only

likely candidate, for Harry says that "wommen konnen outen swich

chaffare," and neither the Prioress nor the Second Nun can be put in

that category.

We have heard the Wife of Bath's autobiographical Prologue, and

have heard other pilgrims refer (and defer) to her, and she is complex

and believable. Therefore, if she knows Harry's wife, his domestic

confessions have also the ring of truth, that is, the Wife herself

becomes an "authenticating device." We now have part of the Host's

story juxtaposed against three other tales of marriage: that of the

lady and knight of King Arthur's Court in which the wife gains by a

bargain domination over her husband; that of Walter and patient

Griselda in which Walter is the dominator; and the tale of January

and his young wife, May, in which the bride tricks her dotard husband.

The fourth tale of marriage is Harry's story of his faithful wife who

is actually a shrewish terror.

Harry Bailly's references to his marriage, however, are temporar-

ily interrupted as he decides that it is time to hear "somewhat of

32

love. 11 His request to the Squire for a tale of love signifies his

vie~v of love and marriage as completely separate entities, as the

literature of 11courtly love" so often treated them, and also indicates

that Harry does not feel that love exists in marriage--at least not in

his!

The theory that love and marriage are antithetical elements was

something of a medieval commonplace, for they were not believed to be

possible coexisting situations, although the question is still open

to argument. G.L. Kittredge has written that 11 it was a theory of

the middle ages that the highest type of chivalric love was incompatible

with marriage, since marriage brings in mastery, and mastery and love

cannot abide together." 6 But we have yet to hear from the pilgrim

who cites a story of the ideal relationship in which love in fact

continues in marriage with mastery on neither side--the Franklin's

Tale.

The Franklin challenges the view that love is incompatible with

marriage in a tale which repeatedly exemplifies "gentillesse," an

ideal which offers a solution to the debated matrimonial problem.

His conclusion is that both man and woman must have "gentillesse"

and love. Before the tale had begun, Harry Bailly had already

expressed himself about "gentillesse"--"Straw for youre gentillesse!"

(V, 694), but after the tale, he is given no response, perhaps because

in his own situation there is no possibility for equality and love

between himself and Goodelief. In face of a charitable resolution

6c.L. Kittredge, 11 Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage, 11 Modern Philology, IX, No. 4 (1912), 32-33.

33

to the marriage problem, the absence of comment serves to accentuate

the sorrowful story of the Host's miserable relationship with his wife.

Although the Franklin's Tale ends the "marriage group," Harry

Bailly has something more to add, from his personal perspective, in

his response to Chaucer's Tale of Melibee. 7 After this tale of serene

and sententious Prudence, whose husband is won over by her persistent

reasoning, Harry bursts forth with passion equalled only by his

previous confrontation with the Pardoner. Melibee's subservience to

his wife must have touched another of Harry's tender nerves, for all

the savage moments that Goodelief has created seem to rise before

him--the humiliations which her ferocity has made necessary, and her

taunting, insulting, tongue. Of Goodelief, Harry says:

"She nys nothyng of swich pacience As was this Melibeus wyf Prudence. By Geddes bones, whan I bete my knaves, She bryngeth me forth the grete clobbed staves, And crieth, 'Slee the dogges everichoon, And brek hem bothe bak and every boon!' And if that any neighebore of rnyne Wol nat in chirche to my wyf enclyne, Or be so hardy to hire to trespace, Whan she comth hoom she rampeth in my face, And crieth, 'False coward, wrek thy wyf! By corpus bones, I wol have thy knyf, And thou shalt have my distaf and go spynne!' Fro day to nyght right thus she wol bigynne. 'Allas,' she seith, 'that evere I was shape To wedden a milksop, or a coward ape, That wol been overlad with every wight. Thou darst nat stonden by thy wyves right.'

This is my lif but if that I wol fighte; And out at dore anon I moot me dighte, Or elles I am but lost but if that I Be lik a wilde leoun, fool-hardy.

7Kittredge further maintains that as the Franklin's Tale marks the end of the "marriage group," this tends to point towards Chaucer's own acceptance of the Franklin's theory of mastery in marriage. "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage," Modern Philology, IX, No. 4 (1912), 33.

34

I woot wel she wol do me slee somday Sam neighebore, and thanne go my way, For I am perilous with knyf in honde Al be it that I dar hire nat withstonde, For she is byg in armes, by my feith--That shal he fynde that hire rnysdooth or seith."

(VII, 1895-1922)

. The passage changes some of the views we may have had of Harry

Bailly, and it shows that he has been touched to the quick by some of

the things he has heard. For example, our initial conception of

Harry Bailly is one of strength and virility, as the Narrator informs

us that he is "Boold of his speche, and wys, and wel ytaught,/And of

manhod hyrn lacked right naught" (I, 755-6). But Harry's revealing

confession qualifies our notion of his manliness, at least in one

respect, for as we envision him cowering beneath Goodelief's great

arms and running out the door to escape his high temper, he is

symbolically fleeing from the ensnarement of his entire situation--

and from himself.

Furthermore, it seems incongruous that the pilgrim leader, the

governor and judge of the pilgrim company, is actually at the mercy

of his amazon consort, especially when he then boasts that he is

dangerous with a knife in his grasp! Harry's mention of his wife's

rage when people in church do not bow reminds us of an earlier detail,

this one from the Reeve's Tale, when we hear about Syrnkyn who might

use his dagger on anyone who did not call his wife "Dame." In addition,

Harry has jeered at the Pardoner and called the Monk and the Nun's

Priest to account, ironically it may be, for their unutilized sexual

prowess.

35

We cannot but be involved in the poignancy of Harry's situation,

for he is driven almost to desperation. After he has ended his

personal story, he attempts to lighten the mood he has cast upon

himself and the others with his words to the Monk, but his tale has

been heard by all--the Lord and Governor of the company is really an

ordinary man, a meek husband, and a seemingly very real character for

whom we feel pity.

I do not agree, finally, with some critics, who say that Chaucer

offered us this vielv of Harry Bailly merely for comic or ironic

relief. 8 Most critics, in fact, have treated Harry Bailly as something

of a secondary figure in the Canterbury Tales. But, as I hope to have

shown, his use as an "authenticating device" is certainly an integral

part of Chaucer's design and significant to the realism of the

Canterbury Tales. In characterizing his Host so completely, Chaucer

has bridged the gap between the worlds of reality and fiction as few

writers have been able to.

8Kemp Malone, "Harry Bailly and Godelief," English Studies, XXXI (1950), 209-215. Malone surveys Chaucer's treatment of Goodelief as highly ironic for comic effect. It does seem evident that there is irony in the juxtaposing of husband and wife, but I feel Chaucer's presentation of Goodelief is more important in its delineation of Harry's true character than in its comic effect.

LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED

Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis. New York: Doubleday and Anchor Books, 1946.

Baugh, Albert C. Chaucer (Bibliography). New York, 1968.

Bloomfield, Morton W. "Authenticating Realism and the Realism of Chaucer." Thought, 39 (1964), 335-358.

Brewer, Derek. Chaucer in his Time. London: Nelson, 1963.

Bryan, W .F. and Germaine Dempster, eds. Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1941.

Clawson, W.H. "The Framework of the Canterbury Tales." University of Toronto Quarterly, 20 (1951), 137-154.

Corsa, Helen S. Chaucer: Poet of Mirth and Morality. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1964.

Crmvford, William R. Bibliography of Chaucer: 1954-1963. Washington, 1967.

Donaldson, E.T. Speaking of Chaucer. New York: Norton, 1970.

"Chaucer the Pilgrim." PMIA, 69 ( 1954), 928-936.

, ed. Chaucer's Poetry: An Anthology for the Modern Reader. New York: Ronald Press, 1958.

Fisher, John H., ed. The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.

French, Robert D. A Chaucer Handbook. New York: Appleton-Century­Croft.s, 1927.

Gaylord, Alan T. "Sentence and Solaas in Fragment VII of the Canterbury Tales: Harry Bailly as Horseback Editor." PMLA, 82 (1967), 226-235.

Griffith, Dudley D. Bibliography of Chaucer: 1908-1953. Washington: University of Washington Press, 1955.

Halverson, John. "Chaucer's Pardoner and the Progress of Criticism.'' Chaucer Review, 4 (1969), 335-336.

36

37

Hammond, Eleanor P. Chaucer: A Bibliographical Manual. New York: Peter Smith, 1933.

Haselmayer, Louis A., Jr. "The Portraits in Chaucer's Fabliaux." Review of English Studies, 14 (1938), 310-314.

Hoffman, Arthur W. "Chaucer's Prologue to Pilgrimage: The Two Voices." English Literary History, XXI (1954), 1-16.

Howard, Donald. The Idea of the Canterbury Tales. California: University of California Press at Berkeley, 1976.

Hulbert, James R. "Chaucer's Pilgrims." PMLA, 64 (1947), 823-828.

Ruppe, Bernard F. and D.W. Robertson, Jr. Fruyt and Chaf: Studies in Chaucer's Allegories. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963.

Jones, E.D., ed. "Canterbury Pilgrims." English Critical Essays: Nineteenth Century, 84-94. Oxford: World's Classics, 1916.

Jones, H.S.V. "The Plan of the Canterbury Tales." Modern Philology, 13 (1915), 45-48.

Jordan, Robert M. "Chaucer's Sense of Illusion: Roadside Drama Reconsidered." English Literary History, XXIX (1962), 19-33.

Kean, P.M. Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry. 2 vols. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.

Keen, William P. "A Study of the Host in the Canterbury Tales." Dissertation Abstracts, 28 (1968), 4133A-4134A (Lehigh).

"'To Doon Ye Ese': A Study of the Host in the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales." Topic, 17 (1969), 5-18.

Kellogg, A.L. "Chaucer's Self-Portrait and Dante's." Medium Aevum, 29 (1960), 119-120.

Kittredge, G.L. Chaucer and his Poetry. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1915.

------ "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage." Modern Philology, L~, No. 4 (1912), 32-33.

Lawlor, John. Chaucer. London: Harper & Row, 1968.

Legouis, Emile. Geoffrey Chaucer. Trans. L. Lailavoix. Dent, 1913; rpt. Russell & Russell, 1961.

38

Levin, Harry. ''What is Realism." Comparative Literature, III (1951), 193-199.

Lounsbury, Thomas R. Studies in Chaucer. 3 vols. New York: Harper, 1892; rpt. Russell & Russell, 1962.

Ltnniansky, R.M. "Chaucer's Cook-Host Relationship." Medieval Studies, 17 (1955), 208-209.

Of Sondry Folk. Texas: University of Texas Press at Austin, 1955.

"The Nun's Priest in the Canterbury Tales." PMLA, 68 (1953), 896-906.

Major, John M. "The Personality of Chaucer the Pilgrim." PMLA, 75 (1960), 160-162.

Malone, Kemp. Chapters on Chaucer. Maryland: Johns Hopkins Press, 1951.

"Harry Bailly and Godelief." English Studies, XXXI (1950), 208-215.

Manly, John M. Some New Light on Chaucer. New York: Holt, 1926; rpt. Peter Smith, 1959.

Mann, Jill. Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973.

Martin, Willard E., Jr. A Chaucer Bibliography. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1935.

Muscatine, Charles. Chaucer and the French Tradition. California: University of California Press at Berkeley, 1957.

Norris, Dorothy M. "Harry Baily 1 s 1 Corpus Madrian' • " Modern Language Notes, XLVIII (1933), 146-148.

Owen, Charles A., Jr. "The Development of the Canterbury Tales." Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 57 (1958), 449-476.

Page, Barbara. "Concerning the Host." Chaucer Review, 4 (1970), 1-13.

Patch, Howard R. "Chaucer and Medieval Romance." Modern Language Review, XXII (1927), 377-388.

Pichaske, David R. and Laura Sweetland. "Chaucer on the Medieval Monarchy: Harry Bailly in the Canterbury Tales." Chaucer Review, 11 (1977), 179-199.

. 39

Pollard, Alfred w. Chaucer. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1931.

Pratt, Robert A. "The Order of the Canterbury Tales." PMIA, 66 (1951), 1141-1167.

Richardson, Cynthia C. "The Function of the Host in the Canterbury Tales." Texas Studies in Language and Literature, 12 (1970), 325-344.

Richardson, H.G. "Goodeleef My Wyf." Times Literary Supplement, Jan. 20 (1927), 44.

Rickert, Edith. "Godeleef, My Wyf." Times Literary Supplement, Dec. 16 (1926), 935.

Robertson, D.W., Jr. A Preface to Chaucer. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1962.

Robinson, Ian. Chaucer and the English Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.

Ruggiers, Paul G. The Art of the Canterbury Tales. Wisconsin: Univer­sity of Wisconsin Press at Madison, 1965.

Scheps, Walter. "Up roos oure Host and was oure aller cok: Harry Bailly's Tale-Telling Competition." Chaucer Review, 10 (1975), 113-128.

Sedgwick, Henry D. Dan Chaucer. New York: AMS Press, 1934.

Skeat, w.w. The Chaucer Canon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900; rpt. Haskill House, 1965.

-----------' ed. The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. 7 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894-7.

Tatlock, J.S.P. The Mind and Art of Chaucer. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1950.

The Development and Chronology of Chaucer's Works. London, 1907; rpt. Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1964.

Tupper, Frederick. "The Quarrels of the Canterbury Pilgrims." Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 14 (1915), 256-270.

Wagenknecht, Edward. Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959.

The Personality of Chaucer. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press at Norman, 1968.

40

Williams, Celia Ann. "The Host--England's First Tour Director." English Journal, 57 (1968), 1149-1150.

Williams, George. A New View of Chaucer. North Carolina: Duke University Press at Durham, 1965.