Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales by Winthrop Wetherbee

Abstract

REVIEWS nian notion of "polyphony" (p. 287). Ashley's suggestion is intriging. Knapp provides an insightful investigation of Chaucer's Miller's Tale. She argues that the tale is "entrepreneurial and nominalist, in contrast with the authority-ridden, philosophically realist Knight's" (p. 301). With copious examples Knapp illustrates the Miller's unmasking of the dominant Boethian discourse. Here too the analysis is compelling. While some of the essays in Sign, Sentence, Discourse are clearly more impressive and innovational than others, all call attention to a shift in medieval studies-one that has continued to have an impact since the publication of this collection. An excellent introduction to the language­ conscious analysis of texts, this collection will encourage others to rethink their approached in light of these discoveries. DANIEL F. PIGG University of Tennessee at Martin WINTHROP WETHERBEE. Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales. Land­ marks of World Literature. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp. x, 136. $19.95. At the close ofhis general introduction to The Canterbury Tales, W inthrop Wetherbee compares modern English translations of Chaucer's work to cannedfruit: "These [translations] inevitablytend less to facilitateaccess to the original than to replace it, offering canned peaches when fresh ones are ready to hand" (p. 132). Addressing both the student new to Chaucer and the interested, nonacademic reader who may be tempted to read Chaucer in translation, Wetherbee examines individual tales and the connections among them in this small volume, presenting some ofthe complexities of Chaucer's work without unnecessary oversimplification and without re­ course to specialized literary terminology. In his role as teacher Wetherbee admirably condenses much ofthe scholarship on Chaucer ofthe last several decades and presents a coherent, extremely well-informed reading of the Tales that may well entice the novitiate into a deeper involvement with Chaucer. Acknowledging his debt to Charles Muscatine in particular, Wetherbee tends to emphasize interactions among characters and their roles in re­ ceived genres and modes of discourse. His reading of The Franklin's Tale, 257 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER for example, focuses on the incompatibility of chivalric and courtly codes of conduct, exemplified by the actions of Arveragus and Dorigen. The tale reaches its crises, Wetherbee argues, when Arveragus is asked to judge by the standards ofactive chivalry a problem arising in the narcissistic world ofcourtly play, where the articulation ofimagined desire is an end in itselfand action is always deferred, his chivalry becomes a blunt instrument, and his attempt to interpretthesituation ethically founders incontradiction. (P. 55] Organized thematically, the body of Wetherbee's analysis of individual tales centers on five general topics: "Gentles: Chivalry and the Courtly Word," "Churls: Commerce and the Material World," "Women," "The Art and Problems of Tale-Telling," and "The Final Tales." Some tales are discussed in their Ellesmereorder,but many are discussed out oforder.The first fragment, for example, is broken up; the chapter on "Gentles" in­ cludes the Knight, Squire, and Franklin, while the chapter on "Churls" comprises discussions of the Miller, Reeve, Cook, Friar, Summoner, Ship­ man, Merchant, and Pardoner, in that order. Still, Wetherbee manages to relate tales discussed separately, and, on the whole, his thematic divisions will aid, rather than confuse, readers new to Chaucer. In addition, Wetherbee's prose is eminently readable. Quotations from Chaucer's text are given in Middle English with difficult words handily glossed in the margin. Brief discussions of Chaucer's language, his social and literary contexts, his medieval audience, and the reception of the Tales from Caxton through Spenser, Shakespeare, and Dryden and into the modern era of Skeat's and Robinson's editions supplement Wetherbee's readings of individual tales. At the book's close a short "Guide to Further Reading" lists about two dozen influential studies of Chaucer's works published over the last four decades, scholarly editions,translations, and a few recordings. Having set aside his own scholarly agenda in the volume, an agenda rigorously argued in his study of Trot!us and Criseyde (Chaucer and the Poets [Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984]) Wetherbee here rises above the fray of current critical debate, an authorial move that the Cambridge series-Landmarks of World Literature-demands, but...