The Source of Chaucer's Seven Deadly Sins

Abstract

In the following I offer a sequel to an earlier article on the source for the Remedia sections in Chaucer's Parson's Tale. There I presented extracts from a Latin treatise on the virtues referred to as Postquam, which treats seven virtues in the same order as the Parson's remedies against the Seven Deadly Sins and furnishes precise verbal parallels to a large portion of the relevant passages in the Parson's Tale, passages for which no convincing source had previously been suggested. I also noted that in several manuscripts Postquam is preceded by a similar treatise on the vices and that the latter provides interesting parallels to Chaucer's treatment of the Seven Deadly Sins. The relation between this Latin treatise and Chaucer's text, however, is unfortunately not as simple as it was in the case of the Remedia. It is complicated, first of all, by the fact that much material concerning the Seven Deadly Sins in the Parson's Tale derives — as has been known for some time — from Peraldus's Summa de vitiis. Hence, my pointing at a different Latin treatise on the vices and claiming for it a greater closeness to the Parson's Tale than Peraldus has will involve a comparison between this treatise and Peraldus in their relation to the Parson's Tale. In addition, the discussion grows even more complicated because of the fact that not one but two new treatises on the vices must be considered. I shall refer to them by their initial words, Quoniam and Primo respectively. They are both abbreviations of Peraldus's Summa de vitiis, clearly made in England in the third quarter of the thirteenth century. Quoniam rearranges the Seven Deadly Sins found in Peraldus (Gula — Luxuria — Avaritia — Accidia — Superbia — Invidia — Ira — Peccatum linguae) in the more normal order (Superbia — Invidia — Ira — Accidia — Avaritia — Gula — Luxuria, with several sins of the tongue distributed among other chief vices), selects material from Peraldus, and adds much material not found in Peraldus, including several English verses. Primo in its turn appears to be a revision of Quoniam. It reduces the Peraldian as well as the non-Peraldian material found in Quoniam. Despite slight changes in the wording, it contains no significant material which is not also present in Quoniam. The English origin of both works is shown by the English verses in Quoniam, by several references to England, and by an interesting exemplum against greed and the overly zealous pursuit of the law, which is preserved in both treatises.