Last night after turning off the computer I turned back
to Terry Krier's wonderful new book, 'Birth Passages.'
Nothing there that I noted about the Palmer, but I
continued to think about him as a non-knight and non-
errant traveler. Terry has much to say about Chaucer in
relation to Spenser (as does Judith Anderson in the
collection Terry edited), and it could be mentioned
here, to extend David's reference to John Guillory, that
Chaucer as well as Milton belongs in an account
of 'poetic authority' with Spenser in a pivotal position.
I recall that the Wife of Bath had toured to the holy
land, though she never claimed a palmer's credentials.
And I'm reminded of John Fleming's suggestion that we
regard her as 'Chaucer in drag.' Now the Palmer takes
us as far as can be imagined from the Wife of Bath, but
perhaps the author's relationship to his character bears
comparison to Chaucer's engagement with the Wife's
traits. I find I can't at the moment articulate
Spenser's authorial stance toward the anxieties that
shaped such men as the Palmer and Guyon, but I suspect
that they shaped him too.
Jon Quitslund
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