By Preeve which that is Demonstratif (14)
To draw my remarks to a conclusion: the D-Group is linked together in both
a narrative and a thematic way. At the narrative level, the tales form a
continuing saga based on the interaction of the Wife, the Friar and the
Summoner. At the thematic level, there is a continuing interest throughout
the group in theological Quaestiones. These Quaestiones move from the
concrete - How many husbands can the Wife take? - a matter of practical
importance, at least to the Wife - through the abstract - What are fiends
made of? - until they evaporate into airy nothingness.
Conversely the solutions offered are increasingly impatient of Auctoritee,
and rely more and more on Experience. The Pardoner interrupts the Wife's
philosophizing with a request to "Teche us yonge men of youre praktike."
The fiend cuts short the abstract questionings of the Summoner, telling him
in effect to wait and see. And in The Summoner's Tale, while the Friar, who
has been to the University and is expert in "scole-matere" is struck dumb,
and the lord can only sit still as if in a trance, Jankyn gives the most
concrete answer of all time to the most abstract Quaestio of all time,
solving it by the empirical method, "By preeve which that is demonstratif."
And, as all young scholars hope to do, he wins a new gown for his thesis.
Scholars of the Renaissance period lampooned the medieval schoolmen as
trying to establish how many angels could dance on the head of a needle. It
might seem that for Chaucer, they were trying to divide a fart into equal parts.
Valete.
The Supple Doctor.
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