>- a punishment for aberrant sex; uncleanness...interesting...I wondered whether
>the possibly gelded (or possibly 'a mare') Pardoner in the CT might be intended
>to be read as having maybe suffered such a punishment [CT IA 691]. Nothing in
>the Riverside Chaucer or the online Chaucer database, but he is so thoroughly
>abnormal, an outsider, a 'lost soul'...with Foucault's aid one might see the op
>as a surgical excommunication through a denial of self and soul to the victim.
>Well well.
>
>
The Gospel (Mt, but no bible within reach) says there are three
kinds of castrati, those born so, those made so by men (a Chinese
Imperial retainer died the other day, who was so made aged 8), and
those who make themselves so for the sake of the Kingdom. These
<<principles>> would be part of the ordinary texture of thought
for both Pardoner and Chaucer (and hearers).
The Pardoner could be as you say: but just as well, he could have
become a Pardoner because he was interfered with when small, or
born deficient. Nescimus...
Anselm Cramer OSB
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