By Preeve which that is Demonstratif (5)
The Wife of Bath's Prologue begins quite abruptly. There is nothing linking
it to anything which has gone before. Kittredge is correct in observing
that it begins a new act in the drama. At the end of the Wife's Prologue,
the Friar complains that "This is a long preamble of a tale" (831). The
Summoner tells the Friar to mind his own business, and a quarrel ensues,
with each threatening to tell a tale at the other's expense (832-56). The
Wife, evidently annoyed at the interruption, begins her tale with a
satirical observation on friars (857-81).
When she has finished, the Friar compliments her rather patronisingly on her
scholarship, and goes on to tell his tale of how a summoner is carried off
to Hell by a fiend. The Summoner replies devastatingly with a tale about
how a friar is bequeathed a fart on condition that he divide it equally
among his brethren, and how an ingenious means is devised for performing
this division.
So there is a strong narrative thread binding the D-Group together. Chaucer
evidently intended these tales to stand together as a group. This cannot be
said of the tales comprising Kittredge's "Marriage Group." The tales of the
Friar and Summoner, dismissed by Kittredge as a "comic interlude" are
closely linked to The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. It is worth
enquiring whether there is also a thematic link uniting these tales, if
there is not some debate or discussion carried on through the D-Group.
Oriens
* * * * *
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|