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The Source for the ‘Remedia’ of the Parson's Tale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Siegfried Wenzel
Siegfried Wenzel*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina
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Extract

The search for the sources on which Chaucer's Parson's Tale is based reached a stage of temporary finality when, in her contribution to Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Germaine Dempster summarized and refined the results of half a century of investigations. By then it had become clear that the outcome of Kate Petersen's earlier study had stood the test of over three decades and that, in consequence, the Parson's Tale may be considered as ultimately deriving from two Latin summae of the thirteenth century, that of Raymond of Pennafort (for the sections on Penitence) and that of Peraldus (for the treatment of the Seven Deadly Sins). At the same time, Mrs. Dempster recognized that neither summa is the immediate ancestor of the Parson's Tale, but that, for a number of reasons, the Tale must be thought of as immediately deriving from one or several intermediaries between it and the two ancestral summae. Although a number of Latin and vernacular religious manuals were suggested for such a role, none of them is really close enough to a substantial part of the Parson's Tale to be looked upon as a source or even a close analogue. Hence a mood of pessimistic resignation has settled on the whole question of sources, aptly summed up in Professor Bloomfield's account:

The parallels given by scholars do not prove any direct borrowing on Chaucer's part. When we find close similarities, we find also that they occur in the most traditional details…. Miss Petersen's argument that the section on the chief sins comes from an adaptation of Peraldus' work seems to be little justified, except in the most general sense. Her parallels are not particularly impressive. The question must, at present and possibly forever, rest in abeyance.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 27 , 1971 , pp. 433 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, ed. Bryan, W. F. and Dempster, G. (New York 1941) 723–60.Google Scholar

2 Petersen, K. O., The Sources of the Parson's Tale (Radcliffe College Monographs 12; Boston 1901).Google Scholar

3 Notably by Pfander, H. G., ‘Some Medieval Manuals of Religious Instruction in England and Observations on Chaucer 's Parson's Tale,’ Journal of English and Germanic Philology 35 (1936) 243–58.Google Scholar

4 Bloomfield, M. W., The Seven Deadly Sins (East Lansing 1952) 192.Google Scholar

5 Hazelton, R., ‘Chaucer 's Parson's Tale and the Moralium Dogma Philosophorum' Traditio 16 (1960) 255–64.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., p. 255.Google Scholar

7 The explicit is difficult to determine. Four of the seven manuscripts are clearly incomplete at the end, and the other three all end differently. Perhaps the original ending was ‘… multo fortius spiritualem.’ See manuscripts I, J, and L.Google Scholar

8 For example, the beginning of the Parson's treatment of Accidia; see my contribution to The Art of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Collaborative Volume, ed. Reiss, E. (to be published by Duke University Press). Another example is the image of the ‘three shrewes’ in the devil's furnace, under Ira (lines 954ff.), for which ‘Primo videndum est’ offers a precise parallel. — The relations of ‘Primo videndum’ and Postquam to Peraldus will be the subject of a future study.Google Scholar

9 In contrast to Peraldus's Summa de vitiis, where the sins are arranged: gula, luxuria, avaritia, accidia, superbia, invidia, ira. Google Scholar

10 Fortitudo is, of course, usually opposed to accidia in the scheme of theological-plus-cardinal virtues, or in the scheme of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But within the scheme of remedial virtues, during the later Middle Ages the opposite of accidia is some form of spiritual joy or of activity. See S. Wenzel, The Sin of Sloth (Chapel Hill 1967) 49–50, 55-56, 89, 249 n. 40, and passim.Google Scholar

11 Chaucer's text is quoted from The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. Robinson, F. N., second edition (Boston 1957). I hereby acknowledge my gratitude to the publishers, Houghton Mifflin Company, for permission to quote from this edition.Google Scholar

12 Bernard, , De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae 1.2 (ed. J. Leclercq — H. M. Rochais 3 [Rome 1963] 17; PL 182.942).Google Scholar

13 minor] magna, L Google Scholar

14 eternam] eius, L Google Scholar

15 Frequently found in Augustine; e.g., De disciplina Christiana 3 (CCL 46.208; PL 40.671); Sermo 90.7 (PL 38.563). Google Scholar

16 debemus] debes, L Google Scholar

17 in] om., F Google Scholar

18 I have been unable to identify the quotation. Google Scholar

19 The clause ‘Homo est animal mansuetum natura’ stems from Aristotle, De interpretatione 11, and is quoted by Alanus, St. Thomas Aquinas, the Speculum morale, etc. Google Scholar

20 Gregory: ‘Patientia vero est, aliena mala aequanimiter perpeti, contra eum quoque qui mala irrogat nullo dolore morderi’ (Hom. in evangelia 2, Hom. 35.4 [PL 76.1261f.]). Google Scholar

21 bona] mala, L Google Scholar

22 moveri] morderi, L Google Scholar

23 Moralium dogma philosophorum, ed. Holmberg, J. (Uppsala 1929) 30.Google Scholar

24 dicit Philosophus (L)] solet dici, F J G — The Latin distich was very popular. See H. Walther, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi Teil 3 (Göttingen 1965) No. 16974.Google Scholar

25 docetur… docuit qui] om., F Google Scholar

26 murmure (G)] numero, F L Google Scholar

27 sustulit] sustinet, L G Google Scholar

28 sive irascitur … requiem] etc., F Google Scholar

29 exemplo … Dominus] Christus nos invitat, L Google Scholar

30 Augustine, , De libero arbitrio 1.27 (CEL 84.26; PL 32.1235). The quotation in Postquam is abbreviated.Google Scholar

31 accidia] accendit, F Google Scholar

32 Moralium dogma philosophorum, ed. Holmberg, , p. 27.Google Scholar

33 There is much confusion in the manuscripts at this point. The quotation is, ‘Abstinentia est medicina omnium morborum qui ex superfluitate sunt.’ Google Scholar

34 Because abstinence has been defined as a passio. Google Scholar

35 informemur] informatur, L informetur, G The work De vera innocentia is, as here, frequently attributed to St. Augustine by medieval authors. It is a title often given to Prosper's Sententiae ex operibus S. Augustini. However, I have not found this particular quotation in modern editions of the Sententiae (PL 51.427-96 and 45.1859-98). Google Scholar

36 aliquis] quis, L G Google Scholar

37 frons] sors, F G Google Scholar

38 pudicitiam] prudentiam, J G Google Scholar

39 etiam] om., F J Google Scholar

40 apparatui] appetito, L apparatu, I J Google Scholar

41 refrenare] revocare, G I J Google Scholar

42 This ‘Soberness which is opposed to drunkenness’ is differentiated from sobrietas generalis, whose office it is to bridle any excesses (‘sobrietas est excessuum impetum cohibere’). Google Scholar

43 Postquam gives, first, a general definition of continentia, then a specific one.Google Scholar

44 The identification of chastity and continence occurs in Postquam a few lines later. Google Scholar

45 est] om., F Google Scholar

46 carnalis (G)] om., F L Google Scholar

47 Chaucer's text adds the third ‘manner’ of chastity in lines 948ff. Google Scholar

48 The distich occurs — and probably originated — in the Summa brevis by Richard Wethersett (‘Qui bene presunt presbyteri’; MS. Bodl. 64, fol. 135 r), a work full of such mnemonic verses, which were often copied. Notice that Chaucer omits the verse but includes its explanation in extremely condensed form. A discussion of verse 920 as Chaucer's own theology was given by T. P. Dunning, ‘Chaucer's Icarus-Complex: Some Notes on His Adventures in Theology,’ in English Studies Today: Third Series (Edinburgh 1964) 89-106.Google Scholar

49 docet] dicit, J Google Scholar

50 Cf. Augustine, De bono coniugali 20-21 (PL 40.387). Google Scholar

51 multos] plures, L I J Google Scholar

52 uxor] om., F J Google Scholar

53 uxores] add. mulieres, F Google Scholar

54 A popular verse. See H. Walther, op. cit. (supra n. 24) Teil 1 (Göttingen 1963). No. 8231 and the analogues listed there.Google Scholar

55 viri] om., F Google Scholar

56 See below, n. 72. Google Scholar

57 Cf. Decretum, pars II, causa 33, qu. 5, can. 17 (ed. E. Friedberg, col. 1255). Google Scholar

58 debet uxor … viro suo placet… iniciat] debent uxores … viris suis placent… iniciant, G. Google Scholar

59 But notice that 935-36 are still based on 1 Pet. 3.3-4 (as above, at 932). At this place the manuscripts have a reference: ‘et alia notabilia vide capitulo de luxuria.’ Google Scholar

60 The underlying idea occurs in Decretum, pars II, causa 32, qu. 5 (ed. Friedberg, col. 1132). Google Scholar

61 in secundo similiter et in tertio (J)] in secundo et tertio similiter, F L Google Scholar

62 sive castitas (J)] om., F L Google Scholar

63 habitu] ritu, F Google Scholar

64 carnis] mentis, I Google Scholar

65 celibe] thus all MSS consulted. Google Scholar

66 [Jerome], , Ep. ad Paulam et Eustochium 5 (PL 30 [1846] 126), actually by Paschasius Radbertus. See also A. Ripberger, Der Pseudo-Hieronymus-Brief IX ‘Cogitis me.’ Ein erster marianischer Traktat des Mittelalters von Paschasius Radbert (Spicilegium Friburgense 9; (Fribourg 1962) 69–70.Google Scholar

67 Op. cit. 258.Google Scholar

68 The figure is somewhat deceptive. As I pointed out in the essay mentioned in n. 8 above, the material here reproduced on humilitas occupies, in MS L, 20 lines out of a section of 100 lines. The entire treatment of humilitas in Postquam covers about 550 lines. Google Scholar

69 Some imagery, however, has been retained, for example, in lines 945 ('They been the vessel …’) and the following. But in comparison with Postquam, this is pitifully meager. Google Scholar

70 'Licet matrimonium sit commendabile, tamen eius officium est quandoque vituperabile …’ (fol. 41 v). Notice, however, that the discussion in Postquam of the possible sinfulness of intercourse in married couples is more sophisticated, lenient, and, as it were, ‘modern’ than in Chaucer (at line 943).Google Scholar

71 It is not unusual that copies of a popular handbook were ‘enriched’ by canonical references. Such is the case, for example, in later copies of the Fasciculus morum. This fourteenth-century manual for preachers, of which I am preparing a critical edition, was described by A. G. Little in Studies in English Franciscan History (Manchester 1917), 139-57. Further manuscripts were listed by F. A. Foster, ‘Some English Words from the Fasciculus morum,’ in Essays and Studies in Honor of Carleton Brown (New York 1940), p. 149, n. 2; see also ‘A Note on the Fasciculus morum,’ Franciscan Studies, N.S. 8 (1948) 202-4. Canonical references not found in the other manuscripts appear especially in MSS Oxford, Corpus Christi College 218; Lincoln College 52; and Cambridge, University Library, Dd.10.15. Google Scholar

72 These are: lines 669-73 (containing the ‘pagan’ exemplum against impatience), 811-17 (on ‘reasonable largesse'), 933-38 (on a wife's modesty), and 951-955 (further remedies against lechery). While the last passage may come from Peraldus, no sources for the first three have been identified. Actually, the third passage may also derive from a treatise on the vices (either Peraldus or ‘Primo videndum'), because the text of Postquam at this place contains a reference to a ‘capitulum de luxuria’ (see above, n. 59). Furthermore, with regard to the passages for which I have not found parallels, it should be borne in mind that quotations from Scripture and other authorities are handled very differently in various manuscripts, and it is quite conceivable that some of the lines in question were suggested by more complete quotation than what I have found. A good illustration is Chaucer's ‘a woman sholde be subget …’ (line 930), where subget clearly derives from the verse referred to (1 Pet. 3.1), although the manuscripts I have examined do not actually quote the entire verse. Another example is the shortened form of a quotation in MS F noticed above in n. 27. Google Scholar

73 See the reference in n. 8, above. Google Scholar