The Character and Performance of Chaucer’s Franklin

THE CHARACTER AND PERFORMANCE OF CHAUCER'S FRANKLIN R. M. LUMIANSKY CHAUCERIANS have long been aware of a dramatic principle which Chaucer seems to have used in the writing of The Canterbury Tales. This principle is that a tale is suited to its teller; or, more exactly, that a pilgrim's performance in the body of The Canterbury Tales should be read in the light of that pilgrim's character as presented in the General Prologue, and of the circumstances surrounding the performance. Chaucer's subtlety and the unfinished state of the Tales leave room for wide difference of opinion as to the degree and the fashion in which this dramatic principle operates in the performances by a number of the pilgrims. Nevertheless, the majority of recent critics have borne in mind Professor Kittredge'S forceful warning that when Chaucer seems in The Canterbury Tales to have nodded to the extent of forgetting his dramatic principle, there is the ever present possibility that the critic is nodding for lack of knowledge or perception.' Thus, within the last few years we have seen articles pointing to hitherto unrecognized possibilities of dramatic suitability. For example, the Miller-Reeve antagonism is said to be motivated by the Miller's having been in his youth the Robin of his own tale, and thereby having heard of the Reeve's cuckolding;' and we are shown that the Man of Law's Tale fittingly includes legal phraseology from canon law concerning marriages between Christians and Mohammedans ;' further, it seems likely that the Second Nun's calling hersell "unworthy son of Eve" was a not unusual utterance for nuns in Chaucer's day;' and there are those who argue that the Merchant's marital experience was similar to January's.' True, such arguments often will not be unanimously approved, but they must be given serious consideration by any critic concerned with the workings of the dramatic principle in The Canterbury Tales, and the advantage should rest with the critic who finds artistic consistency, so long as his theory is firmly based upon Chaucer's text itself and upon our knowledge of Chaucer's times. lG. L. Kittredge, Chaucer and His Poetry (Cambridge, Mass., 1920) 151. 2R. A. Pratt, "Was Robyn the Miller's Youth Misspent?" Modun L~nguage Notes, LIX, 1944,47-9. sp. E. Beichner, ,"Chaucer's Man of Law and Disparitas Cullu!," Speculum, XXIII, 1948, 70-5. 4W. B. Gardner, "Chaucer's 'Unworthy Sone of Eve,''' University 0/ Texas Studies in English, XXVI, 1947.77-83. 5G. G. Sedgewick, "The Structure of The Merchant's Tale," University 01 Toronto Quarterly, XVII, 1947,337-45. 344 UNIV;ERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY, vol. XX, no. 4, July. 1951 CHAUCER'S FRANKLIN 345 Now when we examine carefully the critical comment on the Franklin's Tale we find a difficult state of affairs with regard to the suitability of this story to its teller. Schofield,' Root,' Kittredge,' and Gerould,' though they analysed the Franklin and his performance from varying points of view, agreed that the tale was admirably suited to him; more recent writers, however, find it impossible to imagine the "son of Epicurus" as the teller of the story of Dorigen, Arveragus, and the black rocks of Brittany." Such sharp difference of opinion leads one to a re-examination of the whole question. In the course of this re-examination I shall suggest ( I ) that Chaucer presents' the Franklin as a man whose knowledge of and regard for the practical everyday world are joined with a strong desire for social advancement; (2) that each of the Franklin's appearances in The Canterbury Tales bears out this appraisal of him; and (3) that this appraisal not only accounts for certain incongruities in the Franklin's Tale but also makes apparent the suitability of this tale to its teller. Before considering the pertinent sections of The Canterbury Tales, we should review briefly the information set forth by Professor Manly in connection with Chaucer's Franklin." A franklin named John Bussy was a close neighbour and associate in Lincolnshire of Thomas Pynchbek, whom Manly suggested as the possible model for the Man of Law. Pynchbek was on the opposite side...