Notes on a Jilting
December 5, 2009
I’ve been struck by abrupt things happening to Chaucerian women:
The somme is this: that Jason wedded was
Unto this queen and tok of hir substaunce
What so hym leste unto his purveyaunce;
And upon hire begat he children two,
And drogh his sayl and saw hir nevere mo.
(The Legend of Good Women, ll. 1559-63)
I enjoy the way that the narrator’s paratactically bland list doesn’t indicate that what Jason does in ’63 is going to be a departure from his previous behaviour. It’s irritating at the same time, of course, because Jason’s being what I think the papers call a ‘love rat’, and because part of me wants powerful and detailed elaboration from Chaucer, not abruptness.
I guess the narratologically-inclined would say that two pregnancy’s worth of story-time is collapsed into eight words’ discourse time, or something.
August 2, 2010 at 5:16 pm
First, from the previous post: what a golden critic to say “you must rely on each particular poem to show you the way in which it is trying to be good;”! How few there are that do that!
Second, I enjoyed the comment about the blandness of Chaucer. He sets the event on the table, and we look across the table at his face, trying to guess what he felt, or what he’s thinking a wide-minded reader would feel.