Universität Essen, WS 1998/99
Hauptseminar: The Canterbury Tales

Metaphysical aspects of the Knight´s Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer´s
Canterbury Tales

by

Tobias Kurth

Contents

I. Introduction  3

II. The Knight 3

III. Arcite & Palamon - Two Different Worlds  5

IV. Saturnus - The Way of the World  8

V. Prison & Garden 11

VI. Conclusions 12

Bibliography 14

I. Introduction

This essay deals with the metaphysical aspects of the Knight´s Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer´s Canterbury Tales. It will have a closer look on the influences of fortune and love caused by the mighty gods and different types of philosophy of life relating to the two protagonists of this tale, Palamon and Arcite.
The Knight´s Tale is the first tale the pilgrim company hears on its journey, and so it becomes obvious that it has a special function within the Canterbury Tales - the function of education. It is dignified, eloquent, and serious in its intent, but it is, for all that, a strange choice of tale to begin a Christian pilgrimage. Within such a story, set in pagan Athens, centuries before the birth of Christ, the deepest truths known to the teller and his audience cannot be expressed. Chaucer´s subject is nothing less than the pagan past at its most noble and dignified.

II. The Knight

When, near the beginning of the General Prologue, Chaucer says that he will now describe the Pilgrims whom he met at the tavern, there is just before the Knight´s description the line:

And at a knight, than, wol° I first beginne:¹

From this line the reader expects to meet a man who is courageous and who is both widely experienced and outstanding in warfare. These expactations are absolutely fulfilled. The Knight is outstanding in his profession. But furthermore he is notable for courteous conduct and piety, which is an unexpected element in his thirty-five-line portrait because these are not qualities usually found in professional military men. This is Chaucer´s comment about the Knight:

And though that he were worthy, he was wis,°
And of his port° as meek as is a maide.²

So it becomes obvious that even though the Knight was brave, he was prudent and as modest as a maiden, contrary to the regular characteristics of "worthy" knights. The story he tells the Pilgrims is well suited to this noble man. The opening ten lines of the tale establish the narrative of Theseus´ victory over the Amazons, his marriage to Hippolyta, and his journey homeward with his wife and her younger sister Emily. Then there are a series of direct comments from the Knight to his audience, for example:

Let I this noble duke to Athens ride, (...)³

I wold have told you fully the mannere (...)⁴

But all that thing I mot as now forbere.
I have, God wot, a large feeld to ere,°
And waike° been the oxen in my plough;
The remnant of the tale is long enough.
I wol not letten° eek none of this route;°
Let every fellaw tell his tale aboute,°
And let see now who shall the supper winne.
And ther I left I wol ayain beginne.⁵

Such comments leave no doubt about the dramatic situation: the Knight is talking directly to the Pilgrims. Also the end of the tale makes this clear. The Knight says:

Thus endeth Palamon and Emelye,
And God save all this faire compaignye.⁶

So it can be seen that also these comments are of an extraordinary nobility and dignity. Commentators generally find the Knight and his story well suited. But there is a noticeable lack of detailed treatment of this subject. Of course you could say that the Knight´s Tale seems as if made for the Knight, that a chivalric romance is a proper story for a knight to tell, or that realistic military details in the story come naturally from the mouth of a fourteenthcentury knight. Though on the other hand, you could say that a tale of young love in a Grecian setting would have suited the Esquire much better. "But the integrated Boethian elements of the Knight´s Tale would indeed sound strange in the mouth of the youthful and inexperienced Squire."⁷
The well-suitability bases not just on reason of his profession. Yet there is a clearly defined philosophical theme which dominates the Knight´s Tale and which is not apparent to any large degree in Boccaccio´s Teseide, which is the primary source of Chaucer´s Knight´s Tale. "Too often the Knight´s Tale is considered only as an adaptation of the Teseide, as a romance of spectacle and movement, (...)."⁸
And the resulting philosophical romance is thus skillfully suited to its teller, who is interested both in warfare and in man´s relation to God(s), life and fortune.

III. Arcite & Palamon - Two Different Worlds

[...]

1 Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales, The General Prologue, ll. 42 (p. 4).

2 Ibid., ll. 68-69 (p. 6).

3 Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales, The Knight´s Tale, Part One, ll. 15 (p. 37).

4 Ibid., ll. 18 (p. 37).

5 Ibid., ll. 27-34 (p. 38).

6 Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales, The Knight´s Tale, Part Four, ll. 2249-2250 (p.103).

7 See Lumiansky, R. M.: Of Sondry Folk, p. 32.

8 Ibid., p.33.