Let those who want them have old texts written on purple parchment with gold and silver letters, or as people say popularly with 'uncial letters' —written burdens I call them, rather than books—as long as they allow me and mine to possess our poor leaves and to cherish emended codices rather than such beautiful ones. St. Jerome, Preface to Job, trans. Paul Mayvaert

Book of Kells, Portrait of John

What is the “Britoun Book, writen

with evangiles”?

Where do these books come from?

• The monastery of Lindisfarne, c. 630, est. by St. Aidan, sent from Iona

• Famous scriptorium• Sacked by the Vikings in 793• Base for evangelising

Book of Durrow

• Dated to roughly 650-700

• Comes from either England (Lindisfarne), Scotland (Iona), or Ireland (Durrow).

• One of the earliest examples of a luxury British bible.

Incipit of Mark

The Lindisfarne Gospels

• Northumbria, c. 700• Fairly securely dated

and located• Too late for the Man

of Law’s Tale

Incipit to Matthew

Chi-Rho from Matthew

A Theory About the Man of Law’s Tale 1Theory (part one)* The tale is a difficult recovery of the sense of “felaweschipe” lost during Fragment I. * It restores social order and harmony between the pilgrims, especially the male pilgrims, by reminding them of what they have in common. * This is their membership of a community of Christians defined by a) belief God is on their side,b) their not being “pagans,” a category that

includes the great rival religion, Islam c) being English, heirs of the process of

conversion we see begin in the poemIt thinks of Christianity d) as Christendom, a political entity with an

emperor at its head)e) as faith, which here is more or less the

same as “constancy,” trust* In the tale Christianity is true by definition: the plot is constructed to ensure this

Evidence (part one)1) The tale is given to a Man of Law, as though it is his job to restore order.2) Nonetheless, it begins under threat. Time is being wasted. The Man of Law has trouble thinking of a tale – Chaucer has told them all. He has to rely on a tale told by merchants.3) The tale takes up the big scope of the Knight’s Tale and shares the same social conservatism and the same investment in the past. But now this is “our” past, the past of the Christian English.4) It’s also an embattled past. The emperor is in Rome. But Islam has conquered Syria. German pagans have conquered Britain. These are still recent events: see 905 ff., which I think suggests that Spain has recently reverted to Islam. (See Timeline Issues below).5) The tale can thus replay the social tension of Fragment I as political/religious tension, on a cosmic scale. Two uses of “quite”: 251-8, 582-9.

A Theory About the Man of Law’s Tale 2Theory (Part two)• The key figure in this program of restoration

is obviously Constance. She is described in such a way as to create empathy, since her life is full of suffering, veneration, since she is a model of Christian endurance and heroism, compared to many biblical and saintly figures, often women: 470ff; 932ff.

• But the Man of Law seems to ask us also to identify with Constance. Apostrophe takes us out of the situation and makes us apply it to ourselves: 421ff; 925ff. Direct address to Constance puts us imaginatively in her situation: 631ff, see also 645ff.

• Since God is on Constance’s side, and since she is also the Emperor’s daughter, we thus experience Christianity through her as at once vulnerable and irresistible

• We might look at this experience in two ways1) As part of a pattern in Christian theology2 Corinthians 12:10: That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.2 Corinthians 13:4: For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. 2) As part of a sexual pattern inscribed in the TaleConstance’s men: Sultan, Northumbrian Knight, King Alla, Spanish Steward – her fatherConstance’s women: the Sultaness, Donegild. Only Hermengild is an exception.• This perhaps suggests that the Man of Law

has a general audience (all the pilgrims) in mind for his devout tale. But also a masculine audience (Knight, Miller, Reeve, Cook, etc.)

• A sexualization of Constance is in play

A Theory About the Man of Law’s Tale 3

Theory (part three)What are we supposed to make of this?• What is the genre of the tale?Main Source: Nicholas Trevet’s Chronicle (1332), written for Edward I’s daughter Mary of Woodstock, a nun.Trevet is writing a “world history.” But he seems to develop the Constance story from a fictional romance, The King of Tars, set in the Exotic East. This romance is itself part of a group of romances/folk tales known generically as “the calumniated queen.” One of these is the romance Emaré.Trevet perhaps meant Constance to be an example for Mary of Woodstock. But at this point he knows he’s not writing history in a strict sense, but “marvelous history.”Hence the mixed-up timeline of the tale and also its fairy-tale/romance structure

Timeline: Part I/IIa: Syria: date must be post-637, date of Islamic conquest. No indication this conquest is recent, although Constance’s marriage is perhaps an attempt to reverse it.Part IIb: Northumberland: date must be pre-627, when Eadwine was converted. But king Aella of Deira died 598, which suggests story is from 570s or so, soon after Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain.Part III: Spain appears just to have been conquered for Islam (?). This took place in 711.The emperor Maurice, who ruled from Constantinople, not Rome, died in 602.Thus: there is a good deal of historical event here, but it’s scrambled: the tale takes place across 150 years. Both Trevet and Chaucer will have known this.

A Theory about the Man of Law’s Tale 4Romance/fairy-tale structureRepetition of motifs:• Sultanesse // Donegild: mothers-in-law

following stereotyped behavior• Two/three “open boat” sequences:

marvelous/miraculous as plot agent• Two husbands and two would-be lovers

• the Spanish steward is also evil repetition of the Constable of Northumberland

• A structure of departure and return• See especially end of tale, Constance’s

final return to Rome• There’s a “saint’s life” pattern here, in which

we might accept as providential what we would not as historical. But the historical mash-up of the timeline suggests we are to take the tale as partly invented.

• Remember the tale comes from merchants: it begins as true gossip

• There is also a suppressed element in the tale: the “calumniated wife” motif.

• Constance often behaves as though she is under suspicion of sexual misdemeanor, especially upon her return to Rome. Cf her refusal to reveal her identity.

• In “calumniated wife” stories, the sufferings of the heroine typically begin with an attempted rape, not by a husband but by a father.

• That is, the Emperor in the Man of Law’s Tale is a version of a figure elsewhere associated with incest. Chaucer knows this: 77ff.

• The tale is thus a devotional retelling of a father/daughter incest-narrative, given a careful, but explicitly inconsistent, historical cast.

• “evil” in the process is pushed out from the center, incest-loving Rome, to the periphery, wicked Islamic Syria and Spain and partly wicked pagan Northumberland.

• Constance remains a stabilizing figure, though sexualized in various ways by the narrative.

• The tale resolves a problem, but at a cost.