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Chivalry in Chaucers Canterbury Tales

description, adding comments on her emotional state, "She wolde weepe if that she saw a mous / Caught in a trappe,"(General Prologue, 144-5), and her neat appearance. All elements combine to illuminate a woman who could only ever attempt to find curteisye, never truly achieve it.In the Miller's Tale, the reader finds one of the most humorous passages by Chaucer: Now sire, and eft sire, so bifel the casThat on a say this hende NicholasFil with this yonge wif to rage and playe,Whil that hir housbinde was at Oseneye(As clerkes been ful subtil and ful quainte),And prively he caughte hire by the queinte,And saide, "Ywis, but if ich have my wille,For derne love of thee, lemman, I spille,"And heeld hire harde by the haunche-bones,And saide, "Lemman, love me al atones,Or I wol dien, also God me save." (163-72)Quite literally, Nicholas caught Alison by the crotch to draw her near to him, and then held her there by her haunches, or rear end. Standing alone, that image provides an element of base humor, but when that event is coupled with Nicholas' words, a dramatically ironic, and altogether funny, scene arises. Nicholas is wooing Alison with the words of courtly love ("love me al atones, / Or I wol dien,"), the respectful standard of the time, but he simultaneously gropes her in the must vulgar method possible. Here Chaucer plays with the idea of curteisye; he is not mocking someone's attempts at it, but rather in his juxtaposition he exposes an element of curteisye not usually recognized. The reader gets the impression that this scenario occurred with greater frequency than courtly stories ever implied. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the seductions of Gawain by Bertilak's wife possessed an air of innocence; the flirtatious dialogue between knights and their lords' wives was not only accepted but expected. Chaucer suggests that not every courtier was so innocent and reverent in his motives.Often the literary genius of Chaucer shi...

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