"Sir Thopas" and "The Tale of Melibee"

Perhaps more than with the Squire, it seems strange Chaucer this pilgrim would tell such tales. I posted early in the semester regarding estate satire; possibly here Chaucer is mocking the overly- romanticized tales of quests and jousts and battles: the second estate. In “Sir Thopas: The Puppet’s Puppet”, originally published in The Chaucer Review, Ann Haskell asserts that Geoffrey Chaucer the author used his own character as the mocker of and a mockery of his Tales themselves. She says “Chaucer the Pilgrim as a puppet, manipulated by Chaucer the Poet, whose action was perhaps relayed to the public with appropriate motions by Chaucer the Reader” (253).

“Sir Thopas” is a poorly expressed burlesque, or a mockery of romance. Other analogues of the tale are noted in the back of our book. In “The Narrator of The Canterbury Tales” Ben Kimpel draws a comparison between this “humble, stupid narrator” and narrators in other works such as The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and The Legend of Good Women and suggests that Chaucer the poet used this literary device in both “Sir Thopas” and “The Tale of Melibee”. Though “Melibee” is not a burlesque, it is logically told by a simple teller, and like “Sir Thopas” it is expressed not as Geoffrey Chaucer’s original ideas but as something he’s heard: “it reflects his taste rather than his talents” (Kempel 84). “Melibee” drags along slowly and the reader is left to wonder why this tale is allowed to be told in its entirety. Has Chaucer the pilgrim tricked his fellow travelers, blinding their reason with intelligent-sounding proverbs? I’d like to ask what my fellow blog posters make of Chaucer’s largely uninteresting tales and why he of all pilgrims would tell them.

Haskell, Ann S. “Sir Thopas: The Puppet’s Puppet”. The Chaucer Review 9:3 (Winter 1975). 253-261. Penn State University Press. JSTOR. American University Library. 20 Mar 1009. < http://www.jstor.org.proxyau.wrlc.org/stable/25093312>.

Kimpel, Ben. “The Narrator of the Canterbury Tales”. ELH 20:2 (Jun 1953). 77-86. The Johns Hopkins University Press. JSTOR. American University Library. 24 Mar 2009. < http://www.jstor.org.proxyau.wrlc.org/stable/2872071>.