Chaucers Canterbury Tales - Biblical Allusions in The Shipmans Tale E

The Canterbury Tales, - biblical Allusions in The Shipmans TaleThere is no doubting Chaucers mastery at paroemia that his adaptations of his many and varied sources transcended their roots is attested by the fact that, unlike many of his contemporaries or authorities, his works take hold not passen as dooth a shadwe upon the wal1. Yet while his aptitude as a medieval author is undisputed, the extent of his subtlety is not ever so fully appreciated. In The Canterbury Tales, for instance, while some tales were rapid in draught academic interest and scholarly interpretations, others were quickly dismissed as dirty tales, as simple fabliaux hardly worthy of more than a passing(prenominal) examination.The Shipmans Tale was one of these. That It may be Chaucers soonest fabliau and relatively simple in design and execution2 seemed, for a current of time, to be the general consensus on this piece the primary concern of scholars was in unearthing its sources (which proved to be u ncharacteristically problematic), not in analysing its structural complexities or for insights into medieval society and life. Yet recent research3 has renewed interest in this first tale from The Canterbury Tales Fragment VII, and it can now be seen as a fabliaux, yes, but as one that is as rich a tapestry woven of biblical allusions, literary techniques, intertextuality, and social commentary as any of the other tales. By pulling out and examining the care and skill with which Chaucer inserted just one of these multiple threads in this case, the biblical allusions indoors The Shipmans Tale it can be shown that this is as significant a tale as any other.There are a peculiar(a) number of methods by which Chaucer can integrate a biblical all... ...timis finibus pretium eius. Who shall ensure a valiant woman? far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her. (Douay Translation).13Theresa Coletti, in The Meeting at the Gate Comic Hagiography and Symbol in The Shipmans T ale, associates the meeting of the merchant and his wife at the household admission (after his successful business venture) with the meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem. assumptive that the apocryphal tale was well known, Chaucers audience would have recognise the iconographic significance of a meeting by a gate. Gail McMurray Gibson, in Resurrection as Dramatic Icon in the Shipmans Tale in Signs and Symbols in Chaucers Poetry, suggests that the tale alludes to the Resurrection, especially via Christs meeting with bloody shame Magdalene. Unfortunately, I was unable to secure a copy of that work for this essay.