CHAUCERに於ける女性描写の問題

抄録

Clearly Chaucer's description of women shows his close relationship with the rhetoricians' 'manual' as well as French and Italian literature. As in the case of his 'art of poetry' in general, Chaucer's technique of portraying women seems almost always to have been discussed in terms of the influence of foreign literature. The present article is an attempt to examine, within the scope of this subject, a certain relationship between Chaucer and the old provincial English poetry of the early fourteenth century, like the Harley Lyrics and the tail-rhyme romances. Although Chaucer's knowledge of earlier or contemporary English poetry is undoubtedly shown in his parody of it in Sir Thopas, etc., how much his art was influenced by it is an insoluble enigma. But it is not unreasonable to imgaine that the young Chaucer now and then thought of relying on the literary tradition which had been established in provincial English poetry. For example, in the description of Beaute in 'The Romaunt of the Rose (Fragment A, 11, 1006-1032) we find words like 'bright', 'gentyl', 'gente', 'tretys', 'fetys'. These words, as is generally known, were the conventional epithets for the ideal feminine beauty in the lyrics and romances of the non-Chaucerian tradition. Moreover, we find in the same passage of the Romaunt two examples of the alliterative phrase: 'byrde in bour' (<Fr. 'esposee'), and 'rose in rys' (<Fr. 'rosee'). These again were the cliches conventionally used in the provincial lyrics and romances. Such a conventional flavour as is found in the vocabulary of the Romaunt seems to become much more casual in Chaucer's later works. This can be said to imply the poet's process of devaluation of this time-honoured provincial convention which is to be caricatured in his superb parody of it in Sir Thopas. This convention comes to life again in some humorous portrayals of women in The Canterbury Tales. Alisoun's portrait is a representative example. The Miller's Tale may be regarded as an ironical parody of fine amour professed by the Knight in the preceeding tale, and Chaucer's humour, as was pointed out by E. T. Donaldson, lies in his deliberate use of hackneyed provincial dictions. The use of a succession of alliterative lines in this portrait also seems to suggest Chaucer's subtle intention of presenting the carpenter's daughter with a certain provincial tincture. Several other instances are also considered in this present article. In view of rather scanty internal evidence, it may be too large an economy to associate Chaucer's art of poetry with earlier or contemporary English literature, but his description of women seems to give us a clue for investigating this difficult but tempting problem.