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{{short description|Part of the Canterbury Tales}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}

[[File:The Man of Law from the EllsMan of Law from the “Ellesmere Chaucer” (Huntington Library, San Marino).jpg|The Sergeant of Law|thumb]]
"'''The Man of Law's Tale'''" is the fifth of the ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'' by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], written around 1387. [[John Gower]]'s "Tale of Constance" in ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'' tells the same story and may have been a source for Chaucer.<ref>{{ cite book
| title=Chaucer & Gower: Difference, Mutuality, Exchange
| chapter=Chaucer Borrows from Gower: The Source of the ''Man of Law's Tale''
| author=Peter Nicholson
| publisher=English Literary Studies | editor=Robert F. Yeager | year=1991
}}
</ref> [[Nicholas Trivet]]'s ''Les chronicles'' was a source for both authors.<ref name=Backstrom>{{ cite book
| title=Svenska Folkböcker | author=P. O. Bäckström
| year=1845 | volume=I | page=221ff | language=Swedish
| location=Stockholm
}}</ref>

Wurtele provides a detailed compilation of the differences between Trivet's Chronicle and the poems of Gower and Chaucer.<ref name= Wurtele>{{cite thesis
| title=Chaucer's Man of Law and Clerk as Rhetoricians | author=Douglas James Wurtele |date=1968 |publisher=McGill University |type=PhD}}</ref>{{rp|56–82}} Gower strove for vividness and shortened the tale in places. Chaucer expanded the tale and emphasizes the holiness of Constance and how she was favoured by heaven.

[[Hagiography|Hagiographic]] motifs are most abundant in Chaucer's version, e.g. “the miracles God works though Custance and the way she is miraculously fed while at sea”.{{cn|date=October 2024}} Wurtele observes that Chaucer makes frequent use of the adjective "hooly" but Gower never uses this word.<ref name=Wurtele/>{{rp|64–65}}

==Synopsis==
(References here are to line numbers in both Man of Law's Tale (MLT) and Confessio Amantis (CA).)

Constance (Custance in Chaucer) is the daughter of the emperor in Rome. Syrian merchants report her great beauty to the Sultan. A marriage contract is negotiated by her father which requires the Sultan and his subjects to convert to Christianity.MLT<ref name=MLTT>{{ cite web
| title=Canterbury Tales | author=Geoffrey Chaucer |language=
| url=http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/webcore/murphy/canterbury/6manolaw.pdf
}}</ref>{{rp|134–245}} or CA<ref name=CAT>{{gutenberg|no=266|name=Confessio Amantis}} (Middle English, based on Macaulay 1901)</ref>{{rp|II.587–639}}

The Sultan's mother, enraged that her son would turn his back on Islam, connives to prevent this by massacring her son and the wedding party and having Constance set adrift on the sea. MLT<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|386–504}} or CA<ref name=CAT/>{{rp|II.665–715}} Constance's adventures and trials continue after she is shipwrecked on the [[Northumberland]] coast. The validity of her Christian faith is proved by two miracles. Her companion Hermengyld heals a blind man.MLT<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|547–574}} or CA<ref name=CAT/>{{rp|II.759–775}} A wicked knight who wishes to seduce Constance murders Hermengyld and attempts to frame Constance using the bloody dagger. He perjures himself and is mysteriously struck dead. MLT<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|582–686}} or CA<ref name=CAT/>{{rp|II.792–885}} Northumberland is a nominally pagan country where the King, Alla (based on Chaucer's understanding of the historical [[Ælla of Deira]]<ref>Rossignol, Rosalyn. 2006. ''Critical companion to Chaucer: a literary reference to his life and work.'' New York: Facts on File, 169. [https://jgoldberglaw.ca/ personal injury lawyer toronto]</ref>) converted to Christianity after learning of the two miracles. Alla's evil mother intercepts and falsifies letters between the Alla and his constable, which results in Constance's being banished. MLT<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|386–875}} or CA<ref name=CAT/> {{rp|II.665–1036}}

Constance is forced to go to sea again and encounters one final antagonist. She runs aground in Spain; a would-be rapist (Thelous in CA) boards her ship but mysteriously falls overboard. MLT<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|911–945}} or CA<ref name=CAT/>{{rp|II.1090–1122}} She is found by a Senator of Rome, who is returning from a mission to Barberie (Syria) where he revenged the slaughter of Christians by the Sultan's mother. MLT<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|953ff}} or CA<ref name=CAT/>{{rp|II.1179ff}} The Senator takes Constance (and her child) back to Italy to serve as a household servant. King Alla, still heartbroken over the loss of Constance, goes to Rome on a pilgrimage, and fortunately finds Constance. The couple returns to Northumberland. Alla dies a year later, Constance returns to Rome, and their son becomes the Emperor of Rome. MLT<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|876–1150}} or CA<ref name=CAT/>{{rp|II.1077–1612}}

==Character of the Man of Law==
The Man of Law may have been based upon a real character. Two candidates are Thomas Pynchbek and Gower. Pynchbek "served as a justice of assize between 1376 and 1388 and was known for his acquisition of land, as well as for his learning; in 1388, as chief baron of the Exchequer, he signed a writ for GC's arrest in a case of debt".<ref>{{ cite book
| author=John Matthews Manly
| title=Some New Light on Chaucer | location=New York
| publisher=Henry Holt | year=1926 |pages=131–57
| url=https://www.questia.com/read/815997/some-new-light-on-chaucer
|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=Lindeboom>{{ cite book
| title=Venus' Owne Clerk: Chaucer's Debt to the Confessio Amantis
| author=Benjamin Willem Lindeboom
| publisher=Rodopi | year=2007
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udOR2JwV0YUC&q=%22man+of+Law%22+Pynchbek&pg=PA124
| isbn=978-9042021501
}}</ref>{{rp|124}} Accepting the latter requires accepting the debatable claim that Gower was a practiced lawyer.<ref>{{ cite book
|title=John Gower: Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer |url=https://archive.org/details/johngowermoralph00fish |url-access=registration | isbn=978-0814701492
| author=John H. Fisher |author-link=John Hurt Fisher| year=1964 | publisher=New York University Press
}}{{rp|55}}
</ref> Yeager asserts that Gower had a "lawyerly habit of mind" but there is no evidence that he received formal training in the law. Chaucer himself is another candidate.<ref>{{ cite book
| chapter=John Gower's Poetry and the 'Lawyerly Habit of Mind'
| author=R.F. Yeager | isbn=978-9004280410 | year=2015
| title=Theorizing Legal Personhood in Late Medieval England
| publisher=Brill Academic Pub
| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8pf8CQAAQBAJ&q=Gower+%22legal+training%22&pg=PA72
}}</ref> Yet another view is taken by David who sees the Man of Law as
"a representative of the self-appointed poetry critics with whom Chaucer disagreed.<ref name=David>{{ cite journal
| title=The Man of Law vs. Chaucer: A Case in Poetics
| author=Alfred David
| journal=PMLA | volume=82 | issue=2 | date=May 1967 |pages= 217–225
| doi=10.2307/461291
| jstor=461291
| s2cid=170640735
}}</ref>{{rp|219}}

==Man of Law as narrator==
===Introduction===
The Man of Law (referred to here as 'A Sergeant of the Lawe') is a judicious and dignified man, or, at least, he seems so because of his wise words. He is a judge in the court of assizes (civil procedures), by letter of appointment from the king, and has many goods and robes. He can draw up a legal document, the narrator tells us, and "no wight pinchen at his writing". The Man of Law rides in informal, silk-adorned clothes. GP {{rp|311–330}} The Host addresses the Man of Law with more respect than he does the Miller and the Reeve.<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|33–38}} The Man of Law's response to the host includes "behest [promise] is debt" which is a quotation from [[Justinian]].<ref name=Grennan>{{ cite journal
|title=Chaucer's Man of Law and the Constancy of Justice
| author = Joseph E.Grennan | date= October 1985 | pages=498–514
| journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology |volume=84 | issue=4}}</ref>{{rp|499}}

Whatever the identity of the narrator, his knowledge of literature is erratic. Some of the Chaucerian works have not been 'published', which suggests he is part of Chaucer's literary circle. He confuses the Muses with the Pierides.<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|92}} Antiochus did not throw his daughter to the ground. The most debated passage in the Introduction is: [[File:ChaucerMS42131f16r.jpg|thumb|ChaucerMS42131f16r]]
:But certeinly no word ne writeth he
:Of thilke wikke [wicked] ensample of Canacee,
:That loved hir owene brother synfully –
:Of swiche cursed stories I sey fy! –
:Or ellis of Tyro Appollonius,
:How that the cursed kyng Antiochus
:Birafte his doghter of hir maydenhede,
:That is so horrible a tale for to rede,
:Whan he hir threw upon the pavement.<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|77–83}}
Gower retold these two stories in Confessio. David observes that MLT is placed after somewhat immoral tales told by the Miller, the Reeve and the Cook.<ref name=David/>{{rp|220}} After Gower became aware of this passage, the Epilogue of Confessio was altered to remove praise of Chaucer. The three common interpretations are:
* Gower was offended by this criticism and deliberately excised the praise of Chaucer which appears in the first recension of CA.<ref name=CAT/>{{rp|8.2941}}
* [[George Campbell Macaulay|Macaulay]] argues the excision was an editing error, which was corrected in a subsequent recension of Confessio.<ref>{{ cite book
|title=The English Works of John Gower Vol I | chapter=Introduction
| chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/englishworksjoh01macagoog
| author=Macaulay, G.C. | year=1900 | publisher=Early English Text Society | author-link=George Campbell Macaulay
}}</ref>{{rp|xxviii}}
* [[John Hurt Fisher|Fisher]] took the view that "moral Gower" was offended by the immoral tales found in the Canterbury Tales.<ref name=FisherMP>{{ cite book
|title=John Gower: Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer |url=https://archive.org/details/johngowermoralph00fish |url-access=registration | isbn=978-0814701492
| author=John H. Fisher | year=1964 | publisher=New York University Press
}}</ref>{{rp|286ff}}

===Tale===
The narrator of the tale is less materialistic than the Sergeant of the Introduction (the description of the merchants' wealth is an exception <ref name=wood>{{ cite journal
| title=Chaucer's Man of Law as Interpreter |year=1967
| author=Chauncey Wood | journal=Traditio |volume=23 |pages=149–190
| publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/S036215290000876X
|s2cid=151558123
}}</ref>{{rp|157}}). "The tale, on the other hand, quite clearly reveals its narrator to be a devotee of justice in some ideal order, rather than a legal technician grown wealthy through sharp practices."<ref name=Grennan/>{{rp|501}} The events of the tale are the crimes discussed in [[Henry de Bracton|Bracton's]] De legibus. "Simply from this point of view, and with respect to both style and substance, the received story as an aggregation of incidents is well suit for retelling by a Sergeant of the Law."<ref name=Grennan/>{{rp|509}} "Tortuous"MLT{{rp|302}} an astrological term may be confused with "tortious" which is a legal term.<ref name=Grennan/>{{rp|504}} [[Apostrophe (figure of speech)|Apostrophe]] is used in several places.<ref name=Block/>{{rp|584}} Another marked stylistic trait is his use of those rhetorical questions which punctuate with the regularity of a refrain the two passages (<ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|470–594}}and <ref name=MLTT/>{{rp|932–945}}) emphasizing at some length the dangers that beset Constance when she is at the sultaness' feast, when she is drifting from Syria to Northumberland, and when the second miscreant assaults her.<ref name=Block>{{ cite journal
| title=Originality, Controlling Purpose, and Craftsmanship in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale
| author=Edward A. Block |volume=68 |issue=3 | date=June 1953 |pages=572–616 |journal=PMLA | doi=10.2307/459871 | jstor=459871 | s2cid=159612754 }}</ref>{{rp|585}}

Some scholars disagree with the arguments given above.
Spearing downplays the notion that the narration is the voice of a lawyer.<ref name=Spearing>{{ cite journal
| title=Narrative Voice: The Case of Chaucer's "Man of Law's Tale"
| author=A. C. Spearing | journal=New Literary History
| volume=32 |issue=3 | date=Summer 2001
| pages=715–746 | publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press| doi=10.1353/nlh.2001.0047 | s2cid=144375030 }}</ref> [[Derek Pearsall|Pearsall]] found nothing specific to a lawyer other than the response to the Host in the Introduction.<ref name=Pearsall>{{ cite book
| title=The Canterbury Tales | editor=Derek Pearsall |year=1985 |page=257}}</ref>

==Sources==
The tale is based on a story within the ''Chronicles'' of [[Nicholas Trivet]]<ref name=Backstrom/> but the major theme in the tale, of an exiled princess uncorrupted by her suffering, was common in the literature of the time.<ref name=hibbard>Laura A. Hibbard, ''Medieval Romance in England'' New York Burt Franklin,1963</ref>{{rp|24–25}} Her tale is also told in [[John Gower]]'s ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'', and both are similar to the verse [[Romance (heroic literature)|Romance]] ''[[Emaré]]'', and the cycle is generally known as the "Constance" cycle.<ref name=hibbard/>{{rp|24–25}} The oldest known variant of this particular type is ''[[Vitae duorum Offarum]]''.<ref name=hibbard/>{{rp|23}} More distantly related forms of the persecuted heroine include ''[[Le Bone Florence of Rome]]'', and ''[[Griselda (folklore)|Griselda]]''.<ref>Carol Falvo Heffernan, ''Le Bone Florence of Rome'', p 3 {{ISBN|0-7190-0647-3}} {{OCLC|422642874}}</ref> An incident where Constance is framed for murder by a bloody dagger appears to be a direct borrowing from ''[[Crescentia (romance)|Crescentia]]''.<ref>{{ cite book
| title=Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens
| author=Margaret Schlauch | author-link=Margaret Schlauch
|location=New York |publisher= Gordian Press |year=1969 |page=75}}</ref>


[[File:GowerexMS42131f46v.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[John Gower]] (between {{circa}} 1414 – {{circa}} 1422)]]

==Sequence with other tales==
The tale is the first in Fragment 2. Fragment 1 contains tales told by the Knight, Miller, Reeve and Cook. The various manuscripts of the ''Tales'' differ in the sequence of the tales. 35 manuscripts contain the Man of Law's [[epilogue]], while 22 others (including the [[Ellesmere Manuscript]]) do not.<ref name="Dinshaw">{{Cite book|title=Chaucer's Sexual Poetics|author=Carolyn Dinshaw|author-link=Carolyn Dinshaw|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|date=1989|isbn=9780299122744|page=[https://archive.org/details/chaucerssexualpo0000dins/page/240 240]|url=https://archive.org/details/chaucerssexualpo0000dins/page/240}}</ref> In the epilogue, the host invites the [[The Parson's Tale|Parson]] to speak next, but the Parson is interrupted before he can begin and a different speaker tells the next tale. In the various manuscripts, the interrupter is [[The Summoner's Tale|Summoner]], the [[The Squire (Canterbury Tales)|Squire]], or the [[The Shipman's Tale|Shipman]],<ref name="Dinshaw" /> but it is the Shipman whose character best matches the rude remarks (although the mention of his "joly body" sounds closer to something the [[The Wife of Bath's Tale|Wife of Bath]] might say). What this probably shows is that Chaucer had not fixed his overall plan. There are also hints, with his claim he will talk in prose despite rhyming throughout, that the Man of Law originally told the [[The Tale of Melibee|Tale of Melibee]] before he was assigned Custance's tale late in the composition of the ''Tales''.<ref name=David/>{{rp|217}}

==See also==
*[[Calumniated Wife]]
*[[The Tale of Tsar Saltan]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{wikisourcepar|The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale (Chaucer)}}
*[http://www.librarius.com/canttran/manlawtrfs.htm "The Man of Law's Tale", middle-english hypertext with glossary and side-by-side middle english and modern english]
*[https://archive.today/20120630230505/http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/mlt-par.htm "The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale" with interlinear translation]
*[https://medievalit.com/home/echaucer/modern-translations/the-man-of-laws-tale-translation/ Modern Translation of "The Man of Law's Tale" and Other Resources at eChaucer]
*[http://eleusinianm.co.uk/redShalfleet/rs19themanoflaw.html "The Man of Law's Tale" – a plain-English retelling for non-scholars.]

{{Chaucer}}
{{The Canterbury Tales}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man of Law's Tale}}
[[Category:The Canterbury Tales]]
[[Category:1387 works]]

The Man of Law's Tale - Revision history

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