Multiculturalism & Chaucer

By Shamim Malik

Throughout the canon of Canterbury Tales criticism, scholars consistently emphasize the Christian influence that characterized the fourteenth-century intellectual milieu; however, they have failed to take into account the rich synthesis of religious and philosophical thinking that permeated the Middle Ages and influenced writers like Chaucer. The study illustrates how an understanding of this multicultural thinking enhances our understanding of Chaucer's work, especially in The Night's tale and the Physician's Tale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shamim Malik
• Release date: Dec 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005224813

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MULTICULTURALISM & CHAUCER

Shamim Malik

Copyright © 2020 by Shamim Malik

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

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Printed in the United States of America

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my thanks to those whose contributions, knowledge, and counsel helped make this paper possible.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Karen Jambeck. Without her inspiration, encouragement, and guidance, the task of writing this paper would not have been possible. I want to express my profound gratitude for her dedication, time, and assistance.

I would also like to thank my son, Azeem Malik and my nephew, Jawad Khan for commenting on my paper. Getting me the access to their college library to do my research has been a valuable contribution. Also, my special thanks to my son, Tariq Malik for his technical support throughout my research and writing.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife, Maria for her unlimited patience and unending support.

INTRODUCTION

Throughout the canon of Canterbury Tales criticism, scholars consistently emphasize the Christian influence that characterized the fourteenth-century intellectual milieu; however, they have failed to take into account the rich synthesis of religious and philosophical thinking that permeated the Middle Ages and influenced writers like Chaucer. It must be remembered that not only did Christianity itself incorporate feature of Manicheanism, a Mesopotamian form of Gnosticism, but also incorporated features of competing and complimentary religions and philosophies. While the works of Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas and Saint Augustine *whose thinking was shaped by Manichean and possibly by certain aspects of North African traditions religions) are accepted as major as major influences on the writings of Chaucer, the works of many other writers, scholars, and philosophers also had a profound impact on his works. For instance, Chaucer’s literary texts indicate that he had read the works of Virgil, Cicero, Ovid, Dante and Boccaccio. We also know that Chaucer translated Boethesius’ Consolation of Philosophy, a work that profoundly influenced Chaucer, notably in the Knight’s Tale, the Nun’s Priests Tale, and Troilus and Criseyde.

Despite these facts, we see little inquiry on the part of Chaucerian scholars into the rich non-Christian and non-indigenous multicultural influences that directly influenced Chaucer’s works, especially in the areas of religion, science and philosophy. For example, few people know that Chaucer’s elementary textbook on astrolabe (an instrument formerly used to measure the altitude of stars) was taken mostly from the Arabian original entitled Compositio et astrolabii authored by Masha Allah, a Muslim Arab writer. Similarly, Chaucer was certainly familiar with the works of Averroez (Abu Ali Ibn Rushd), a Muslim philosopher from Spain, who is mentioned by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. In addition, Avicenna (Abu Ali Ibn Sina) another Muslim philosopher and a physician, is mentioned by Chaucer who cites his works several times in The Canterbury Tales. Notably, the works of both Averroez and Avicenna were also acknowledged and revered by Dante and Aquinas. In recent years, scholars like Sheila Delaney and Thomas Arnold have begun to acknowledge that Chaucer, like other medieval readers and writers, was cognizant of the various strands of moral, ethical, and spiritual thinking that existed during his time.

We shall see in the following chapters that, until recently, many of the multicultural sources that influenced Chaucer and other writers of his times have been largely ignored. For example, in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer repeatedly addresses problems of justice and in doing so poses moral and ethical solutions that derive in part from the multicultural, non-indigenous and non-Christian strands of thought, modes of thought that extend beyond a narrow confines traditionally attributed to Christian culture. Chaucer’s frequent allusions to spirituality have been assumed to stem exclusively from Christian sources. However, although Chaucer had necessarily to adhere to Christian norm, and his works therefore manifest Christian trappings, many multicultural sources like the writings of Averroez and Avicenna under-gird his texts. This thesis explores the works of such scholars and writers, who influenced the works of Chaucer, especially writers and thinkers from Arab and Islamic backgrounds. In this study, my research centers on both macrocosmic and microcosmic levels. The former addresses the intellectual milieu such as spirituality, multiculturalism, and the ways in which modes of religious thinking intermingled to provide a rich framework for discussion of spirituality. The microcosmic or individual level, on the other hand, focuses on issues of morality, particularly as it relates to ethics and justice in Chaucer’s England in the broader historical context. The study illustrates how an understanding of this multicultural thinking enhances our understanding of Chaucer’s work, especially in The Night’s tale and the Physician’s Tale.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I: The Intellectual Milieu

Chapter II: The Historical Context

Chapter III: The Knight’s Tale

Chapter IV: The Physician’s Tale

Chapter V: Conclusion

Works Cited

CHAPTER I: THE INTELLICTUAL MILEU

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer repeatedly addresses problems associated with justice and spirituality in fourteenth-century England and Europe. In doing so, he poses moral and ethical solutions that derive in part from the multicultural, non-indigenous and non-Christian strands of thought, even those not strictly prescribed by the Christian culture. This thinking was shaped by multicultural writings that had been transmitted into Western Europe during the eighth century and by the multicultural milieu and ethos that existed in England at that historical juncture. Chaucer drew upon ideas drawn from various parts of Europe, Asia, and even the Far East, ideas that had been transmitted to England as a result of its involvement in foreign wars, commerce, and exchange of scholarly works.

These multicultural ideas floating around medieval Europe affected Chaucer’s work both by way of indirect and direct influence. For instance, Saint Augustine (himself shaped by his argument of the Manicheans and possibly by the more spartan aspects of North African traditional religions), Averroes, Avicenna, and the Greeks all influenced the rationalist Christian philosophy and theology (as exemplified by Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great) would have been known to Chaucer. Thus, while Chaucer himself might not have been directly exposed to all these multicultural influences he would have been affected profoundly by multicultural character of Western thought of his time. The Canterbury Tales reflects the ethos of Chaucer’s time at both: the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels. The former deals with individual spirituality, eternal life, and superiority of the internal over the external. Here the focus is philosophy, which was the foundation of Chaucer’s work and he was aware of the conflicting views of reality current in his time. The macrocosmic level, on the other hand, addresses the issues of ethics and justice in connection with Chaucer’s society.

Spirituality stems out of adversity and suffering. And in Chaucer’s time, increasing numbers of Englishmen and English women were turning to spirituality because of wars, plagues, and political turmoil. Spirituality, which can be defined as the quality or state of being spiritual, centers on the relationship between self and the divinity, something that is enjoyed by human beings with a certain spiritual talent for interiority. 2 This subjective experience involves an internal journey rather than a mere perception of an objective fact outside the self. As Geoffrey Shepherd points out, the late fourteenth century is remembered for its steady stream of writing concerned with the interiorizing devotion and the cultivation of an effective and intuitive dependency upon God. For example, writers like Walter Hilton and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing display remarkable poise in their recommendation of the spiritual life and a steady acceptance of English religious tradition (266). Given this milieu, it is no surprise that The Canterbury Tales stem out of a spiritual experience: a pilgrimage to Canterbury.

During Chaucer’s time, Catholicism permeated every level of society. In medieval England, being a part of the society meant being a part of the Church. Although there were other churches like the Greek Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, all Christians in Western Europe were subject to spiritual authority of the Pope. Despite disgraceful state of fourteenth-century papal politics, which resulted in a prolonged period of two popes – one in Rome and another in Avignon – the idea of unity remained very important to medieval thought. As Jeffrey Singman and Will McLean observe, only the Pope could maintain unity in church, and in a world that made very little distinction between church and state, religious disunity was considered equivalent to social anarchy (26-27). Significantly, it was within this context that Chaucer wrote.

In The Canterbury Tale, Chaucer synthesizes this religious spirituality with the secular when he philosophically typifies the resurgence of the vegetative soul in the plants, the animal soul in the birds, and the human soul in mankind seeking a spiritual pathway and undertaking a pilgrimage along it. According to Maurice Hussey, for the lower order of the creation it is a mating drive, but for mankind it is an elevation to the plane of eternity (21). Not surprisingly, then, Chaucer begins the General Prologue with the spiritual message the months of March and April bring to this universe:

Whan Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,

And smale fowels maken melodye,

that slepen al the nyght with open ye

(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages. (1-12) 3

Ralph Baldwin observes the particular significance of March and April since these two months were particularly synchronized with the redeeming rhythm of nature and the Easter season was especially imbued with the redemptive mysteries, facts known to students of medieval life and literature. Indeed, the solar year is still the vehicle by which the church expresses Christian redemption. For example, any liturgical calendar will demonstrate that the dates of the great Christian feast are astronomical in origin, though there were also historical reasons for this choice. Underlying the calendrical concept is the belief that the home that lies beyond the valley of Shadows, according to Baldwin, " has only one access for the Christian: contrition, confession and satisfaction. It