Clerk’s Tale Virtue Quotes

For God it woot, that children ofte been
Unlyk hir worthy eldres hem bifore;
Bountee comth al of God, nat of the streen
Of which they been engendred and ybore.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. We could be listening here to the Loathly Lady in the Wife of Bath’s tale! Walter has the very same thought as her, that all goodness comes from God and not from a person’s lineage by which they are conceived and born. For often children turn out to unlike their worthy parents and ancestors, he says, declining his nobles’ offer to select a high-born wife for him. This comment is ironic, in view of Walter’s cruel treatment of Griselda later in the story.

A doghter hadde he, fair ynogh to sighte,
And Grisildis this yonge mayden highte.
But for to speke of vertuous beautee,
Thanne was she oon the faireste under sonne;
For povreliche yfostred up was she,
No likerous lust was thurgh hire herte yronne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. When it comes to outer and inner beauty and virtue, Janicula’s daughter Griselda is said to be the fairest of all under the sun. Because she was raised in poverty, the Clerk tells the pilgrims, no wanton lust had run through her heart. Does that mean the rich classes are more prone to lust and lechery?

Wel ofter of the welle than of the tonne
She drank, and for she wolde vertu plese,
She knew wel labour but noon ydel ese.
She knew well labor but no idle ease.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. They say opposites attract and Griselda is certainly the polar opposite of Walter in many ways. She the virtuous woman who knows well the value of work, but not idle leisure, and more often drinks from the well than the wine barrel. He the man who lives a life of pleasure, filling his days with hawking and hunting.

He noght with wantown lookyng of folye
His eyen caste on hire, but in sad wyse
Upon hir chiere he wolde hym ofte avyse,
Commendynge in his herte hir wommanhede,
And eek hir vertu, passynge any wight
Of so yong age, as wel in chiere as dede.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Griselda catches Walter’s eye when he sees her while out hunting. But he doesn’t look at her in any lecherous way, but rather her virtue and womanly qualities in a person of such a young age attract him.

For thogh the peple have no greet insight
In vertu, he considered ful right
Hir bountee, and disposed that he wolde
Wedde hire oonly, if evere he wedde sholde.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. In his tale the Clerk tells the pilgrims that the common people have no great insight into virtue. But Walter the Marquis of Saluzzo obviously has, for when he sees Griselda’s goodness he decides that he will wed only her – if ever he should wed. So is awareness of virtue lost on the commoners, and confined to the nobles?

For though that evere vertuous was she,
She was encressed in swich excellence
Of thewes goode, yset in heigh bountee,
And so discreet and fair of eloquence,
So benigne and so digne of reverence,
And koude so the peples herte embrace,
That ech hire lovede that looked on hir face.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. When you dress virtue in the finest clothing and expensive jewelry, it becomes even more attractive. Now that Griselda has become Walter’s wife, her stock with the people has shot through the roof. While she was always virtuous, she has grown so much in noble goodness and manners and gentleness that each person who looks upon her face loves her.

She seyde, "Lord, al lyth in youre plesaunce.
My child and I, with hertely obeisaunce,
Been youres al, and ye mowe save or spille
Youre owene thyng; werketh after youre wille."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. In one of the tale’s most disturbing passages, Griselda makes no protest when her daughter it to be taken from her by Walter, presumably to be slain. She shockingly tells her husband that she and her children are his property and he may save or kill his own thing. The case of a mother unquestioningly accepting a husband’s evil will towards her children is one of the things that makes the Clerk’s Tale disturbing and uncomfortable reading. Where is her motherly instinct to protect her child? Where is the courage to stand up for what is right? Griselda may be virtuous in many ways, but she lacks the virtue of courage to stand up to Walter’s brutal behavior.

I wol no thyng, ne nyl no thyng, certayn,
But as yow list. Naught greveth me at al,
Though that my doughter and my sone be slayn –
At youre comandement, this is to sayn.
I have noght had no part of children tweyne
But first siknesse, and after, wo and peyne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Griselda continues to show extreme obedience and submissiveness when husband Walter tests her loyalty again by proposing that their second child, a son, be put to death. The sound of silence from a mother who fails to protest the murder of her children by an authoritarian father is inexplicable. It demonstrates a flaw in Griselda’s otherwise virtuous nature and goodness, we believe. For isn’t the courage to fight for the life of your child a virtue, which she seems to lack? Submitting to Walter’s cruel and frankly evil will yet again, she says she will have nothing but what he desires. Her husband’s total sovereignty over her life and that of her children is clear when she says she has had no part of her children except the pain of childbirth.

He preeveth folk al day, it is no drede,
And suffreth us, as for oure excercise,
With sharpe scourges of adversitee
Ful ofte to be bete in sondry wise;
Nat for to knowe oure wyl, for certes he,
Er we were born, knew al oure freletee;
And for oure beste is al his governaunce.
Lat us thanne lyve in vertuous suffraunce.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. The Clerk says that God tests people all the time and permits us for our own good to suffer the sharp scourges of adversity, often to be beaten in various ways. This is not to know our will, but all God’s governance is for our best, he adds. Let us then live in virtuous forbearance, the Clerk says. But the problem with equating God’s role with that of Walter is like saying that God is a cruel bully.
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