Canterbury Tales Constance Quotes

In hire is heigh beautee, withoute pride,
Yowthe, withoute grenehede or folye;
To alle hire werkes vertu is hir gyde;
Humblesse hath slayn in hire al tirannye.
She is mirour of alle curteisye;
Hir herte is verray chambre of hoolynesse,
Hir hand, ministre of fredam for almesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. Visiting Syrian merchants hear the Emperor of Rome’s daughter Constance is the ideal woman. She is the epitome of beauty, goodness and innocence. As well as having great beauty, she is humble, virtuous in all her deeds, the mirror of all courtesy, her heart is a true chamber of holiness, and her hand a minister of generosity in giving alms. So it is not surprising that the Muslim Sultan of Syria falls for her when he learns of her.

Thanne sawe they therinne swich difficultee
By wey of reson, for to speke al playn,
By cause that ther was swich diversitee
Bitwene hir bothe lawes, that they sayn
They trowe that no "Cristen prince wolde fayn
Wedden his child under oure lawe sweete
That us was taught by Mahoun, oure prophete.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Sultan of Syria desires to marry the woman he has fallen in love with but has never seen, Constance, daughter of the Emperor of Rome. But he gets bad news from his advisors, who say that a Christian emperor would never allow his daughter to marry a Muslim. They see the religious and cultural differences between Constance and the Sultan as an insurmountable barrier. Their advice turns out to be right and is foreshadowing of bad things to come from such a marriage.

I seye, by tretys and embassadrie,
And by the popes mediacioun,
And al the chirche, and al the chivalrie,
That in destruccioun of mawmettrie,
And in encrees of Cristes lawe deere,
They been acorded, so as ye shal heere.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Muslim Sultan of Syria, in order to marry the Christian Constance, agrees to be baptized and for his nobles and vassals to become Christians also. The Pope is referenced as a mediator, and the treaty provides for the destruction of idolatry and the promotion of Christ’s law in the Sultan’s land. Not good news for Islam in Syria and the inevitable backlash to the marriage and destruction of the Islam faith there comes as no surprise.

Allas, what wonder is it thogh she wepte,
That shal be sent to strange nacioun
Fro freendes that so tendrely hire kepte,
And to be bounden under subjeccioun
Of oon, she knoweth nat his condicioun?
Housbondes been alle goode, and han ben yoore;
That knowen wyves; I dar sey yow na moore.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law at first sympathizes with Constance’s weeping about leaving her family and friends and being sent to a foreign nation to be bound to a man she doesn’t know. But then he says she has little to complain about because husbands are all good, have been for years and wives know that. In Chaucer’s time women were considered subject to male authority and protection and were seen as the weaker sex.

Allas, unto the Barbre nacioun
I moste anoon, syn that it is youre wille;
But Crist, that starf for our redempcioun
So yeve me grace his heestes to fulfille!
I, wrecche womman, no fors though I spille!
Wommen are born to thraldom and penance,
And to been under mannes governance.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. In the last two lines, Constance laments the fact that women are born to slavery and penance and to be under men’s rule. This refers to penance for the role Eve played in the Fall. Constance prays to Christ, who died for our redemption, to give her the grace to fulfill her father’s command for her to go to a pagan land.

O firste moevyng! Crueel firmament,
With thy diurnal sweigh that crowdest ay
And hurlest al from est til occident
That naturelly wolde holde another way,
Thy crowdyng set the hevene in swich array
At the bigynnyng of this fiers viage,
That crueel Mars hath slayn this mariage.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. As Constance begins her dangerous voyage for Syria, the Man of Law says that a cruel "firste moevyng" – God – drives the planets in the opposite way to their natural daily motion, making disaster inevitable. God’s move has set the heavens in such an arrangement that a malevolent Mars has killed this marriage, he adds. There is a sense of foreboding and a foreshadowing of tragic events to come here.

Imprudent Emperour of Rome, allas!
Was ther no philosophre in al thy toun?
Is no tyme bet than oother in swich cas?
Of viage is ther noon eleccioun,
Namely to folk of heigh condicioun?
Noght whan a roote is of a burthe yknowe?
Allas, we been to lewed or to slowe!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Emperor of Rome is accused by the Man of Law of being imprudent in sending Constance on the voyage to Syria to get married when the planetary conditions were not right. Was there no astrologer in Rome that he could consult, so that a more favorable time could have been chosen, he demands?

O Sowdanesse, roote of iniquitee!
Virago, thou Semyrame the secounde!
O serpent under femynynytee,
Lik to the serpent depe in helle ybounde!
O feyned womman, al that may confounde
Vertu and innocence, thurgh thy malice,
Is bred in thee, as nest of every vice!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law depicts the Sultaness as an evil woman and a serpent from hell wearing the mask of femininity, who can destroy virtue and innocence through her malice. He portrays her at the arch-enemy of Constance, who is a symbol of virtue and innocence.

O Sathan, envious syn thilke day
That thou were chaced from oure heritage,
Wel knowestow to wommen the olde way!
Thou madest Eva brynge us in servage;
Thou wolt fordoon this Cristen mariage.
Thyn instrument so – weylawey the while! –
Makestow of wommen, whan thou wolt bigile.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law says that Satan knows well the ways of beguiling and deceiving women, ever since his successful temptation of Eve and the resulting fall of man. Satan, he says, will destroy the Christian marriage of the Sultan and Constance using another woman as his instrument – the Sultaness.

O sodeyn wo, that evere art successour
To worldly blisse, spreynd with bitternesse,
The ende of the joye of oure worldly labour!
Wo occupieth the fyn of oure gladnesse.
Herke this conseil for thy sikernesse:
Upon thy glade day have in thy mynde
The unwar wo or harm that comth bihynde.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law comments that woe always follows joy, as the marriage feast ends in the slaughter of the Sultan and all the Christians except Constance. He is expressing the idea that even as we enjoy our greatest bliss and good fortune, we are vulnerable and death will end the celebration of life.

She blesseth hire, and with ful pitous voys
Unto the croys of Crist thus seyde she:
O cleere, o welful auter, hooly croys,
Reed of the Lambes blood ful of pitee,
That wessh the world fro the olde iniquitee,
Me fro the feend and fro his clawes kepe,
That day that I shal drenchen in the depe.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. After the wedding feast massacre, during which all Christians except Constance are murdered, the Sultaness’s men put Constance on a rudderless ship with provisions and bid her to sail back to Italy. Constance is more fearful of the devil than she is of death at sea, and prays that she will escape Satan’s clutches the day she drowns.

Victorious tree, proteccioun of trewe,
That oonly worthy were for to bere
The Kyng of Hevene with his woundes newe,
The white Lamb, that hurt was with a spere,
Flemere of feendes out of hym and here
On which thy lymes feithfully extenden,
Me kepe, and yif me myght my lyf t’ amenden.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. Set adrift at sea after the wedding feast massacre, Constance blesses herself and prays to the Cross of Christ, the banisher of fiends out of man and woman, to keep guard over her.

Yeres and dayes fleet this creature
Thurghout the See of Grece unto the Strayte
Of Marrok, as it was hire aventure.
On many a sory meel now may she bayte;
After hir deeth ful often may she wayte,
Er that the wilde wawes wol hire dryve
Unto the place ther she shal arryve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. For years Constance’s ship drifts through the seas of Greece and to the strait of Gibraltar. Her situation is dire and she has to survive on many a poor meal and often expects that she will die, before the wild waves will drive her ship to the place she finally lands. She will survive her ordeal, eventually being shipwrecked on the shores of the pagan land of Northumberland.

Who saved Danyel in the horrible cave
Ther every wight save he, maister and knave,
Was with the leon frete er he asterte?
No wight but God that he bar in his herte.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law interrupts his storytelling to explain why Constance survived the massacre at the wedding feast. Just like when Daniel was the only one in the cave who escaped being devoured by the lion, the devoutly Christian Constance was saved by having God in her heart.

God liste to shewe his wonderful myracle
In hire, for we sholde seen his myghty werkis;
Crist, which that is to every harm triacle,
By certeine meenes ofte, as knowen clerkis,
Dooth thyng for certein ende that ful derk is
To mannes wit, that for oure ignorance
Ne konne noght knowe his prudent purveiance.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Man of Law says that Constance escaped being slain at the wedding feast because God wanted to show his wonderful miracle and mighty works in the person of this viruous Christian woman. Christ does things for a certain reason that is beyond the range of human understanding.

Now sith she was nat at the feeste yslawe,
Who kepte hire fro the drenchyng in the see?
Who kepte Jonas in the fisshes mawe
Til he was spouted up at Nynyvee?
Wel may men knowe it was no wight but he
That kepte peple Ebrayk from hir drenchynge,
With drye feet thurghout the see passynge.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. God used his power over the oceans and seas to keep Constance from drowning during her ordeal at sea, the Man of Law says. Just like he delivered Jonah after spending three days and nights in the belly of a whale, and kept the Hebrew people from drowning in their passage through the Red Sea.

"In name of Crist," cride this blinde Britoun,
"Dame Hermengyld, yif me my sighte agayn!"
This lady weex affrayed of the soun,
Lest that hir housbonde, shortly for to sayn,
Wolde hire for Jhesu Cristes love han slayn,
Til Custance made hire boold, and bad hire wirche
The wyl of Crist, as doghter of his chirche.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The blind Christian Briton appeals to Christian convert Hermengild to restore his sight. Hermengild is afraid that her husband will disapprove of her Christianity, but Constance encourages her to follow the will of Christ, as a daughter of his church and the man’s sight is miraculously restored.

For as the lomb toward his deeth is broght,
So stant this innocent bifore the kyng.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. Using the simile of a lamb being brought to slaughter, the Man of Laws tells his fellow pilgrims how the innocent Constance is falsely accused before the king of murdering the constable’s wife Hermengild. The knight whose lustful advances inspired by Satan that Constance spurned actually slit Hermengild’s throat. And in his desire for revenge he left the bloody knife by Constance’s bed to implicate her.

This false knyght, that hath this tresoun wroght,
Berth hire on hond that she hath doon thys thyng.
But nathelees, ther was greet moornyng
Among the peple, and seyn they kan nat gesse
That she had doon so greet a wikkednesse.
For they han seyn hire evere so vertuous,
And lovynge Hermengyld right as hir lyf.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The knight who slit Hermengild’s throat falsely testifies that Constance carried out the murder. But Constance’s reputation for goodness has grown so strong among the people, that they say they cannot believe she could have done so great a wickedness. For they have seen how viruous she is and how she loved Hermengild as much as her own life.

A Britoun book, written with Evaungiles,
Was fet, and on this book he swoor anoon
She gilty was, and in the meene whiles
An hand hym smoot upon the nekke-boon,
That doun he fil atones as a stoon.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. King Alla wants to test the veracity of the knight’s evidence. So he has him swear on a British book of the gospels. The moment the knight swear his evidence of Constance’s guilt a hand strikes him on the neck-bone and he falls down like a stone, his two eyes bursting out of his face. Instant divine judgment!

A voys was herd in general audience,
And seyde, "Thou hast desclaundred, giltelees,
The doghter of hooly chirche in heigh presence;
Thus hastou doon, and yet holde I my pees!
Of this mervaille agast was al the prees;
As mazed folk they stoden everichone,
For drede of wreche, save Custance allone.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. After the false knight is exposed and Constance exonerated, a voice is heard in the general audience saying that a guiltless daughter of the church has been slandered in the presence of the high God. The bewildered folk are terrified of the vengeance that might be visited upon them – all except for Constance alone.
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