Canterbury Tales Foreignness Quotes

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.

But who was woful, if I shal nat lye,
Of this weddyng but Donegild, and namo,
The kynges mooder, ful of tirannye?
Hir thoughte hir cursed herte brast atwo.
She wolde noght hir sone had do so;
Hir thoughte a despit that he sholde take
So strange a creature unto his make.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. King Alla and Constance decide to wed, but not everyone is happy with the happy couple, the King’s mother Donegild is strongly opposed to the match. She believes that it is an insult for her son to take so foreign a creature for his wife and queen.

The lettre spak the queene delivered was
Of so horrible a feendly creature
That in the castel noon so hardy was
That any while dorste ther endure.
The mooder was an elf, by aventure
Ycomen, by charmes or by sorcerie,
And every wight hateth hir compaignye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. The Constable’s letter to the King forged by Donegild says that Constance has delivered so horrible and fiendish a baby that no one in the castle dares go near it. The mother is an evil spirit full of charms and sorcery and every person hates her, the letter states, as the vicious Donegild attempts to turn her son against Constance.

Under an hethen castel, atte laste,
Of which the name in my text noght I fynde,
Custance, and eek hir child, the see up caste.
Almyghty God, that saveth al mankynde,
Have on Custance and on hir child som mynde,
That fallen is in hethen hand eft soone,
In point to spille, as I shal telle yow soone.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Man of Law’s Tale. Constance’s ship washed up alongside a heathen castle. The Man of Laws asks the God that saves all mankind to have a thought for Constance and her child in this heathen land, where they are about to come into mortal danger.

He with a manly voys seide his message,
After the forme used in his langage,
Withouten vice of silable or of lettre;
And for his tale sholde seme the bettre.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Squire’s Tale. The Squire describes a foreign knight who arrives to interrupt the Tartar king Cambuskan’s party, to deliver gifts from the king of Araby, including a magic ring for the king’s caughter Canace. The knight speaks formally and delives his message with great authority and with an excellent command of language – unlike the Squire, who says he is a poor speaker.
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