Canterbury Tales Madness Quotes

And I seyde his opinion was good;
What sholde he studie and make hymselven wood,
Upon a book in cloystre alwey to poure,
Or swynken with his handes, and laboure
As Austyn bit? How shal the world be served?
Lat Austyn have his swynk to him reserved!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Narrator (Chaucer) is being ironic and sarcastic when he says he agrees with the Monk that hunting and sport are preferable to performing his religious duties. Why should the Monk study and make himself crazy, pore over books in the cloister, or labor and work with his hands, writer and man of books Chaucer asks in a passage dripping with irony.

He ne hadde for his labour but a scorn.
And thus she maketh Absolon hire ape,
And al his ernest turneth til a jape.
Ful sooth is this proverb, it is no lye,
Men seyn right thus, "Alwey the nye slye
Maketh the ferre leeve to be looth."
For though that Absolon be wood or wrooth,
By cause that he fer was from hire sight,
This nye Nicholas stood in his light.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The Miller speaks about Alison’s two admirers. Absolon is the distant lover who tries to woo her by singing to her outside her window, but she and Nicholas make him into a fool and a joke by laughing at him. Nicholas is the lover closer to Alison, so if Absolon was crazy with love Alison would not notice him, because he was so far from her sight Nicholas "stood in his light" and cast him in the shadow, metaphorically speaking. The proverb suggests the nearby lover has the advantage over the distant one.

"What! Nicholay! What, how! What, looke adoun!
Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun!
I crouche thee from elves and fro wightes."
Therwith the nyght-spel seyde he anon-rightes
On foure halves of the hous aboute,
And on the thresshfold of the dore withoute:
"Jhesu Crist and Seinte Benedight,
Blesse this hous from every wikked wight,
For nyghtes verye, the white pater-noster!
Where wentestow, Seinte Petres soster?"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. John acts to sort out what he believes is Nicholas’s madness by performing a blessing and saying an incantation to drive out any elves and evil spirits that may have possessed him. He says the night charm at the four corners of the house and threshold, invoking the power of Jesus and the saints.

Of gooth the skyn an hande-brede aboute,
The hoote kultour brende so his toute,
And for the smert he wende for to dye.
As he were wood, for wo he gan to crye,
"Help! Water! Water! Help, for Goddes herte!"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. It’s payback time for Absolon. When Nicholas sticks his rear end out the window and farts at him, Absolon brands Nicholas’s buttocks with a red-hot iron poker that he has brought with him. Nicholas leaps up and cries out for water like he was crazy.

For whan he spak, he was anon bore doun
With hende Nicholas and Alisoun.
They tolden every man that he was wood;
He was agast so of Nowelis flood
Thurgh fantasie that of his vanytee
He hadde yboght hym knedyng tubbes thre,
And hadde hem hanged in the roof above;
And that he preyed hem, for Goddes love,
To sitten in the roof, par compaignye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. There is much deceit in the tale, but the declaration by Nicholas and Alison that John is crazy when he tells everyone about the predicted flood and the tubs has to be one of the most cruel. Thinking the flood was coming, John had cut the rope that held his boat-tub to the ceiling and it crashed to the floor startling the neighbors. They all laugh at his lunacy when they hear of his elaborate preparations for the second deluge!

Withinne a while this John the clerk up leep,
And on this goode wyf he leith on soore.
So myrie a fit ne hadde she nat ful yoore;
He priketh harde and depe as he were mad.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. John has vigorous revenge sex with the miller’s wife to dish out his form of justice for the miller’s theft of the corn. While it says she has a merry experience, she is tricked into another man’s bed thinking she was laying down beside her husband. The image of John stabbing her hard and deep as if he was mad adds to the repulsive nature of the act, which is without doubt rape.

A wys wyf, if that she kan hir good,
Shal beren hym on honde the cow is wood,
And take witnesse of hir owene mayde,
Of hir assent.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. A smart wife will be able to deceive her husband and convince him of anything and call her maid as a witness, advices the Wife of Bath. Just fool him by swearing "the cow is wood" (the chough is crazy), she says, referring to the story of the talking bird that tells the husband about his wife’s unfaithfulness.

"Yowre princes erren, as youre nobleye dooth,"
Quod tho Cecile, "and with a wood sentence
Ye make us gilty, and it is nat sooth.
For ye, that knowen wel oure innocence,
For as muche as we doon a reverence
To Crist, and for we bere a Cristen name,
Ye putte on us a cryme and eek a blame.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Second Nun’s Tale. Not mincing her words, Cecilia launches into a trenchant attack on the justice of Almachius and his princes in making it a crime for people to be Christians. She brands it crazy and tells him that he is in error to make Christians guilty, when he knows they are innocent.

Lat every man be war by me for evere!
What maner man that casteth hym therto,
If he continue, I holde his thrift ydo.
For so helpe me God, therby shal he nat wynne,
But empte his purs, and make his wittes thynne.
And whan he thurgh his madnesse and folye
Hath lost his owene good thurgh jupartye,
Thanne he exciteth oother folk therto,
To lesen hir good as he hymself hath do.
For unto shrewes joye it is and ese
To have hir felawes in peyne and disese.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale. The Yeoman warns the pilgrims against the false magic of alchemy. From his own experience he says that it will empty a person’s purse and make their wits thin. And when through madness and folly they have lost their possessions, they will incite other folk to lose theirs. To scoundrels it is joy and ease to have their fellows in pain and hardship.
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