Canterbury Tales Walter Quotes

A markys whilom lord was of that lond,
As were his worthy eldres hym bifore;
And obeisant, ay redy to his hond,
Were alle his liges, bothe lasse and moore.
Thus in delit he lyveth, and hath doon yoore,
Biloved and drad, thurgh favour of Fortune,
Bothe of his lordes and of his commune.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. We are introduced to Walter, Marquis of Saluzzo in Italy, who is both loved and feared by his lords and the common people over whom he rules. His loyal subjects of all ranks are ready to do what he commands.

I blame hym thus: that he considered noght
In tyme comynge what myghte hym bityde,
But on his lust present was al his thoght,
As for to hauke and hunte on every syde.
Wel ny alle othere cures leet he slyde,
And eek he nolde – and that was worst of alle –
Wedde no wyf, for noght that may bifalle.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Walter is a confirmed bachelor and is wedded to his single ways. All his thoughts are on his immediate pleasures, such as hawking and hunting. Consequently he neglected his duty to the people he ruled, such as ensuring an heir by marrying. He determined that he would not wed any woman for anything.

Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde.
And thogh youre grene youthe floure as yit,
In crepeth age alwey, as stille as stoon,
And deeth manaceth every age, and smyt
In ech estaat, for ther escapeth noon;
And al so certein as we knowe echoon
That we shul deye, as uncerteyn we alle
Been of that day whan deeth shal on us falle.
Modern English (Prose translation by R.M. Lumiansky):
The time always flees; it will wait for no man. And through you are still in the flower of your young manhood, age creeps on steadily, as quiet as a stone, and death menaces every age and strikes in every rank, for no one escapes. As surely as we know that we will die, so we are uncertain of the day when death shall fall on us.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Here a representative of Walter’s nobles speaks to him and pleads with him to choose a wife. He is warned that while his green youth if flowering at the moment, age creeps in and death hits people of all ranks and there is no escape.

For if it so bifelle, as God forbede,
That thurgh youre deeth youre lyne sholde slake,
And that a straunge successour sholde take
Youre heritage, O wo were us alyve!
Wherfore we pray you hastily to wyve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Urging Walter to marry quickly, his nobles warn of the woe that will befall them if through his death his line should die out and a foreign successor take over. Having served Walter’s family loyally down the years, they believe such an event would be a disaster.

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.

Lat me allone in chesynge of my wyf –
That charge upon my bak I wole endure.
But I yow preye, and charge upon youre lyf,
What wyf that I take, ye me assure
To worshipe hire, whil that hir lyf may dure,
In word and werk, bothe heere and everywheere,
As she an emperoures doghter weere.
And forthermoore, this shal ye swere: that ye
Agayn my choys shul neither grucche ne stryve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. While Walter agrees to his noblemen’s request that he get married, he declines their offer to select him a wife and insists that they accept his choice of wife. He demands that they take an oath to worship her in word and deed as if she were an emperor’s daughter, and never to grouch or strive against his choice. In this we see the power that had been with the nobles, transfer back to Walter.

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?

This markys hath doon make
Of gemmes, set in gold and in asure,
Brooches and rynges, for Grisildis sake;
And of hir clothyng took he the mesure
By a mayde lyk to hire stature,
And eek of othere aornementes alle
That unto swich a weddyng sholde falle.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. So what does it take to make a poor girl look like the wife of a marquis? Walter prepares rich garments and gems for Griselda to wear for the wedding. She will swop her poor clothing for jewels set in gold and azure, brooches and rings, and garments that Walter has specially made up for her. Of course Griselda doesn’t even know she is getting married, Walter uses the measurements of a young girl of Griselda’s statute to have her clothes made.

Thou lovest me, I woot it wel certeyn,
And art my feithful lige man ybore,
And al that liketh me, I dar wel seyn
It liketh thee, and specially therfore
Tel me that poynt that I have seyd bifore,
If that thou wolt unto that purpos drawe,
To take me as for thy sone-in-lawe.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Walter likes to flex his marquis muscles when it comes to demanding complete loyalty and obedience from his subjects. He gives Griselda’s father an offer he can’t refuse. I know for certain that you love me and are my faithful liege, he tells him, and all that pleases me it pleases you. So will you take me for your son-in-law, Walter asks? Now how can poor Janicula refuse? This is forecasting of how Walter will later treat Griselda, expecting her to submit totally to his will in a series of brutal trials of her loyalty.

"Grisilde," he seyde, "ye shal wel understonde
It liketh to youre fader and to me
That I yow wedde, and eek it may so stonde,
As I suppose, ye wol that it so be.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Walter doesn’t choose the most romantic way to propose to a girl. He tells Griselda that it pleases him and her father that they marry, and he supposes that she desires it too. What’s love got to do with it, as the song says! Not much for Walter, who likes a woman to do what he bids her to do without complaining – including marry him!

I seye this: be ye redy with good herte
To al my lust, and that I frely may,
As me best thynketh, do yow laughe or smerte,
And nevere ye to grucche it, nyght ne day?
And eek whan I sey ye, ne sey nat nay,
Neither by word ne frownyng contenance?
Swere this, and heere I swere oure alliance.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. The unromantic and controlling Walter spells out to Griselda the terms of his marriage to her. He demands that she swear to do whatever he asks of her without complaint, to nor even frown, and never to say "no" when he says "yes." A bit of a one-sided marriage contract for him demanding complete obedience and loyalty, but what does the woman get?

Wondrynge upon this word, quakynge for drede,
She seyde, "Lord, undigne and unworthy
Am I to thilke honour that ye me beede,
But as ye wole youreself, right so wol I.
And heere I swere that nevere willyngly,
In werk ne thoght, I nyl yow disobeye,
For to be deed, though me were looth to deye."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Is this the rock Griselda will perish on? Trembling with fear and devaluing herself by saying she is unworthy and unsuitable for the honor, Griselda promises to marry Walter. And she goes on to swear an oath of unquestionedd obedience to him, saying she will never disobey him in deed or thought. Well that’s loyalty in the extreme.

And for that no thyng of hir olde geere
She sholde brynge into his hous, he bad
That wommen sholde dispoillen hire right theere;
Of which thise ladyes were nat right glad
To handle hir clothes, wherinne she was clad.
But nathelees, this mayde bright of hewe
Fro foot to heed they clothed han al newe.
Hir heris han they kembd, that lay untressed
Ful rudely, and with hir fyngres smale
A corone on hire heed they han ydressed,
And sette hire ful of nowches grete and smale.
Of hire array what sholde I make a tale?
Unnethe the peple hir knew for hire fairnesse
Whan she translated was in swich richesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Do clothes make a queen in the Clerk’s Tale? When Griselda is wedded to the Marquis, she loses her glad rags and is clothed in finery. Walter orders that his servents strip her and dress her in the attire he chose for her new position. They comb her unkempt hair, place a crown on her head and set her garments full of jeweled ornaments. The people hardly know her for her beauty when she is translated into such riches, appearing as if she had been born into nobility.

God hath swich favour sent hire of his grace
That it ne semed nat by liklynesse
That she was born and fed in rudenesse,
As in a cote or in an oxe-stalle,
But norissed in an emperoures halle.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. With Griselda losing her pauper’s clothes for Walter’s bejeweled and splendid wedding outfit, the Clerk comments that God had sent her such grace she seemed not likely to have been born and fed in a peasant’s hut, but nourished in an emperor’s hall.

Nat longe tyme after that this Grisild
Was wedded, she a doghter hath ybore,
Al had hire levere have born a knave child;
Glad was this markys and the folk therfore,
For though a mayde child coome al bifore,
She may unto a knave child atteyne
By liklihede, syn she nys nat bareyne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. Not long after the marriage, Griselda gives birth to a daughter, although she would rather have had a son. The Marquis and the people are glad, she will in all liklihood be able to produce a male heir since she is not barren.
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