The Epilogue of The Man of Law's Tale

The reaction of Chaucer's Host to the Man of Law's tale has become one of the most controversial acts of literary criticism on record; not only its accuracy but its very existence has been challenged, defended, compromised over, and ignored. As part of the Man of Law's Epilogue, the Host's comment stands at the epicenter of what has been called "the greatest textual dilemma" in a work whose textual difficulty has produced a veritable industry of editing and commentary on editing. The dilemma itself can be defined by a series of paradoxes produced by the same scholarly techniques it ultimately defies: the Epilogue is attested by a large number of manuscripts (thirty-five), but not by the two most authoritative, Ellesmere and Hengwrt; it contains the kind of interruption familiar to readers from the boisterous tale-telling of Fragment I, but the interrupter is variously identified as the Summoner (six manuscripts), the Squire (twenty-eight manuscripts), and the Shipman (one manuscript); this figure describes himself in terms unmistakably echoed in a later tale ("my joly body"), but the phrase seems to suggest a fourth possible speaker--a woman. Furthermore, the tale in which the locution is repeated belongs to the Shipman, the least attested of the three speakers.

Maura Nolan, “’Acquiteth yow now’: Textual Contradiction and Legal Discourse in the Man of Law’s Introduction,” in The Letter of the Law: Legal Practice and Literary Production in Medieval England, ed. Steiner & Barrington (2002), 139

Owre Hoost upon his stiropes stood anon,
And seyde, "Goode men, herkeneth everych on!
This was a thrifty tale for the nones!
Sir Parisshe Prest," quod he, "for Goddes bones,
Telle us a tale, as was thi forward yore.
I se wel that ye lerned men in lore
Can moche good, by Goddes dignitee!"
The Parson him answerde, "Benedicite!
What eyleth the man, so synfully to swere?"
Oure Host answerde, "O Jankin, be ye there?
I smelle a Lollere in the wynd," quod he.
"Now! goode men," quod oure Hoste, "herkeneth me;
Abydeth, for Goddes digne passioun,
For we schal han a predicacioun;
This Lollere heer wil prechen us somwhat."
"Nay, by my fader soule, that schal he nat!"
Seyde the [Shipman], "Heer schal he nat preche;
He schal no gospel glosen here ne teche.
We leven alle in the grete God," quod he;
"He wolde sowen som difficulte,
Or springen cokkel in our clene corn.
And therfore, Hoost, I warne thee biforn,
My joly body schal a tale telle,
And I schal clynken you so mery a belle,
That I schal waken al this compaignie.
But it schal not ben of philosophie,
Ne phislyas, ne termes queinte of lawe.
Ther is but litel Latyn in my mawe!"