Shakespeare Fans discussion

(I'm posting this in Sfans just in the hope it might be of interest to one or two people here.)

I have been reading Chaucer, and am constantly aware of his links to Shakespeare. Of course, Troilus and Cressida goes back to Chaucer, and The Two Noble Kinsmen (wich I confess I've never read) goes back to The Knight's Tale, but these aside the links are everwhere. As a general rule, both poets create living, contemporary scenes out of other people's stories, sometimes of writers near to their own times, sometimes by stories of great antiquity. But in detail all sorts of connections can be seen.

Here are a few examples out of Chaucer's Franklin's Tale. First a comparison with Cymbeline:

Both are set in the time of the early Roman Empire, both with the sense of tension between the Roman overlords and the Celtic peoples of Brittany (in France) and Ancient Britain. Both create a mixture of the contemporary world with the ancient world when Rome ruled the Celts.

In The Franklin's Tale the virtuous Celtic wife, Dorigen, is married to another Celt, Arviragus, and her honour is assailed in his absence by a Roman, Aurelius. (In Cymbeline, "Arviragus" is the name of one of the lost Celtic princes.) In Cymbeline, the Celtic wife is Imogen, married to a Roman, Posthumus Leonatus, and her honour is assailed by the Celtic Cloten, who finally plans her rape. Both husbands become absent, Posthumus in Rome, Arviragus in Britain:

Who koude telle, but he hadde wedded be,
The joye, the ese, and the prosperitee
That is bitwixe an housbonde and his wyf?
A yeer and moore lasted this blisful lyf,
Til that the knyght of which I speke of thus,
That of Kayrrud was cleped Arveragus,
Shoop hym to goon, and dwelle a yeer or tweyne,
In Engelond, that cleped was eek Briteyne.

The strange place name, Kayrrud, begins "Kayr" or "Caer", like so many Welsh place names,

Caerleon (Caerllion, "Fort Legion")
Caernarfon ("Fort Arfon")
Caerphilly (Caerffili, "Fort Ffili")
Caerwent ("Fort Venta")
Cardiff (Caerdydd, "Fort Taf")

The accenting Chaucer put on the name "Arveragus" can be seen by its rhyme, "I speak of thus".

So the plots are slightly reversed, Celtic husband, Roman seducer; Roman husband, Celtic seducer. And going from England to the continent versus going from the continent to England.

After this initial set-up, the plots work themselves out very differently. But even more noteworthy is the connection of Chaucer's Tale to The Tempest. Here is a tiny example,

Chaucer: . . . so greet a flood to brynge
That fyve fadme at the leeste it oversprynge
The hyeste rokke in Armorik Briteyne

and Shakespeare's: Full fathom five thy father lies

It should be explained that Aurelius' chance of seducing Dorigen depends, strange though it may sound, upon him being able to to raise a flood so great that it buries the deadly rocks surrounding Armoric Brittany under five fathoms of water. The same depth to which Ferdinand's father was buried. Five fathoms is 30 feet. Was this a traditional measure of a depth that would never meet the hull of a ship? The idea of shipwreck, so essential to The Tempest, and occuring in at least three other Shakespeare plays, is also central to The Franklin's Tale. To achieve his goal, Aurelius consults a mage.

The mage is almost a copy of Prospero. He has studied magic through reading, learnt to employ spirits, gained control of the elements, and can use his powers to create illusions for onlookers. Prospero creates a masque for his island guests, Ceres, Iris and Juno in a rich pastoral setting. Here is the illusion which the mage creates for Aurelius and his brother,

He[the mage] shewed hym[Aurelius], er he wente to sopeer,
Forestes, parkes ful of wilde deer;
Ther saugh he hertes with hir hornes hye,
The gretteste that evere were seyn with ye.
He saugh of hem an hondred slayn with houndes,
And somme with arwes blede of bittre woundes.
He saugh, whan voyded were thise wilde deer,
Thise fauconers upon a fair ryver,
That with hir haukes han the heron slayn.
Tho saugh he knyghtes justyng in a playn;
And after this he dide hym swich plesaunce
That he[the mage] hym[Aurelius] shewed his lady on a daunce,
On which hymself he daunced, as hym thoughte.
And whan this maister that his magyk wroughte
Saugh it was tyme, he clapte his handes two,
And farewel! al oure revel was ago.
And yet remoeved they nevere out of the hous,
Whil they saugh al this sighte marveillous,
But in his studie, ther as his bookes be,
They seten stille, and no wight but they thre.

Scenes of hunting with dogs and hawks, then jousting, anf finally dancing where Aurelius seemed to dance with Dorigen. To end it, the mage claps his hands and says, "all our revel was ago", the same as Prospero's "our revels now are ended".

The "learned notes" in my edition explain that illusions of this kind, whatever we might think of them, were widely reported in the chronicles of the time as actual events, for example,

"in the royal palace in Paris in 1378 and again in 1389 similar effects were seen by hundreds of people in interludes performed during sumptuous feasts."

The mage finally sinks the rocks using a long and fantastic mix of magic and astrology, that seems to outdo anything that even Shakespeare might have come up with. Here is a magical Chaucer being wonderfully obscure:

Hise tables Tolletanes forth he brought,
Ful wel corrected, ne ther lakked nought,
Neither his collect ne hise expans yeeris,
Ne his rootes, ne hise othere geeris,
As been his centris and hise argumentz,
And hise proporcioneles convenientz
For hise equacions in every thyng.
And by his eighte speere in his wirkyng
He knew ful wel how fer Alnath was shove
Fro the heed of thilke fixe Aries above
That in the ninthe speere considered is.
Ful subtilly he kalkuled al this.
Whan he hadde founde his firste mansioun,
He knew the remenaunt by proporcioun,
And knew the arisyng of his moone weel,
And in whos face and terme, and everydeel;
And knew ful weel the moones mansioun
Acordaunt to his operacioun,
And knew also hise othere observaunces
For swiche illusiouns and swiche meschaunces
As hethen folk useden in thilke dayes.
For which no lenger maked he delayes,
But thurgh his magik, for a wyke or tweye,
It semed that alle the rokkes were aweye.

Chaucer was the first great English poet. Frankly, it doesn't surprise me that Shakespeare derived some source material from this literary genius.

Much to think about! What a great post Martin!

I’m slowly catching up here.

Of course I see this is from 2 years ago!!! Oh dear! Ha