Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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10 THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. and also that if any might arouse our angry passions — Trewely thern ' is noon of us all, That we nill kike for that he seth us soth Assay, and he shal fynde it that so doth. Frequently Chaucer tries to impress upon his readers that these are not his personal feelings on the subject, as when he sa5 ' S : Thise been the cokkes wordes and not myne. I kan noon harm of no womman divyne. And yet in spite of all this harmless sarcasm, Chaucer really has, we feel, a great respect for women and a bright ideal of what a woman ought to be. Chaucer, like Shakes- peare, has made his women his most interesting characters. Nor could we have better examples of Chaucer ' s descriptive powers than when portrajdng his women, though he is ever declaring that his English eke is insufficient. It is not, however, in many words and highly wrought figures that he gives us a picture of them, but in some telling epithet or short phrase — faire, yonge and fresche, high beaute withouten pride, as rody and bright as the yonge sonne, faire as is the rose in May are some of his favorite expressions. Emelye ' s beauty calls forth more than this, he speaks of her as one That fayrer was to seen. Than is the lilie upon his stalke grene. And fressher than the May with floures newe, For with the rose colour stroof hire hewe, I noot which was the fyner of hem two. ' ' The character of this beautiful girl, whose stor} the knight tells, is brought out in her prayer to Diana before the contest between Palamon and Arcite, in which she prays that love and peace be sent between them, that their love for her be quenched or turned to another place, for she de- sires to be a maiden all her life, and, like Diana herself, to live a life of liberty, hunting and wandering in the woodes wylde. But, adds she, If my destynee be shapen so, That I shall needes have oon of hem two, As sende me him that moost desirethme. To judge how Canace would have acted when put to the test, we should have to —

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THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANKUAL. 9 the Nonnes Priest makes his hit at them when he makes Chaunticleer say : For also, sikcr as ' In principio Mulier est honiinis confusio, ' Madame the sentence of this Latyn is Woumian is mannes joy and al his blis; the Man of Law makes his in apostrophizing Satan : • ' Thyn instrument so (weylawey the while !) Makestovv of wommen whan thou woltbegile; the Clerk laments that there are no patient Griseldas now, for, says he, If that they were put to such assayes. The gold of hem hath now so badde alayes With bras, that thogh the coyne be faire at eye It wold rather braste atwo than plye; the Squire tells of Canace ' s going early to rest, for she was fill mesurable as wommen be, and Hire liste not appalled for to be, Nor on the mor ve un fest liche for to see; and the Franklyn says, Women of kjnde desiren libertee, And not to be contreyned as a thral. The Merchant and Harry Bailey both stand as witnesses that we wedded men live in sorwe and care, and seem to take a ' sorrowful pleasure in comparing notes. But no one lays open to view the weaknesses of the sex more than does the Wife of Bath herself. There is scarcely one weak point left untouched in her story of the knight ' s search for what women loven moste. Some, he finds, love riches, some honour, some jolynessee, some riche array, some to be widows, some to be wed, some to be angry and do just as they please, some to be flattered and praised, but when be- fore the court he announced that, ' Wommen desiren to have sovereynetie. As wel over hir housband as hir love, In all the court ne was ther wif ne maj ' de, Ne wydow that contraried that he sayde. The good wife herself acknowledges that, A man shal wynne us best with flaterye. And v-itli attendance and with besynessee, Ben we y limed (caught) both moore and lesse ;

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THK AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. 11 Call up him who left half told, The story of Caiiibuscaii bold, Of Cainbull atul of Algarsife, And who had Canace to wife. That owned the virtuous ring and glass. Still we see in her a bright, happy girl, delighted with the present of the wonderful ring and glass, full of pity and sorrow for the heart-broken falcon, carrying her home and, day and night, watching and caring for her till healed. What patterns of submission, patien ce, and loyalty are Uorigene, Griselda and Constance ! In them are portrayed some of woman ' s noblest traits. When Dorigene, sorrow- fully but submissively at the bidding of her super-chivalrotis husband, goes forth to keep her troth, for truthe is the hyest thing that man may kepe, her lover Aurelius gives his opinion of her character — As of the treweste and the beste wyf. That evere jet I knew in al my lyf. Griselda ' s patience is proverbial; but though the story of her many trials is interestingly and sweetly told, there is not enough of the earth, earthy, to make weak mortals realh ' admire her character. Constance, driven from her home by one mother-in-law, ' a scorpion, a wicked goost, a serpent under femy- mynytee, is kept by her faith in the cross of Christ fro the feend and fro his clawes, and when on reaching a strange land she is again plotted against, accused of murder, and brought before the King, help comes to her from heaven, proclaiming her innocence. No sooner has she married Alia, the King, than the second mother-in-law, Donegal , intercepts her letters and causes her to be sent away from the home where she had found new love and happiness. But at last, after all her wanderings and misfortunes, by means of the litel son, Maurice, and his resemblance to his mother, Constance and Alia came together again. ' •In joy and bliss at mete I let hem dw elle, A thousand foold wel moore than I kan telle ' Sue Browne Stribling.