Moral and Social Identity and the Idea of Pilgrimage in the General Prologue

Abstract

John Dryden found in the diverse company of Canterbury pilgrims evidence that Geoffrey Chaucer himself "must have been a Man of a most wonderful comprehensive Nature," 4 but sets this judgment in the context of Chaucer's use of "the Poet's Lash" against "the Vices of the Clergy in his Age: Their Pride, their Ambition, their Pomp, their Avarice, their Worldly Interest." 5 The recognition of the moral structure on which Chaucer's human comedy rests (and indeed relies) has often been overlooked in the enthusiastic acceptance of the generous and humane view of life that it also makes possible. Chaucer cannot be removed from the social, moral, and spiritual values of his age without violence to the fabric and harmony of his poetry. We ought not to be disappointed (from [End Page 285] the historical point of view) not to find in his poetry any overt criticism of the knightly class in the "verray, parfit gentil knyght" (I 72) or any sympathy or even much concern for "Jakke Straw and his meynee" (VII 3394). If we look at the circumstances of Chaucer's life and poetic career, we shall see that liberal and democratic points of view, congenial as they may be to us, are not possible for him.

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