Jealousy: Chaucer's Miller and the Tradition

Abstract

Jealousy:Chaucer's Miller and the Tradition Charles R. Smith The Miller makes fun of a jealous husband in his tale, but he himself, he drunkenly implies, is not the jealous type: "An housbonde shal nat been inquisityfOf Goddes pryvetee, nor of his wyf.So he may fynde Goddes foyson there,Of the remenant nedeth nat enquere." (I 3163–66)1 The medieval concept of jealousy, however, is richer than the drunken Miller knows. Envious and selfish jealousy, of course, is the variety the Miller understands and justly ridicules, but the tradition of charitable jealousy, of zealous regard for the moral and spiritual good of one's wife, the Miller understands not at all. In one of his marriage sermons, albeit nearly 250 years after Chaucer, John Donne still understood and nicely encapsulates this fuller and richer understanding of jealousy: Where there is . . . a spirit of uncleannesse, there will necessarily be . . . a spirit of jealousie. . . . [but when] jealousie is a care and not a suspition, God is not ashamed to protest of himself that he is a jealous God . . . . And God presents it as a curse, when he says, My jealousie shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and no more angry; that is, I will leave thee to thy self, and take no more care of thee. Jealousie that implies care, and honour, and counsell, and tendernesse, is rooted in God, for God is a jealous God, and his servants are jealous servants, as S. Paul professes of himself, I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie. But jealousie that implies diffidence and suspition, and accusation, is rooted in the Devil.2 Chaucer's Miller understands the folly of what Donne calls suspicious jealousy, but concerned only for that plenty he finds in his wife's privates, he has no conception of godly jealousy, of, as Donne puts it, the [End Page 16] "care, and honour, and counsell, and tendernesse . . . rooted in God" that is also his responsibility as a medieval husband. No "jealous servant," certainly, the Miller thinks his joke is on the uptight Reeve and on Carpenter John, the jealous old husband of his tale,3 but his heedless disregard for his wife's private affairs opens another possibility: the joke is also on him.4 Godly Jealousy: Biblical and Linguistic Origins As Donne's sermon suggests, the tradition of godly jealousy is an old one, beginning in the Old Testament, continuing in the New, and extending—in both ecclesiastical and popular texts—well into the Early Modern period. The Old Testament, to be sure, frequently reminds its hearers that Yahweh is a jealous God. In Exodus, for example, Yahweh reminds Moses: "Adore not any strange god. The Lord his name is Jealous, he is a Jealous God."5 In the New Testament, God's jealousy is a familiar concept as well. Saint Paul, concerned that the Corinthians have abandoned his message for someone else's, possessively and devotedly writes, "For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11.2). With its careful identification of a godly jealousy using the imagery of marital love and chastity, this verse along with many others contributed to the transmission and survival of a tradition of zealous and jealous love for good. The original Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words for jealousy, likewise, permit, even encourage, uses in senses both good and bad. Word forms based on Hebrew [qna] can mean 'zealous' or 'jealous'; 'zeal' or 'fanaticism'; 'zealot' or 'fanatic'; 'jealousy' or 'envy,' 'ardor,' 'love,' or 'passion,' even 'anger'; verbal meanings include 'be jealous,' 'be zealous,' or 'be envious.'6 Nor are forms of the word used infrequently in the Hebrew canon: various forms appear over eighty times in good and bad senses. Forms of Greek ζήλος [dze´los] and related words, such as ζηλόω [dze´oō] and ζηλωτής [dzelōtes], have virtually the same oppositions as forms of except that the potential meaning of the Greek forms complement negative 'envy' with the positive 'emulate' and 'emulation.' Like forms of , these Greek forms are common, appearing about...

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