Nowhere@All


The Cook of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

briankessler@nowhereatall.net

http://www.nowhereatall.net

20 April 1999





My Commentary on the Cook's Tale


The fragment of the Cook's Tale, begins the story of an innkeeper's(1) apprentice ("A prentys whilom dwelled in oure citee, / And of a craft of vitailliers was hee."(2)). Sanders tells us "Apprentices had a bad reputation throughout the medieval period--almost as bad as students! They represent the youth of the "working class" as they attempted to break into the emerging middle class by finding a trade whose mysteries might add leverage to their bodies' labor."(3)

We know that this apprentice comes from the same city as the cook and other pilgrims (note the plural first person possessive "oure"). Embs suggests that the tale is autobiographical and of the Cook himself.(4) He is happy, has a dark complexion and is "short and thick"(5) ("Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe, / Broun as a berye, a propre short felaw"). His hair was black and well combed ("With lokkes blake, ykembd ful fetisly"). He was a dancer ("Dauncen he koude so wel and jolily") and a lover ("He was as ful of love and paramour / As is the hyve ful of hony sweete").

This apprentice was called Perkyn Revelor.
The name of Perkyn [meaning "small" http://calgary.shaw.wave.ca/~kdeimert/hhollow/bear_names.htm ] creates a very aggressive and independent nature, one with big ambitions, giving you original, progressive, large-scale ideas, salesmanship and promotional ability as well as the excellent business judgment which enables you to gain the financial accumulation to which you feel entitled. You have a versatile, restless nature, and could do any job well, although you would not like to do menial tasks. You are seldom satisfied and are always seeking something new. However, you do not know the meaning of relaxation, for when supposedly resting, your mind is forever active, planning out some new project or seeking new ways to improve your present enterprise. You could organize the work of others, though in your impatience to see the job done efficiently, you would likely step right in and do it yourself. Your intense, restless nature can bring on tension which affects the solar plexus and digestion, or the generative organs.
http://www.kabalarians.com/male/perkyn.htm (6)

If we accept the above as true, Perkyn seems a fitting name for the apprentice, not solely for his stature. He was not answerable to his master, had a knack for accumulating his master's wealth upon self-governed entitlement, was profligate and riotous, and not fond of his place at the shop. And Chaucer is near explicit toward's the tension in Perkyn' generative organs. It is even most likely that Perkyn's "had several amorous encounter's with his friend's sluttish wife"(7), "the only openly identified prostitute in the Chaucerian canon. (It's not like they didn't exist, but Chaucer's reluctance to populate even his lowest tales with them suggests something about the audience he was addressing.)"(8)

We are told very little of his master, though we learn the master in his shop paid for Perkin's activities even without indulging in the entertainment ("His maister shal it in his shoppe abye, / Al have he no part of the mynstralcye.") This leads to the master giving Perkin's his freedom and writing in his ledger "Wel bet is roten appul out of hoord / Than that it rotie al the remenaunt.", meaning "this rotten apple could spoil the whole barrel (it was an old saying even then!)"(9).

Perkin's now moves in with a companion of his own sort ("a compeer of his owene sort") and the aforementioned wife / prostitute (". . . a wyf that . . . / . . .swyved for hir sustenance.").

This is where the Cook's fragment ends. Richard Embs argues intelligibly, if not convincingly, that this tale may not be a fragment.(10) Sanders notes "the three main lines of critical thinking: it's a fragment, but Chaucer meant to finish it and died before he could do so; it's a fragment, but Chaucer never meant to finish it (unless by writing an interruption for the Man of Law - consider the Reeve's Prologue as motive?); it's complete (Stanley), or it's not a fabliau at all, but might be a "prodigal son" type of fable (which I doubt unless the Cook has an aneurysm)."(11)





Endnotes




1. Webster, Noah, Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language: Unabridged: Second Edition, (The Publishers Guild, Inc.: New York, 1959), p. 2037. Return

2. All reference's to Chaucer in the original Middle English (unless otherwise indicated) are from Chaucer, Geoffrey, author, Larry D. Benson and F.N. Robinson, eds., The Riverside Chaucer: Third Edition, (Houghton Mifflin Company: Lawrenceville, New Jersey 1987), pp. 85-86. Return

3. Sanders, Arnie, Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, "Cook's Fragment", (Goucher College, Spring 1999), http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng330/chaucercooks_fragment.htm Return

4. Embs, The Cook's Tale: Maybe Not a Fragment, http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/emb.htm Return

5. This translation seems odd, but I could not find a modern translation that offered otherwise. See, for example, Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Canterbury Tales: The Cook's Tale, (Litrix Reading Room, 1998), http://www.litrix.com/canterby/cante008.htm Return

6. The relevance of this information is, admittedly sketchy. Whether this information is indeed relevant to a study of Chaucer depends upon whether the Kabala is accepted as a valid method of seeking truth. I personally read what the name "The name of Perkyn creates" and see the description as most fitting; perhaps someone else might fight it generic or believe it to be mere luck. Return

7. Embs, ibid. Return

8. Sanders, ibid. Return

9. Werthamer, Cynthia C., Barron's Book Notes (tm) on CD-ROM Windows (tm) Ver. 4.2: Canterbury Tales, (World Library, Inc: Bloomfield, New Jersey, 1993), http://www.hgo.net/~quartet/cntrtal.txt Return

10. Embs, ibid. Return

11. Sanders, ibid. Return







Bibliography and Links

See also for more information about the Cook and other relevant information and sites:

Chaucer, Geoffry, Larry D. Benson and F.N. Robinson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer: Third Edition, (Houghton Mifflin Company: Lawrenceville, New Jersey, 1987).

Bowers, John M., ed., "The Cook's Tale": Introduction (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Western Michigan University for TEAMS, 1992), http://128.151.244.128/camelot/teams/cooksint.htm

Bowers, John M., ed., "The Cook's Tale" (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Western Michigan University for TEAMS, 1992), http://128.151.244.128/camelot/teams/ckstale.htm

The Canterbury Tales - Cook's Tale, http://sfbox.vt.edu:10021/T/tomt220/coot.html

Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Canterbury Tales: Prologue, (Litrix Reading Room: 1998), http://www.litrix.com/canterby/cante001.htm

Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Canterbury Tales: The Cook's Prologue, (Litrix Reading Room: 1998), http://www.litrix.com/canterby/cante007.htm

Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Canterbury Tales: The Cook's Tale, (Litrix Reading Room: 1998), http://www.litrix.com/canterby/cante008.htm

The Cook's Tale, (The Geoffrey Chaucer Page), http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/canttales/cookt/

Embs, Richard, The Cook's Tale: Maybe Not A Fragment, (Luminarium, 1998), http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/embs.htm

Kessler, Brian, Chaucer Webliography (SpacePort Industries UnLimited: [The] Union [of Earth and Hell], New Jersey, May 1999), http://bmkold.ipfox.com/chaucweb.html

Matterer, James L., A Chaucerian Cookery Book I: Part 2. The Franklin and the Cook; Feasting in Chaucer's Poetry, (1998), http://www.labs.net/dmccormick/huen/chaucer/chauc2.htm

Sanders, Arnie, Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, "Cook's Fragment", (Goucher College, Spring 1999), http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng330/chaucercooks_fragment.htm

Werthamer, Cynthia C., Barron's Book Notes (tm) on CD-ROM, Windows (tm) Ver 4.2: Canterbury Tales, (World Library, Inc.: Bloomfield, New Jersey, 1993), http://www.hgo.net/~quartet/cntrtal.txt .













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