The Man of Law's Tale

Hagiographic motifs are most abundant in Chaucer's version, e.g. “the miracles God works though Custance and the way she is miraculously fed while at sea”.

[citation needed] Wurtele observes that Chaucer makes frequent use of the adjective "hooly" but Gower never uses this word.

MLT[4]: 582–686  or CA[5]: II.792–885  Northumberland is a nominally pagan country where the King, Alla (based on Chaucer's understanding of the historical Ælla of Deira[6]) converted to Christianity after learning of the two miracles.

She runs aground in Spain; a would-be rapist (Thelous in CA) boards her ship but mysteriously falls overboard.

MLT[4]: 911–945  or CA[5]: II.1090–1122  She is found by a Senator of Rome, who is returning from a mission to Barberie (Syria) where he revenged the slaughter of Christians by the Sultan's mother.

MLT[4]: 953ff  or CA[5]: II.1179ff  The Senator takes Constance (and her child) back to Italy to serve as a household servant.

Pynchbek "served as a justice of assize between 1376 and 1388 and was known for his acquisition of land, as well as for his learning; in 1388, as chief baron of the Exchequer, he signed a writ for GC's arrest in a case of debt".

[9] Yeager asserts that Gower had a "lawyerly habit of mind" but there is no evidence that he received formal training in the law.

[10] Yet another view is taken by David who sees the Man of Law as "a representative of the self-appointed poetry critics with whom Chaucer disagreed.

The three common interpretations are: The narrator of the tale is less materialistic than the Sergeant of the Introduction (the description of the merchants' wealth is an exception [15]: 157 ).

"The tale, on the other hand, quite clearly reveals its narrator to be a devotee of justice in some ideal order, rather than a legal technician grown wealthy through sharp practices.

"Simply from this point of view, and with respect to both style and substance, the received story as an aggregation of incidents is well suit for retelling by a Sergeant of the Law.

[16]: 584  Another marked stylistic trait is his use of those rhetorical questions which punctuate with the regularity of a refrain the two passages ([4]: 470–594 and [4]: 932–945 ) emphasizing at some length the dangers that beset Constance when she is at the sultaness' feast, when she is drifting from Syria to Northumberland, and when the second miscreant assaults her.

[19]: 23  More distantly related forms of the persecuted heroine include Le Bone Florence of Rome, and Griselda.