Sir_Thopas_and_Melibee

Sir Thopas and Melibee Immediately fallowing The Prioress’s tale, the comedic duo of the Tale of Sir Thopas and Melibee not only give a humorous break to the nun’s bleak story, but a witty merging on several accounts. The long descriptions in Sir Thopas seem like a story being made up as he went along and due to the Host’s interruption; Chaucer is letting his own characters denounce his writing. What is the most hilarious; however, reading only a few paragraphs into The Tale of Melibee does the reader cense the punishment involved. It is an excruciatingly long assembly of proverbs and sayings that torment you with a story about war and peace. Melibee is more of a punition for the unfinished Tale of Sir Thopas; when the Host interrupts Chaucer, he claims that his rhymes are terrible and his story is not worth listening to. “No more of this, for Goddes dignitee,…for thou makest me So wery of thy verray lewednesse That, also wisly God my soule blesse, Myn eres aken of thy drasty speche.”(pg261 919-923) Sir Thopas is a humorous blend of silly rhymes describing a rediculiouse romance of a wealthy lord falling in love before he knows with whom. The hero’s description sounds more feminine and is even given a woman’s name, Thopas. “Sir Thopas wex a doghty swayn. Whyt was his face as payndemayn, His lippes rede as rose. Hise rode is lyk scarlet in grayn, And I yow telle in good certayn, He hadde a semely nose.”(pg256 724-729) He eventually falls in love with an elf queen but runs away from the climactic battle because he has no armor. The details in this story seem to be too similar to what is going on between Chaucer’s audience and the host. The Host’s comment about him being pale and spacey, Chaucer becomes the opposite, a fair and bold knight. “Al of a knyght was fair and gent In bataille and in tourneyment;His name was sir Thopas.”(pg255 715-717) The Host also descries him always looking for a hare, an in his tale Chaucer becomes a hunter for wild beasts, not just hares. “…For any womman, smal and fair of face. He Semeth elvish by his contenaunce, For unto no wight dooth he daliaunce.”(pg25 702-704) This comment encourages Chaucer’s character is to worthy for any woman except for an elf queen. The giant, who challenges Thopas, is the Host pushing Chaucer in telling a tale, and since he has no Tale, Thopas runs away without his armor. The long descriptions of Sir Thopas and the night before he rides back to challenge the giant is most certainly Chaucer running out of things to say and is silenced by his own characters. He tells another tale but asks his audience not to interrupt. His next long tale seems to be Thopas charging back the giant with his armor. The Tale of Melibee is about a rich man who had a wife and a daughter. One day when he was not at home, three of his enemies beat his wife and wound his daughter. Melibee returned and grieved heavily. His wife advised him to stop his grieving and call on various persons for their counsel and advice. Two groups of people, the town’s folk urging him to go to war; the surgeons, lawyers, and elderly advised caution and will power. There is an argument between Melibee and his wife; Melibee wants war and his wife reminds him of all the reasons why he should not. Melibee should enforce peace and let God’s judgment prevail on his enemies. The foes are found, Melibee eventually comes to a decision and forgives them, pleased by his own magnanimity. The characters cite plenty of quotations and proverbs to justify their opinion, even after it is well justified. This also builds “ahuge” plot and in turn gives the tale a weak ending; we are also still left wondering weather or not his daughter lives or dies. This also reflects Sir Thopas when Chaucer recites unnecessary descriptions, either because he has run out of things to say or he intentionally wishes to torment his Host.