Narrative Patters of Affect in Four Genres of The Canterbury Tales

Narrative Patterns of Affect in Four Genres of the "Canterbury Tales"
Author(s): Irma Taavitsainen

Source: The Chaucer Review, Vol. 30, No. 2 (1995), pp. 191-210
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25095925
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NARRATIVE PATTERNS OF AFFECT IN
FOUR GENRES OF THE CANTERBURY
TALES
by Irma Taavitsainen
1. INTRODUCTION
Dramatic suspense is one of the acknowledged qualities of a good

story; it attracts the audience and causes involvement by making the
readers or listeners share the emotional loading of a text. Personal
affect, that is, the expression of feelings, moods, and attitudes, is a
component of participant relations in texts. It may be realized in vari
ous ways, but the most important linguistic features that reflect affect
are interjections and exclamations, pronouns of the first and second
person, direct questions, and proximal deictic adverbs (see below).
The readers' or listeners' earlier experience of literature creates "hori
zons of expectation" that are then fulfilled, or transformed, in various
ways. A skillful author can play on these expectations and manipulate
them if the codes are known, consciously or unconsciously, to both the
sender and receiver of the message. Genres act as such codes, and they
provide a key to an assessment of the interpersonal aspect in the
Canterbury Tales.l
2. AIM OF THE STUDY
Genre-specific vocabularies have been identified in Chaucer's works

in the earlier literature,2 but other features of language show simi
lar patterns, though they have not been discussed. In my earlier
studies I observed that features of personal affect, especially interjec
tions and exclamations, are powerful indicators of emotional load
ing, and that genre and subgenre styles can be distinguished accord
ing to the volume of personal affect in texts.3 Among the features
of personal affect, interjections and exclamations are particularly
important. Interjections are used for various functions in Middle
THE CHAUCER REVIEW, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1995.

Copyright ? 1995 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
192 THE CHAUCER REVIEW
English, but whatever their specific function, they always contain an

emotive element.4 A comprehensive survey of all occurrences of
these features in the Late Middle English subsection of the Helsinki
Corpus5 and parts of the Canterbury Tales proved that interjections
are significantly more frequent in fiction than in non-fiction, and
particularly prominent in Chaucer's works.6 My assumption is that
features of personal affect, interjections and exclamations in particu
lar, are a powerful means of audience involvement and an impor
tant component of the narrative technique in Chaucer's works. The
aim of this study is to examine the use of these features in the
context of the Canterbury Tales to see if any genre-specific patterns
of affect can be discerned, and how such patterns are used to create
narrative suspense.
3. GENRES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES AND

THEIR INTERRELATIONS
A striking feature of the Canterbury Tales is its encyclopedic diver
sity of genres. They range from courtly romance to racy fabliaux
and from saints' legends to sermons, to form a multilayered scheme
of more or less formulaic genres including the secular and the reli
gious, the humorous, and the solemn. Some of them have long
vernacular traditions, some are innovations in English. In this study
I shall focus on four genres: sermons, saints' lives, courtly romances,
and fabliaux. Among the four, romances and fabliaux are purely
literary. Saints' lives belong to both religious instruction and fiction,
thus forming a bridge between literary and non-literary genres; ser
mons are a non-literary genre. The fact that Chaucer's sermons and
saints' lives are inserted into a fictional frame transfers them into the
fictional world.
Sermons are a central genre of religious instruction. This vernacu
lar tradition was a long one from Old English to contemporary Lollard
preaching. The composition of Middle English sermons follows regu
lar patterns: the sermon part is often an exegesis of a biblical passage,
and exempla, that is, stories to illustrate the themes, are inserted into
the sermons. The Canterbury Tales contains two sermons, the Parson's
Tale and the Pardoner's Tale, neither of which conforms to the core type
of sermons (see below); yet there is external evidence that they were
perceived as sermons, and used, valued, and appreciated as such.7 The
Parson's Tale is a handbook of penitence while the Pardoner's Tale is a
didactic, moral study, an exemplum of false oaths, gambling, and glut
IRMA TAAVITSAINEN 193
tony. These were the dominant "tavern sins," a popular topic in medi
eval sermons.8
Saints' lives are a religious genre with a long and powerful tradition
in medieval Europe. The legends were originally written in Latin, but
the vernacular tradition had already been formed in Old English. The
Canterbury Tales contains two miraculous legends: the Prioress's Tale
and the Second Nun's Tale. The latter is the legend of Saint Cecilia, also
included in the South English Legendary, which by Chaucer's time had
circulated for more than a century and was certainly well-known to the
audience. Intertextuality is very marked in saints' legends as they con
tain echoes, commonplaces, and paraphrases of various sources, their
characters are types, and the cast is clearly divided into the good and
the bad. All saints' lives have basically the same structure: the plot is
developed through the stages of conversion and life as a Christian to
the confrontation with an evil tyrant. This conflict between the saint
and the worldly authorities is usually presented in dramatic terms.
Though it ends in martyrdom, the spiritual superiority of the saint
overcomes the enemy and converts pagans to the Christian faith; the
victory is manifested in miracles. The genre aimed at instruction and
fortification of the Christian faith, but simultaneously it provided fic
tional entertainment.9
"Romance" is a label attributed to a large body of narrative poems,
but it is difficult to find a good definition as several types are in
cluded.10 Courtly romance was introduced into English from French
literature: the central idea of the genre is courtly love, with ideals
derived from Roman de la Rose; the Knight's Tale displays the ethos of
the subgenre in its purest form in English literature as the emotions
the lovers feel are described in great detail. As in other romances, the
setting is among the highest ranks of society, the events are said to
have happened in the distant past, and heroic adventure is an impor
tant aspect of the story. Love is an essential element in character de
scription in the Knight's Tale, and it provides motivation for the plot.
The Canterbury Tales contains other romances as well, but they are not
as central to the genre: the Squire's Tale is transferred to the world of
birds, the Wife of Bath's Tale is a fairy-tale romance, and Sir Thopas a
parody of a knight seeking adventure.11
In many respects fabliaux form the opposite pole, though this genre
is also purely secular. These stories were also modelled after French,
but they were new in English, though the comical effects at the level of
language largely depended on the recognition of earlier genres. Three
tales can be classified as fabliaux: the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's Tale, and
the Merchant's Tale. The social setting is usually among craftsmen and
the middle layers of contemporary society; the abstract ideas of courtly

love are transformed into concrete actions, finding justification in
"fabliau logic" that twists the moral standards of society. This is an
essentially humorous genre. The comedy is built on character types,
sudden turns of the plot, and proclamation of fabliau justice.
In the complex network of genres within the Canterbury Tales, the
Knight's Tale forms a reverse pair with the Miller's Tale. The miller tells
his story to "quite" the preceding courtly romance (A 3114-27). The
reversal can be seen at the level of the plot, the pace of the stories (see
below), and even in the smallest details.12 In this case the relationship of
the genres is explicit, but there are also implicit responses, confronta
tions, and returns to theme with other tales so that a complex network is
created: for example, the story of Saint Cecilia echoes the "dominant
spouse-laid-down theme" of many fabliaux.13 Such associative links also
introduce genres that otherwise remain outside the Canterbury Tales, for
example, drama. Thus audience reactions are manipulated at various
levels.
4. THE LANGUAGE OF GENRES
Genres follow linguistic patterns that act as signals to the audience

and function as guidelines to authors. Genre conventions are followed
at a more unconscious level in non-literary writing, whereas a literary
artist aims at an effect; humor in its many forms from irony to parody
(see note 11) complicates the issue. The linguistic features that contrib
ute to the desired effect in audience reactions are likely to be genre
specific and culturally conditioned.
The absolute occurrences of interjections and exclamations in the
Middle English part of the Helsinki Corpus indicate that these fea
tures are employed more in some genres than others, and the differ
ences in the relative frequencies are statistically significant (see note 6).
Some of these lexical items are restricted to a few genres only, while
others are broader in their scope. In the following the interjections
and exclamations are discussed within the generic frame outlined
above.14 The widest range is found in fabliaux and romances, while
saints' lives employ only a few. Secondary interjections, including
swear words, show a different pattern of distribution, and their func
tion seems to be different.15 I shall first deal with sermons and saints'
lives as they had long traditions and were influential throughout the
Middle Ages, I shall then proceed to secular works, to the genre of
courtly romances and to fabliaux.
4.1. SERMONS
The Parson's Tale is a treatise on penance, a compilation of moral
prescriptions from various sources. It has no dramatic or fictional quali
ties, but it is likely that the biblical text with which it begins is intended to
refer to the preceding tales, and many of the problems discussed on the
way are here resolved with an orthodox Christian doctrine.16 In the
Pardoner's Tale a folk tale has been transformed into a sermon by revers
ing the normal order: usually sermons are illustrated by exempla, but
here the sermon grows out of the exemplum, which forms the main
part of the tale. As the two parts are different in purpose, the use of
interjections and exclamations must be assessed separately within the
context of the exemplum and in the sermon proper.
In the Parson's Tale the most common interjections are alias and lo.
Alias occurs eleven times in emotionally heightened passages with repe
tition, rhetorical questions, asservations, and other features that con
tribute to the involved tone. The following passages show the tech
nique of rhetorical eloquence making use of the above-mentioned
involvement features:
And in his outrageous anger and ire?alias, alias!?ful many

oon at that tyme feeleth in his herte ful wikkedly, bothe of Crist
and eek of alle his halwes. / Is nat this a cursed vice? Yis, certes.
Allas! (I 558-59)
This horrible synne is so perilous that he that despeired. . . . /
Certes, abo ven alle synnes thanne is this synne moost displesant
to Crist. . . . / Soothly, he that despeireth. . . . / Allas, alias,
nedeles is he recreant and nedelees despeired. / Certes, the
mercy of God is evere redy to the penitent, and is aboven alle
his werkes. I Allas, kan a man nat bithynke hym ... (I 695-700).
In contrast, the most common interjection in the sermon part of the
Pardoner's Tale is o, with fifteen occurrences. It is found in cumulative
lists in which a very fervent tone of voice is employed, illuminating the
sin of gluttony from various angles. Such lists illustrate how the ser
mon grows out of the exemplum. It is the narrator's commentary on
the theme of the exemplum; it is his expression of stance:
O cursed synne of alle cursednesse!
O traytours homycide, O wikkednesse!
O glotonye, luxurie, and hasardrye!
Thou blasphemour of Crist with vileynye
And othes grete, of usage and pride!
(C 895-99)
Alias occurs three times in the sermon part of the Pardoner's Tale, and it
is used much in the same way as in the Parson's Tale, for example in a
passage after the above-quoted outline of the rioters' sins. Here the
narrator addresses all humankind, which includes both the audience
and the rioters, by the second person singular pronoun:
Alias, mankynde, how may it bitide

That to thy creatour, which that the wroghte
And with his precious herte-blood thee boghte,
Thou art so fais and so unkynde, alias?
(C 900-03)
Lo occurs nine times in the Parson's Tale. It is a stylistic loan correspond
ing to the Hebrew particle for calling attention, rendered by ecce in the
Vulgate version of the Bible and translated as lo in Middle English;
from biblical style it was adopted to sermons. Most often it is followed
by a reference to an authority, an assurance of the truth value of the
statement, or the narrator's comment. Obviously the purpose is to
make the ensuing conclusions more convincing and enhance their
importance: "Loo, heere may ye seen that Job . . ." (I 178); "Loo, what
seith God of hem by the proph?te Ysaye . . ." (I 198); "For lo, what
seith Seint Paul. . ." (I 341); "Lo, what seith Salomon . . ." (I 709), etc.
The rioters use blasphemous language in the exemplum of the Par
doner's Tale, as they "tear Christ's body into pieces" with phrases like "by
blood," "by corpus bones," "by Goddes armes," "by Goddes precious
herte," and so on.17 Reactions of surprise and amazement are expressed
with collocations of interjections and swearing, and direct questions in
the rioters' speech: "Ey, Goddes precious dignitee! Who wende / To-day
that we sholde han so fair a grace?" (C 782?83). The more colloquial
language of the rioters is contrasted with the old man's speech. Here
another tone of voice is employed with alias, which, together with lo,
links his speech stylistically with the sermon proper:
Ne Deeth, allas, ne wol nat han my lyf.

Thus walke I, lyk a restelees kaityf,
And seye "Leeve mooder, leet me in!

Lo how I vanysshe, flessh, and blood, and skyn!
Alias, whan shul my bones been at reste?"
(C 727-28, 731-33)
4.2. SAINTS' LIVES

Saints' lives show a restricted range of interjections as only o, lo and
alias are found in them. The use of o is extremely prominent as it is
found ten times in the Prioress's Prologue and Tale, which are both
short; in addition, it is included in the name of the song in Latin,
where it is used three times. It occurs in pious invocations in the
Prologue, and the serpent Sathanas uses it in the tale itself when bring
ing forth the evil thought of murder; alias is found in the same con
text: "0 Hebrayk peple, allas!" (B2 1750). It is also included in the
narrator's speech in contrastive phrases: "0 cursed folk of Herodes"
and "0 m?rtir, sowded to virginitee" (B2 1764, 1769) with a sermon
like effect (see above). O and lo occur together in the description of the
miracle, with the proximal deictic pronoun this, which is also an in
volvement feature:
0 grete God, that parfournest thy laude

By mouth of innocentz, lo, heere thy myght!
This gemme of chastite, this emeraude,
And eek of martirdom the ruby bright,
Ther he with throte ykorven lay upright,
He Alma redemptoris gan to synge
So loude that al the place gan to rynge.
(B2 1897-1903)
At the end o is found in an invocation of the saint's name, now men
tioned for the first time, "0 yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also."
Likewise, the Second Nun's Tale contains seven instances of o at impor
tant points in the plot; lo is often present in the same context. At the
beginning Cecilia prays to God to let her preserve her chastity: "0
Lord" (G 136); and she appeals to her husband in the same way: "O
sweete and wel biloved spouse deere" (G 144). Both speeches are
earnest, emotive pleas. Urban expresses his joy in Valerian's conver
sion with o and lo in the same speech (191, 195). Tiburce addresses
Cecilia with "0 suster deere" (333), expressing Christian solidarity; in
a previous scene Cecilia has accepted him as a fellow-Christian in a
speech that begins with lo (295). Lo marks the beginning of the scene
between Cecilia and the tyrant: "And alderfirst, lo, this was his axynge"
(423). The debate is then developed into a fierce confrontation in
which Cecilia is posed a question that occurs commonly in saints' lives:
"Chees oon of thise two: / Do sacrifice, or Christendom reneye" (458
59). Cecilia defies the tyrant: "0 juge, confus in thy nycetee . . . Lo, he
dissymuleth heere in audience; / He stareth, and woodeth in his adver
tence!" (463, 466-67). This bold speech determines her destiny, but
she is not afraid and continues in the same way, addressing the judge.
"0 nyce creature!" (493). In contrast to earlier versions of the legend,
the emphasis is shifted to the debate scene by making the saint conten
tious and forceful, and contrasting the foolish judge with the spirited
saint. Cecilia is doomed to death, but fire does not harm her, and she
continues to teach the Christian faith.18 Her final wish is to have a
church built on the site of her suffering:
I axed this of hevene kyng,

To han respit thre dayes and namo
To recomend? to yow, er that I go,
Thise so?les, lo, and that I myghte do werche
Heere of myn hous perpetuelly a cherche.
(542-46)
4.3. COURTLY ROMANCE

The emotive aspect of interjections is prominent in courtly romances.
The feelings of despair, sorrow of loss, and regret are conveyed by alias,
which occurs twenty-three times in the Knight's Tale. In some cases it is
used as the very stereotype of those feelings. It occurs by itself in brief
exclamations (for example, A 1356, 1952), and collocated with names
of classical deities as invocations or mild swearing (see below): "Alias,
thou feile Mars! Alias, Juno!" (A 1559); o is also collocated in the same
way, but it lends a completely different tone to the invocations, for
example, "Faireste of faire, O lady myn, Venus" (A 2221). Alias may also
be collocated with noun phrases expressing the cause of misery:
" 'Alias,' quod he, 'that day that I was bore!' " (A 1542). Weilawey has
similar connotations of misery, but it is used as the narrator's aside to
express compassion: "And yet now the olde Creon?weylaway!" (A 938).
In one example, "alias the day!" is placed before the description of what
happened; thus it foregrounds the forthcoming events and acts as a
signal to the audience to be alert (F 621).
The most complicated example of the use of alias is found in a
passage in the Knight's Tale with noun phrases explaining the cause of
the feeling. Such eclectic exclamatory sentences are repeated seven
times with alias, and the passage ends in brief rhetorical questions, a
well-known device to involve the audience. The answer is also given
according to the typical medieval fashion, as a reminder of death. The
whole passage is architecturally structured with a climax at the end:
Alias, the wo! Alias, the peynes stronge,

That I for yow have suffred, and so longe!
Allas, the deeth! Alias, myn Emelye!
Alias, departynge of oure compaignye!
Allas, myn hertes queene! Alias, my wyf,
Myn hertes lady, endere of my lyf!
What is this world? What asketh men to have?

Now with his love, now in his colde grave
Alione, withouten any compaignye.
(A 2771-79)
Alias is given as a sigh opening a new section in long monologues

dwelling on the feeling of despair. It is used very much like lo, but the
emotive loading is different. Lo is used to attract special attention to
some point, purely as a signpost to the audience, for example, "Lo
heere this Arcite and this Palamoun" (1791; and see 1844), and to
enforce a statement19 such as the following:
Lo, alle thise folk so caught were in hir las,

Til they for wo ful of te seyde "alias!"
(A 1951-52)
The range of interjections in romances is wider than in the sermons
or saints' lives, though alias, o, and lo are frequent in this genre as well.
Romances seem to have one genre-specific interjection: hoo. It is
found twice in the Knight's Tale as an outcry in the middle of fighting,
to put an end to the action. Such scenes belong to the aristocratic
setting and are connected with the heroic code of knightly behavior:
"And pulled out a swerd and cride, 'Hoo! I Namoore, up peyne of
lesynge of youre heed!'" (A 1706-07).20 Oo is used to attract the
attention of the audience within the story: "An heraud on a scaffold
made an '0o/' " (A 2533). An important point of the plot is underlined
with an emphatic use of a as an expression of feeling at the crucial
moment when love is kindled: "He cast his eye upon Emelya, / And
therwithal he bleynte and cride, 'A!' " (A 1078). Fy is an expression of
contempt used in a contemplative passage of self-reproach in the
Knight's Tale: "And softe unto hymself he seyde, 'Fy I Upon a lord that
wol have no mercy' " (A 1773?74). Benedicitee is found twice in direct
speech quotations enforcing the following exclamatory sentence; once
it is collocated with a: "The god of love, a benedicite! I How myghty and
how greet a lord is he!" (A 1785?86). The tone is ironical (see below).
Pardee bordes on swearing, but it seems to be semantically fairly
empty. It is used twice, obviously to provide a suitable rhyme word:
"And hath siknesse and greet adversitee, / And ofte tymes giltelees,
pardee" (1311-12). Secondary interjections in courtly romances are
restricted to mild oaths, with reference to classical deities (see alias,
above), for example, in the Knight's Tale: "By myghty Mars" (1708),
"by myghty Mars the rede" (1747), but more often these phrases are
mild oaths like "for Goddes love," "for Goddes sake," etc (see the
Appendix). Other asservations include phrases that are distributed

evenly throughout the Canterbury Tales, like "by my fey" and "certes";
once a colloquial phrase is found, "by my pan" (A 1165).
4.4. FABLIAUX
The prototypical meanings and uses of interjections, as outlined
above, are also found in fabliaux: lo is used to introduce new sections
with like beginnings (compare sermons), for example, "Lo, how that
Jacob, as thise clerkes rede" (E 1362), "Lo Judith, as the storie eek telle
kan" (E 1366), and "Lo Abigayl, by good conseil how she" (E 1369). In
the same way alias is the stereotypical expression of misery and repen
tance; weylaway enforces the same feelings; o is used in invocations; ey
implies a contrast to what is said earlier; and^y is an exclamation of
disgust (for modifications, see below). When the use of interjections in
this genre is assessed within a larger frame and compared with other
genres, a different pattern emerges.
The fabliau is essentially a narrative genre and the plot is important,
full of sudden turns and surprises, with a suspense element that leads
to the fulfillment of fabliau justice. It is generally acknowledged that
the racy pace of these stories is an important characteristic of the
genre and an important component of the narrative technique. The
pace also contributes to the comedy of the situations, and releases
laughter from the audience. According to my analysis, interjections
and other short exclamations are the chief means of achieving these
surprise effects; for example, what and how are used as short exclama
tions on their own twelve times in the Miller's Tale and twice in the
Reeve's Tale to express surprise and wonder. Being short they contrib
ute to the quick pace of the story. Besides interjections and exclama
tions, the strings of short components include imperative forms
spoken in elliptical sentences, address by proper names, and direct
questions, which also contribute to the involvement of the audience.
"What, who artow?" "It am I, Absolon."
"What, Absolon! for Cristes sweete tree,
Why rise ye so rathe? Ey, benedicitee!
What eyleth yow?"
(A 3766-69)
Thanne wol I clepe, "How, Alison! How, John!
Be my rie, for the flood wol passe anon."
(A 3577-78)
What, how! What do ye, maister Nicholay?
(A 3437)
What! Nicholay! What, how! What, looke adoun!

Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun!
(A 3477)
Collocations with several short components occur regularly at the im

portant points of the plot. Alias is found twelve times in the Miller's and
in the Merchant's Tales, and six times in the Reeve's Tale, most often in
collocation with other interjections. These collocations mark the turn
ing points; for example, the first encounter between Alison and Nicolas
that leads to the "second flood" culminates in a string of interjections:
And seyde, "I wol nat kisse thee, by my fey!

Why, lat be!" quod she. "Lat be, Nicholas,
Or I wol crie 'out, harrow' and 'alias'!
Do wey youre handes, for youre curteisye!"
(A 3284-87)
At the end the fulfillment of the carpenter's punishment is pointed

out with another collocation:
Up stirte hire Alison and Nicholay,

And criden "Out" and "Harrow" in the strete.
(A 3824-25)
The climax in the plot of the misplaced kiss in the Miller's Tale is
marked by the collocation with/y, alias, and a short rhetorical question,
followed by Alison's rejoicing at her success with the practical joke
with tehee:
And seyde, "Fy! alias! what have I do?"

"Tehee!" quod she, and clapte the wyndow to.
(A 3739-40)
Harrow is a genre-specific interjection borrowed from French. It is

found twice in the Miller's Tale, twice in the Reeve's Tale, and once in
the Merchant's Tale. In the Reeve's Tale it occurs in the passage which
expresses John's reaction to the miller's fraud. This is the turning
point of the plot that leads to the revenge:
And gan to crie "Harrow!" and "Weylaway!

Oure hors is lorn, Alayn, for Goddes banes,
Step on thy feet! Com of, man, al ata?es!
Allas, our wardeyn has his palfrey lorn."
(A 4072-75)
The comical effects in this extract are created at several levels. Excla
mations, swearing, short imperative forms with direct address, and
non-standard speech all contribute to an effect which triggers a guar
anteed audience reaction. In the Merchant's Tale the climax of the story
shows the same pattern. May's speech to January when explaining her
yearning for pears has alias and mild swearing (for hir love that is of
hevene queene); January's answer is in the same tone:
"Alias!" quod he, "that I ne had heer a knave

That koude clymbe! Allas, alias."
(E 2338-39)
When his sight is restored and he sees what is going on in the pear tree,
his reaction is expressed by a list of interjections and exclamations:21
"Out! Help! Alias! Harrow!" he gan to crye,

"0 stronge lady stoore, what dostow?"
(E 2366-67)
Collocations with several interjections are typical. Ey is collocated
with benedicitee, expressing astonishment: "Ey, benedicite! Thanne
hadde I foule ysped!" (A 4220). This is the fictional speaker's innocent
point of view?the audience knows better that something "foule" is
going to happen according to the genre, and the phrase signals a good
place for the audience to react. Weylaway is found twice in the Miller's
Twice and twice in the Reeve's Tale in collocations with harrow and alias,
which create a state of apprehension: "Alias" quod Absolon, "and
weylawey" (A 3714); "Ful ofte he seide "Alias and "weylawey" (A 3602).
Again, this is comical as the audience expects fabliau justice. In some
examples the emotional loading is strong, for example, in the Reeve's
Tale the miller's speech after he had learned what the clerk had done:
" 'Ye, false harlot,' quod the millere, 'hast? / A, false traitour! False
clerk!' quod he" (A 4268-69).
Humorous effects are created at several levels. Irony is evident in
the use of the interjections that originate in some other stylistic regis
ter, in religious language or classical rhetoric. The prototypical use of
lo is didactic, and the religious connotations were certainly familiar to
the audience. Pity is a religious virtue, but in the Merchant's Tale it
makes May commit adultery: "Lo, pitee renneth soone in gentil herte!"
(E 1986). The moral lesson of the Reeve's Tale is pointed out in this way
(compare sermons):
His wyf is swyved, and his doghter als.

Lo, swich it is a millere to be fais!
(A 4317-18)
The use is clearly ironical in the Miller's Tale as well, as it emphasizes the
carpenter's credulity. After Alison has asked the carpenter to take pre
cautions for the coming flood according to Nicolas's instruction, the
narrator pathetically exclaims: "Lo, which a greet thyng is affeccioun!"
(A 3611). The carpenter's blind reliance on the coming of the second
flood is emphasized with an ironical use oify: "And han therinne vitaille
suffisant / But for a day?-fy on the remenant!" (A 3551 -52). O is particu
larly prominent in the Merchant's Tale, with nineteen occurrences in
cumulative lists, perhaps in parody of the more serious genres (com
pare sermons and saints' lives). The nouns in the list provide unconven
tional and generally abhorred parallels as fortune is likened to a scor
pion, and the mismatch of May and January inspires the following
foreboding:
O perilous fyr, that in the bedstraw bredeth!
O famulier foo, that his servyce bedeth!
O servant tray tour, false hoomly he we,
Lyk to the naddre in bosom sly untre we,
God shilde us alle from youre aqueyntaunce!
(E 1783-87)
The vocative use is common, even in collocation with emotive adjec
tives and other interjections, for example, "O sely Damyan, allasl" (E
1869). The authorities Ovid and Solomon (besides wealth and wis
dom, known for his lechery), are in accordance with the characteristics
of the genre: "O noble Ovyde, ful sooth seystou" (E 2125, and see
2242).
Secondary interjections are especially frequent in fabliaux. They in
clude mild oaths found in courtly romances, for example, "By God,"
"For Goddes love," but other oaths and forms of swearing are also
found, for example, by relatives and stronger religious oaths: "by my
fader kyn," "by my fader soule," "for Cristes peyne," "by Goddes
dignitee." Probably the most blasphemous swearing in Middle English
was by parts of Christ's body and the holy cross (see above). Such swear
ing is frequent in fabliaux: "for Goddes banes," "for Cristes sweet tree,"
"for Goddes herte," "by armes," "by blood and bones," etc. Other de
rogatory phrases are found as well, for example, "straw for thy Senek"
(for further examples and line references, see the Appendix).
5. NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
The above assessment of exclamations according to the genres re
veals a clear narrative pattern. Interjections that originally belong to
one genre and are transferred to another, retain connotations from

their original use and have special effects (see below). Sermons employ
lo and alias; in the Pardoner's Tale the two layers, the exemplum and the
moral commentary, are distinct from one another. The interjection o is
an important technical device: the narrator uses vocatives for the sins,
illuminating them from various moral angles, thus making the sermon
grow out of the exemplum. The interjection is an important indicator
of stance. In saints' lives the most important points of the plot are
regularly marked with interjections, and o is used in pious invocations,
like prayers, conveying the earnest appeal of the speaker. Courtly
romances concentrate on describing the feelings of love. The shade of
despair is particularly prominent in the Knight's Tale, enforced with
frequent use of allas; a less used but genre-specific exclamation of
romances is hoo. Fabliaux show a wide range of interjections. They are
often found in cumulative lists of short exclamations, though such
interjections do not convey emotional loading in the same way as in
the courtly romances. They do not make the reader dwell on the
emotions of despair and grief, but instead express stereotypical reac
tions to situations. Their textual function is important as they mark
turning points in the plot.
6. STYLISTIC MARKING AND IRONY
Irony derives its force from an unexpected context: something

more is said than the mere surface form indicates, so that the words
convey more to the real audience than to the listeners in the fictional
world. Irony often makes use of a particular word or phrase which has
an immediate impact on the listener.22 Such words obviously include
interjections which have a special stylistic value. Their effect is largely
based on their triggering stylistic recognition and connotations of their
original use: the effect is built on the audience's earlier experience of
the registers of language use. Stylistic marking is explicit in some
interjections which derive from a foreign origin.
0 and lo provide the most explicit examples. 0 is originally solemn
and Latinate; its original use can be seen in saints' lives in which it
expresses the speaker's emotional commitment. In a context with low
style references or collocated with nouns like "scorpion" or "serpent,"
it is ironical. It also belongs to the Latinate, philosophical style, and
connotations of this use cause another type of effect. The narrator
distances himself from the fictional world that he has created, and
assumes a different stance. This is the case in the Pardoner's Tale, in
which the sin of gluttony is viewed in the contemplative passage with

several instances of o. The same way of expressing stance is found in
several exclamatory sentences that comment on the emotions of the
fictional characters, for example, their feelings of love viewed from a
distance. Such instances illustrate one of the most profound ways that
irony works. These examples reflect the narrator's view of the instabil
ity of the world and touch the most important points of life with a
sense of detachment in a philosophical mood (see note 22).
Another interjection that shows stylistic transfer is lo. Originally it
belonged to biblical style, and it is natural that sermons frequently
employ it to attract the attention of the audience to important points.
When transferred to fabliaux, the didactic connotations become comi
cal. Lo echoes biblical certainty, it serves to emphasize fabliau justice
with its reversed values. It proclaims the outcome as a general truth,
the usual cause of events in similar circumstances. Thus generic expec
tations cast a humorous light on the original use.
The direction of the transfer is from religious to secular and from
higher modes of literature to lower styles. Genre-specific uses are
found with two interjections. Hoo is found in romances and in the
Knight's speech. Harrow is restricted to fabliau-style; the only occur
rence outside this genre is found in the Host's speech, collocated with
swearing, and it is often quoted as part of his character description.
7. INTERJECTIONS AND READER INVOLVEMENT

Interjections and exclamations express the speaker's emotional out
bursts. They are "surge" features of personal affect that express the
interpersonal aspect of participant relations of texts. In direct-speech
quotations they are addressed to other characters in the text and in
narrative passages to the reader; both are effective ways of involving
the audience. The effect is that of direct manipulation, playing with
the emotions of the audience by creating compassion and making the
reader or listener feel the same emotions the characters feel or the
narrator feels. In addition, interjections have acquired textual func
tions. Cumulative lists signal turning-points in the plot. By their swift
pace, with strings of interjections, short exclamations, imperative
forms, and proper names, such collocations create suspense and excite
ment. In long monologues interjections of misery and sorrow create
apprehension by foregrounding the atrocious events that follow. In
both cases interjections are a powerful means of controlling audience
reactions.
8. CONCLUSIONS
Interjections and short exclamations are an important device for

creating suspense in narration. They also provide a key to a more de
tailed assessment of the interpersonal aspect in Chaucer's texts. To
gether with other linguistic features that contribute to the same effect,
such as direct questions, elliptical sentences made up of imperative
forms, proximal deictic expressions, second person pronouns, and voca
tive use of proper names, they contribute to the volume and quality of
personal affect in these texts. A detailed assessment of the function of
interjections and exclamations reveals genre-specific patterns of audi
ence involvement. The comical effects make use of stylistic transfers or
reduce the emotional loading of these words into stereotypical reactions
to situations, or have ironical connotations. Genres can be characterized
with traditional descriptions according to external factors of purpose
and audience, for example, or conventions of literary criticism, but an
assessment of inherent linguistic patterns may open up new ways of
seeing how the audience is manipulated, how their emotions are pro
voked and narrative suspense created.
University of Helsinki
1. All examples are from The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson, 3rd ed. (Bos
ton, 1987). For an aesthetic reception theory of medieval genres, see Hans Robert Jauss,
"The Alterity and Modernity of Medieval Literature," New Literary History 10 (1979):
181-229. He deals with the reception, that is, horizons of expectation, of nine literary
genres of the exemplary, including saints' lives, jokes (fabliaux), exempla, and tales. The
main focus is on the communicative situation, province of meaning, the relationship to
tradition, and place in life of these genres.
2. Courtly love, for example, had a vocabulary of its own. Its terms are used for
various stylistic purposes by Chaucer, and the choices are motivated by generic consider
ations. Words that had become old-fashioned and shunned in courtly literature are used
with a special flavor in the Miller's Tale: the fixed epithet hende for Nicholas represents a
kind of "savoir faire" instead of the original meaning "courteous"; other similar words
are deerne loue, drurye, and fetys. In general, the love terms in Absolon's speech are a
mixture of comically exotic, rural, and commonplace. A striking contrast is provided by
the Man in Black in the Book of the Duchess, who uses philosophical language (David
Burnley, A Guide to Chaucer's Language [London, 1983], 169, 139-55), in accordance
with the serious, elevated genre of commemorative poetry.
3. Irma Taavitsainen, "Genre/subgenre styles in Late Middle English?" Early English
in the Computer Age: Explorations through the Helsinki Corpus, ed. Matti Rissanen, Merja
Kyt?, and Minna Palander-Collin (Berlin, 1993), 171-200, and "Subjectivity as a Text
type Marker in Historical Stylistics," Language and Literature 3 (1994): 197-212; see also
note 6 below. For studies of personal affect in Early Modern English and the continua
tion of medieval conventions, see Irma Taavitsainen, "Genre Conventions: Personal
Affect in Fiction and Non-fiction in Early Modern English," English in Transition, ed.
Matti Rissanen, Merja Kyt?, and Kirsi Heikkonen (forthcoming), and "Interjections in
Early Modern English: from Imitation of Spoken to Conventions of Written Language,"

Historical Pragmatics, ed. Andreas Jucker, forthcoming.
4. Randolph Quirk, et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Lon
don, 1985), 853. Interjections in Chaucer's works are dealt with in J. Kerkhof, Studies in
the Language of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd. revised and enlarged ed. (Leiden, 1982), 440?55
and Tauno F. Mustanoja, A Middle English Syntax, M?moires de la Soci?t? N?ophilo
logique de Helsinki 23 (Helsinki, 1960), 620-40. They divide the field into primary
interjections that consist of words that are not used otherwise, and secondary interjec
tions that are exclamatory phrases. Ralph W. V. Elliott, Chaucer's English (London, 1974),
deals with secondary interjections, oaths, and swearing, mostly from the point of view of
character description.
5. For principles of text selection in the Middle English section of the Helsinki
Corpus, see Saara Nevanlinna, P?ivi Pahta, Kirsti Peitsara, and Irma Taavitsainen, "Mid
dle English," in Rissanen et al., Early English in the Computer Age, 267-90; for general
information, see Merja Kyt?, Manual to the Diachronie Part of the Helsinki Corpus of English
Texts: Coding Conventions and Lists of Source Texts, 2nd ed. (Helsinki: University of Hel
sinki, Department of English, 1993). As an aid for detecting the instances of interjec
tions I use A Complete Concordance to the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vols. 1-4, ed. Akio
Oizumi, programmed by Kunihire Miki (Hildesheim, 1991).
6. For the survey of interjections in non-literary text types, the results of the t-tests,
and a discussion of the grammatical categories, see Irma Taavitsainen, "Exclamations in
Late Middle English," Studies in Middle English, ed. Jacek Fisiak, forthcoming.
7. Alastair Fowler, A History of English Literature (Oxford, 1987, rev. 1989), 13.
8. The theme is dealt with comprehensively for example in John Mirk's Instructions
for Parish Priests, ed. Gillis Kristenssen (Lund, 1974). It was one of the most popular
preaching aids in Late Middle English. The chapter De auaricia begins: "HAst |)ow
wylnet by couetyse / Worldes gode ouer syse, / And spared nother for god ny mon / To
gete f>at }x>w fel vp-on? / Hast thow be hard and nythynge / To wythholden any thing*?"
(lines 1169-74).
9. For an analysis of the genre, see Saara Nevanlinna and Irma Taavitsainen, eds.,
St Katherine of Alexandria: The Late Middle English Prose Legend in Southwell Minster MS 7
(Cambridge, Engl., and Helsinki, 1993), 11-20.
10. John Finlayson, "Definitions of Middle English Romance," ChauR 15 (1980), rpt.
in Middle English Romances, ed. Stephen H. A. Shepherd (New York, 1995), 429.
11. The parody is built on the audience's recognition of the standard elements of
convention in Sir Thopas. It contains more stock elements than the worst specimens of
the genre, but these elements have no function. It is this non-functional display of ritual
that causes the comical effects (Finlayson, 431).
12. For example, the descriptions of the heroines Emily and Alison are detailed but
pay attention to different points and use different imagery; Saint Cecilia represents the
third prototype of a medieval woman. The opening phrases of the tales are genre
specific; for example, "Whilom as olde stories teilen us, / Ther was a due that highte
Theseus" versus "Whilom ther was dwellynge at Oxenford / A riche gnof, that gestes
heeld to bord." Chaucer, however, always modifies the genres: the Merchant's Tale is a
fabliau but it contains several features of romances and the pace of the narration is more
in accordance with the latter genre (Benson, Riverside Chaucer, 13). See also note 2.
13. Anne Eggebroten; "Laughter in the Second Nun's Tale: A Redefinition of the
Genre," ChauR 19 (1984): 57.
14. A summary of the occurrences of interjections and exclamations in the four
genres is given in the Appendix.
15. See Irma Taavitsainen, "By Saint Tanne: Pious Oaths or Swearing in Late
Middle English?" Festschrift for Jacek Fisiak, ed. Raymond Hickey and Stanislav Puppel,
forthcoming.
16. Benson, Riverside Chaucer, 21.
17. For more examples and line references, see the Appendix.
18. Eggebroten (1984): 56. A comparison with the legend of Saint Cecilia in the Early
South English Legendary or Lives of Saints, ed. Carl Horstmann, EETS, OS 87, Part 1
(London, 1887/1973), 492?93, revealed that the corresponding passages were without
the interjection: "Lat, louerd, myn . . . ," "Swete herte," etc. Alias is found once at the
point in which Cecilia's doom is announced, but otherwise interjections are not used for
dramatic effect. It is interesting to notice that the use of interjections in a manuscript of
St Katherine of Alexandria from c. 1500 conforms to the pattern of highlighting the
turning points of the plot with interjections (see Nevanlinna and Taavitsainen 1993).
There is a resemblance in the debate passages in these two legends.
19. In at least one example, "loo" may be equivalent to "Look!" (A 3017); for the
connection, see MED, s.v.
20. Further proof of this interjection belonging to the knightly code can be found in
the Knight's speech in the Prologue of the Nun's Priest's Tale: " 'Hoo!' quod the Knyght,
'good sire, namoore of this!' " (2767).
21. Compare the reaction of the widow and her daughters in the Nun's Priest's Tale:
"And cryden, 'Out! Harrow and weylawayH Ha, ha! The fox!' " (B2 4570-71); and "Oure
Hooste gan to swere as he were wood; / 'Harrow!' quod he, 'by nayles and by blood!' " (C
287-88).
22. See Beryl Rowland, "Seven Kinds of Irony," in Earle Birney, Essays on Chaucerian
Irony, ed. Beryl Rowland (Toronto, 1985), xvii, xxiii.
APPENDIX
ABBREVIATIONS: Ps = The Parson's Tale, Pd = The Pardoner's

Tale; 2N = The Second Nun's Tale, Pr = The Prioress's Tale; Kn = The
Knight's Tale, Sq = The Squire's Tale; Mi = The Miller's Tale, Mc = The
Merchant's Tale and Rv = The Reeve's Tale. The prologues and epi
logues are marked in parenthesis; several instances are found in the
Host's speech in the frame story as part of his character description
(see Elliott 1974: chapter 5). Those found in connection with these
tales are given below.
Sermons total occurrences

o/oo 15 Pd 498, 499, 500, 512, 513, 521, 534(3x), 551, 840,
895, 896(2x), 897
4 Ps 149, 155, 162,634
alias 5 Pd 524, 727, 733, 900, 903
11 Ps 152, 415, 423, 559(2x), 560, 698(2x), 700, 705,
881
lo/loo 6 Pd 485, 502, 643, 698, 732, 915
9 Ps 144, 178, 198, 342, 526, 630, 709, 845, 880
ey 1 Pd 782
what 2 Pd (439), 717
Ps: for Cristes sake 591, 1052; for Goddes sake 366, 523
Pd: pardee 672; for the love of Crist 658; by God and by the hooly
sacrement 757; by God (457), 750; by Goddes armes 654; by Goddes
dignitee 701; "By Goddes precious herte" and "By his nayles," / And
"By the blood of Crist that is in Hayles" 651-52; by Seint John 752; by
Seinte Marie 685; by my fey 762; by the croys which that Seint Eleyne
fond 951
Host: alias: Pd 292, 293, 298; harrow Pd 288; by corpus bones Pd 314;
by Seint Ronyan Pd 310, 320; by nayles and by blood Pd 288
Ps: by thy fey 23; for cokkes bones 29
Saints' lives
o/oo 11 Pr (453, 467(2x), 468, 481), 560, 574, 579, 607,
645,684
7 2N (67, 75(2x)), 136,191, 333, 463
lo/loo 6 2N (102), 195, 295, 423, 466, 545
1 Pr 608
alias 1 Pr 560
Romance
alias 23 Kn 1073, 1223, 1227, 1251, 1281, 1325, 1356,
1542, 1545,1559(2x), 1952, 2227, 2362, 2390,
2771(2x), 2773(2x), 2774, 2775(2x), 2833
2 Sq 499, 621
o/oo 7 Kn 1234, 1303, 1623, 1624, 2221, 2297, 3072,
lo/loo 4 Kn 1791, 1844, 1952, 3017
2 Sq 597 (8 prol)
a 1 Kn 1078
weylaway 1 Kn 938
ho/hoo: 2 Kn 1706, 2656
fy 2 Kn 1773
1 Sq 686
what 1 Kn 1606
1 Sq 696
Kn: pardee 1312, 3084; for Goddes love 1084; for Goddes sake that sit
above 1800; for Goddes sake 1317; for love of God 2782; for seinte
charitee 1721; by God that sit above 1599; by God 1810; by myghty
Mars the rede 1747; by myghty Mars 1708; by myn heed 2670; by my
fey 1126; by my pan 1165
Sq: for Goddes love 464; for love of God 458; by the Trinitee 682
Fabliaux
alias 12 Mi 3286, 3398, 3522, 3523, 3602, 3607, 3714,
3739, 3749, 3753(2x), 3818
12 Mc 1274, 1757, 1828, 1869, 2069, 2255, 2329,
2338, 2339(2x), 2366, 2389
6 Rv 4075, 4080, 4084, 4109, 4201, 4218
o/oo 19 Mc 1335,1347,1478,1757, 1783, 1784, 1785,

1788, 1869, 2057(2x), 2061(2x), 2062, 2107, 2125,
2145,2242,2367
lo/loo 1 Mi 3611
7 Mc 1366, 1369,2111, 1362, 1986,2257,(2421)
6 Rv (3906, 3907), 4098, 4135, 4171, 4318
what 8 Mi 3366, 3437, 3477(3x), 3491, 3766, 3767
1 Rv 4078
ey 2 Mi 3768, 3782
2 Mc 2291, (2419)
1 Rv 4220
harrow 2 Mi 3825, 3286
1 Mc 2366
2 Rv 4072,4307
how 4 Mi 3437, 3477, 3577(2x)
1 Rv 4025 ("how now")
weylawey 2 Mi 3602, 3714
2 Rv 4072, 4113
2 Mc(1233), 1337
1 Rv 4269
out 2 Mi 3825, 3286
1 Mc 2366
fy 2 Mi 3552, 3739
Mi: pardee (3158); for Cristes sweete tree 3767; for Goddes herte
3815; for Goddes love (3172), 3838; for Gode 3526; for Jhesus love
3717; by armes and by blood and bones (3125); by Goddes corpus
3743; by Goddes soule (3132); by Jhesu 3711; by Jhesus, hevene kyng
3464; by Seint Thomas of Kent 3291 ; by Seint Thomas 3425, 3461 ; by
Seinte Note 3771; by my fey 3284
Mc: pardee (1234), 2297; for Goddes love 1814; for Goddes sake
2341, 2165; Ey! for verray God that nys but oon 2291; by God 1510;
by hevene kyng 2407; by my fader kyn 1515; by my fader soule 2393;
by that Lord that sit in hevene above 2162; by seint Thomas of Ynde
(1230); by my moodres sires soule 2265; straw for thy Senek 1567; by
my fay 1505; by my trouthe 1907, 2386
Rv: for Cristes peyne 4084; for Cristes saule 4263; for Goddes banes
4073; by God 4026, 4036, 4089, 4252; by Goddes dignitee 4270; by
Goddes sale 4187; by Goddes herte 4087; by Seint Cutberd 4127; by
that lord that called is Seint Jame 4264; by my fayth 4209; by my lyf
4024; by my croun 4041, 4099; by my fader kyn 4038; by my fay 4034

Narrative Patters of Affect in Four Genres of The Canterbury Tales

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Narrative Patterns of Affect in Four Genres of the "Canterbury Tales"

Author(s): Irma Taavitsainen

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Dramatic suspense is one of the acknowledged qualities of a good

2. AIM OF THE STUDY

Genre-specific vocabularies have been identified in Chaucer's works

THE CHAUCER REVIEW, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1995.

English, but whatever their specific function, they always contain an

3. GENRES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES AND

the middle layers of contemporary society; the abstract ideas of courtly

4. THE LANGUAGE OF GENRES

Genres follow linguistic patterns that act as signals to the audience

And in his outrageous anger and ire?alias, alias!?ful many

Alias, mankynde, how may it bitide

Ne Deeth, allas, ne wol nat han my lyf.

And seye "Leeve mooder, leet me in!

4.2. SAINTS' LIVES

0 grete God, that parfournest thy laude

I axed this of hevene kyng,

4.3. COURTLY ROMANCE

Alias, the wo! Alias, the peynes stronge,

What is this world? What asketh men to have?

Alias is given as a sigh opening a new section in long monologues

Lo, alle thise folk so caught were in hir las,

Appendix). Other asservations include phrases that are distributed

What! Nicholay! What, how! What, looke adoun!

Collocations with several short components occur regularly at the im

And seyde, "I wol nat kisse thee, by my fey!

At the end the fulfillment of the carpenter's punishment is pointed

Up stirte hire Alison and Nicholay,

And seyde, "Fy! alias! what have I do?"

Harrow is a genre-specific interjection borrowed from French. It is

And gan to crie "Harrow!" and "Weylaway!

"Alias!" quod he, "that I ne had heer a knave

"Out! Help! Alias! Harrow!" he gan to crye,

His wyf is swyved, and his doghter als.

one genre and are transferred to another, retain connotations from

6. STYLISTIC MARKING AND IRONY

Irony derives its force from an unexpected context: something

which the sin of gluttony is viewed in the contemplative passage with

7. INTERJECTIONS AND READER INVOLVEMENT

Interjections and short exclamations are an important device for

Early Modern English: from Imitation of Spoken to Conventions of Written Language,"

ABBREVIATIONS: Ps = The Parson's Tale, Pd = The Pardoner's

Sermons total occurrences

o/oo 19 Mc 1335,1347,1478,1757, 1783, 1784, 1785,

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