CONFESSIO AMANTIS), it has been suggested that Chaucer
here criticizes Gower’s version of the story, and this is
why Gower removed a fl attering reference to Chaucer
in book 8 of his Confessio Amantis, though recent
research has discredited this theory. Because authors
are not accountable for the perspectives of their char-
acters, this description has been understood as a
betrayal of the Man of Law’s rigid moral code.
Understanding the Man of Law’s character is essen-
tial to understanding his tale. His deliberate obtuseness
makes his own tale that much harder to accept as a
serious and instructive story. The story instead uncov-
ers the Man of Law’s own moral code, which has more
to do with appearing righteous than with doing the
right thing, although some recent scholarship has chal-
lenged this general view, pointing out that in the tale
Chaucer asks serious questions about how evil can
remain in a world created by a powerful and righteous
God.
The Man of Law’s tale begins with a prologue (told
in RHYME ROYAL) against poverty, which deprives a per-
son of respect and affection, before proceeding on to
the narrative. In part 1 (ll. 34–385), a company of mer-
chants travel from Syria to Rome both to trade their
wares and to fi nd entertainments. They catch sight of
Custance, the Roman emperor’s daughter, whose
beauty has been the talk of the Romans. After their
return, the merchants tell the sultan of Syria of her
beauty; he immediately falls in love with this beautiful
woman and wishes to wed her. The sultan sends for
his private council and tells them of his intentions.
When they warn him that no Christian prince would
let one of his children be allowed to marry under Mus-
lim law, the sultan responds with a simple solution: He
will convert to Christianity to have her. When word of
this reaches the Roman emperor, he quickly agrees and
sends Custance, who then goes “with sorwe al over-
come” (l. 264) to Syria to marry the sultan. Several
Romans accompany her.
The sultan’s mother, whom the Man of Law calls a
“welle of vices” (l. 323), hears of her son’s intentions
and convinces her councillors not to give up the Mus-
lim faith or the “hooly lawes of our Alkaron [Al-Koran,
or the Koran with its Arabic defi nite article] / Yeven by
Goddes message Makomete [Mohammed]” (ll. 332–
333). She suggests they go through the Christian ritu-
als in any case and pretend to be Christians, while she
also schemes to do away with her son’s Christian
bride.
In the second part (ll. 386–875), the sultan’s mother
succeeds in killing the Roman Christians and the sul-
tan, because “she hirself wolde al the contree lede” (l.
434). Custance is put on a rudderless boat and set
adrift. Her boat carries her from the eastern Mediter-
ranean to the Strait of Gibraltar and then continues
northward all the way to Northumberland, where she
is fi nally cast ashore. She is discovered by King Alla’s
constable, who with his wife Hermengild promises to
care for her. They are converted from their native reli-
gion, and Custance lives pleasantly with them until
Satan causes a young knight to fall in love with her, “so
hoote, of foul affeccioun, / That verraily hym thoughte
he sholde spille,” (ll. 586–587) with a pun on spille as
meaning both “ejaculate,” and “die,” which of course
were elided medicinally anyway. Custance “wolde do
no synne” (l. 590) and so rejects the knight. He is infu-
riated and retaliates by cutting Hermengild’s throat
and putting the bloody knife by Custance, and then
accusing her of the murder in court. However, the
knight is miraculously stricken down, inspiring the
king “and many another in that place” (l. 685) to con-
vert to Christianity.
King Alla then marries Custance, which displeases
his mother, Donegild. When Alla goes to war in Scot-
land, Custance returns to the constable’s care and bears
a son who is baptized Mauricius. A messenger is sent
to tell King Alla of his son’s birth, but Donegild makes
him drunk, steals his letters, and substitutes one with a
letter which announces that Custance’s baby was a
monster, and she herself was a sorcerous whore.
Though upset, Alla writes back insisting on mercy for
Custance, whereupon Donegild again gets the messen-
ger drunk and replaces the letter with another counter-
feit ordering Custance’s banishment. Custance is once
again set adrift, this time with her baby “wepyng in her
arm” (l. 834).
In part three (ll. 876–1162), Alla returns, discovers
his mother’s treachery, and kills her. This does not
help Custance, who drifts at sea until her ship returns
to the Mediterranean. At this point the story shifts262 “MAN OF LAW’S TALE, THE”