focus to the Roman emperor, who had learned of the
slaughter of his Christian retinue in Syria and the dis-
honor done to his daughter, and sent his senator and
other lords to Syria to exact vengeance. The senator is
on his way back to Rome when he chances upon
Custance’s ship. He entrusts her and her son to his
wife. This state of affairs remains for some time, until
King Alla comes to Rome to receive penance from the
pope for killing his mother.
Word spreads in Rome that Alla has arrived, and
when the senator hears of this, he insists on showing
the Northumbrian king reverence. Custance’s son
attends the feast and stares at Alla, who “hath of this
child greet wonder” (l. 1016) and asks the senator who
the boy is. The senator proceeds to tell the story of how
he and his mother were found at sea. Alla begins to
wonder if this is his son and goes with the senator to
his house to see if the boy’s mother is his wife. Alla and
Custance are soon reunited. Then Alla invites the
emperor to dinner, and Custance reveals herself and is
reunited with her father. Her son is made emperor,
and Custance returns to England with Alla, where she
lives until his death, after which she returns to Rome to
live with her father until death separates them.
This tale’s genre is diffi cult to defi ne, demonstrating
characteristics of HAGIOGRAPHY and ROMANCE, but con-
forming to neither. “The Man of Law’s Tale” is also a
highly rhetorical work. Unlike his sources, Nicholas
Trivet’s CHRONICLE written in ANGLO-NORMAN and Gow-
er’s rendition of Trivet’s story, Chaucer embellishes the
style of his version with the ornate rhetorical fi gures
recommended by medieval rhetoricians. The poem is
particularly self-conscious, constantly referring to the
storytelling with narratorial interjections (e.g., “I dar
sey yow na moore,” l. 273).
Thematically, the poem emphasizes that Custance’s
strength of faith empowers her in the face of adversity.
Her passivity makes her piety more reverent; she does
not respond with violence to the threats presented by
the two royal mothers of the story because she entrusts
her fate to God. It is her constant faith in the eyes of
inconstant FORTUNE that allows for her eventual happy
ending, although this, too, is ultimately transient,
which is reinforced by the tale’s fi nal emphasis on
death. Some have argued that the tale focuses on the
manifestations of her belief and not the faith behind it,
making it more interested in propriety than in virtue.
The tale ends with a problematic epilogue. In it, the
Host praises the Man of Law’s tale and accuses the Par-
son of being a Lollard (see LOLLARDISM). Parallelling
Custance’s stolid nature, the Parson does not reply—an
ambiguous response at best. Another pilgrim speaks up
to insist that she or he will not hear a sermon, and offers
to tell a tale lacking in philosophy, legal terminology,
and Latin instead. This passage proves a challenge,
since the name of the pilgrim varies in the different
manuscripts, being variously named the Shipman, the
Summoner, the Squire, and the Wife of Bath. To make
matters worse, it appears that these names were scribal
or editorial inventions based on whose tale appears
next in the manuscript. Even the epilogue is question-
able, as it does not appear in all manuscripts.
Recent feminist scholarship has further explored the
tale’s obvious misogyny, displayed both in Custance’s
extreme passivity and silence and in the monstrosity of
the mothers-in-law, both of whom further demonize
themselves by desiring authority. Other critics have
examined Chaucer’s portrayal of the SARACENs, includ-
ing his knowledge of the Koran. Still, this tale has not
undergone the frenzy of scholarly examination that oth-
ers have, and there is room for more work to be done.
FURTHER READING
Allen, Elizabeth. “Chaucer Answers Gower: Constance and
the Trouble with Reading.” ELH 64 (1997): 627–655.
Clogan, Paul M. “The Narrative Style of the Man of Law’s
Tale.” Medievaliaet Humanistica N.S. 8 (1977): 217–233.
Cooper, Helen. Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury
Tales. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
123–138.
Delsanta, Rodney. “And of Great Reverence: Chaucer’s Man
of Law.” Chaucer Review 5 (1971): 288–310.
Spearing, A. C. Textual Subjectivity: The Encoding of Subjectiv-
ity in Medieval Narratives and Lyrics. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2005: 101–136.
Sullivan, William L. “Chaucer’s Man of Law as a Literary
Critic.” MLN 68 (1953): 1–8.
Michael FosterMANUSCRIPT From the Latin manu scriptus,
“written by hand,” a manuscript is a document that hasMANUSCRIPT 263