Questions of Intent

Abstract

We might expect Chaucer’s sensitivity on the subject of authorial intention to be complemented by a fertile interest in the whole question of human intention. The tales do not disappoint us in this respect. To read them is to become freshly conscious how spoken words and actions constitute the public display of an individual’s entente. Few other poets have so deftly explored that process of display, or have so triumphantly mimicked the excessive sincerity projected by an insincere speaker. On occasion, also, Chaucer creates speech which presents someone in the very act of deluding himself about his motives: a good example is January’s declaration of his entente to marry [Merchant’s Tale, 1396–468] chronically confusing prudence and piety with an elderly lecher’s noxious desire to possess soft female flesh within the sanctifying institution of matrimony.