THE LOGIC OF THE CLERK'S TALE

If we abandon the idea of the Clerk as yet another fallible pilgrim narrator (an idea now discredited through over-use), we must read the Clerk's Tale as suited to an eminent Aristotelian philosopher. Thus the Clerk of Oxenford examines with systematic rigour the problematic moral virtue of obedience, not merely in the relation of lord and servant, but also in that of husband and wife, in the light of the Wife of Bath's passionate advocacy of the principle of consent in marriage. Accordingly, we must accept the Clerk's judgement that the husband, Walter, is a monster, deserving only of censure, whereas the conduct of the wife, Grisilde, is beyond all praise.