Thursday, August 15, 2019

 

The Five Senses in Hell

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), "The Parson's Tale," Canterbury Tales X.206-209:
And forther over, they shul have defaute of alle manere delices; for certes, delices ben after the appetites of the five wittes, as sighte, heringe, smellinge, savoringe, and touchinge, | but in helle hir sighte shal be ful of derknesse and of smoke, and therfore ful of teeres; and hire heringe ful of waimentinge and of grintinge of teeth, as seyth Jesu Crist. | Hir nosethirles shul be ful of stinkinge stink, and as seyth Isaie the prophete, 'hire savoring shal be ful of bitter galle,' | and touchinge of al hir body ycovered with 'fir that nevere shal quenche, and with wormes that nevere shul dien,' as God seyth by the mouth of Isaie.
Nevill Coghill very briefly summarizes but doesn't translate "The Parson's Tale" in his modern English version of The Canterbury Tales (1951; rpt. London: Penguin Books, 1977), but the passage quoted above is easy enough to understand without a translation.

I searched quickly in Richard Newhauser, "The Parson's Tale," in Robert M. Correale and Mary Hamel, edd., Sources and Analogues of the Canterbury Tales, Vol. I (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2002), pp. 529-611, but didn't find any sources for this passage.

I haven't tracked down the references cited by Lee W. Patterson, "The Parson's Tale and the Quitting of The Canterbury Tales," Traditio 34 (1978) 331-380 (at 355):
To amplify the second phrase ('drede ... of the horrible peynes of helle') Chaucer relies on the tradition of the supplicia damnatorum, which provides him with both a list of punishments and their rationales, e.g., the sinner who has indulged in 'delices' while alive will have each of his five senses assaulted with ugliness and pain while dead (207-210).66 But again, rather than present a random list of items Chaucer provides a coherent structure by appropriating Gregory's exegesis of a passage from Job: 'Suffre, Lord, that I may a while biwaille and wepe, er I go withoute returnyng to the derke lond, covered with the derknesse of deeth; to the lond of mysese and of derknesse, whereas is the shadwe of deeth, whereas ther is noon ordre or ordinaunce, but grisly drede that evere shal laste' (176-177, Job 10.21). This passage is then broken up into seven phrases which are carefully expounded and among which the various supplicia are distributed.

66 For comparable but less well-organized discussions of the pains of hell, see Peter Damian, Institutio monialis 12 (PL 145.745-746) and The Pricke of Conscience 174-203. See also the passage from MS Trinity R.14.7 printed by Bryan and Dempster 745-758.



<< Home
Newer›  ‹Older

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?