Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/598

 594 Curry personal appearance which Chaucer is so fond of introducing, apparently at random, in the presentation of his characters. The Prioress, to be sure, with her blue eyes, her soft, red mouth, and broad forehead, is said to represent the conventional med- ieval type of feminine beauty ; 6 Chaucer's pronouncement that the joined eyebrows of Creseyde constitutes a blemish is the result of an inherited literary taste; 7 the Wife of Bath is "gat-tothed" because she is accustomed to travel much; 8 and the Summoner's "fyr-reed cherubinnes face" indicates the too frequent indul- gence in strong wines and ales. 9 These are beginnings of in- vestigations in the right direction. But to our modern minds the Pardoner's physical peculiarities are not vitally related to his immoral character; they may seem, after we have become acquainted with him, entirely appropriate and perhaps rather humorous, but not essential. He has long, straight hair as yellow as wax, which hangs thinly spread over his shoulders, each hair to itself; his eyes are wide open and glaring like those of a hare; his voice is high-pitched and as "thin" as that of a goat; he is entirely without any indication of a beard; and, if we may judge from the description which he gives of himself in the act of delivering one of his powerful sermons, his neck is long and thin: Than peyne I me to strecche forth the nekke, And est and west upon the peple I bekke, As doth a dowve sitting on a berne. 10 What do these physical characteristics signify to the medi- eval mind? It is not by chance that Chaucer, the artist, hits upon these particular items rather than upon others; nor does he by chance invest the Pardoner with them rather than the Reeve or the Summoner. Here, as usual, Chaucer knows what he is about. His selection of both form and feature given to all his characters is directly influenced, I believe, by that univer- 6 Cf. The Middle English Ideal of Personal Beauty, W. C. Curry, Jr., pp. 3, 51, 66, 42, etc. 7 Ibid., p. 48; J. Fiirst, Philologus, Vol. LXI, p. 387; G. L. Hamilton, Mod. Lang. Notes, Vol. XX, p. 80; G. P. Krapp, Mod. Lang. Notes, Vol. XIX, p. 235. 8 Cf. Skeat's Oxford Chaucer, Vol. V, p 48 9 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 56 10 Ibid., C. T., C. 395.