Chaucer’s Pardoner : food, drink, and the discourse of desecration

Abstract

The centrality of food and drink in the ‘Introduction to the Pardoner’s Tale’, the ‘Pardoner’s Prologue’, and the ‘Pardoner’s Tale’ itself has been shown by a number of scholars, in particular Martin Stevens & Kathleen Falvey (1982), Clarence Miller & Roberta Bux Bosse (1972), Joseph Millichap (1974), Robert Nichols (1967), and Frederick Tupper (1914). This essay builds on their insights by showing that Chaucer deliberately constructs a semantic field of words relating to food, some of which are neologisms. The scholars mentioned above show how the bread and wine of the texts have deeper metaphorical resonances with the Mass. But their insights can be taken further, by demonstrating that Chaucer subverts this layer of meaning with yet another discourse set: words and deep metaphors relating to brokenness, violence, and death, as opposed to the whole, the healthy – the holiness of Christ’s body and blood, and its representation in the Christian Mass. In carrying this out, the Pardoner is one of Chaucer’s most evil characters, but also becomes one of his most ethical constructions, as he demonstrates what a Christless world would be like.