The matter of cosmopolis. multi-cultural motifs in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Work (with a special emphasis on the Shipman’s tale and the character of the shipman)

Abstract

C. David Benson says that: “Perhaps the most extreme disjunction of teller and tale is the contrast between the rough, murderous Shipman of the General Prologue and the cool, sophisticated art of the Shipman’s Tale.” The author of the present article hopes to be able to show that there is a link between the character of the Shipman and the nature of the tale told by him, and that this link is provided by, among other things, the medieval understanding of cosmopolitanism. The problem of cosmopolitanism was no doubt important for Chaucer, who himself may be thought of as embodying this social phenomenon, being a well-traveled man, like several of the pilgrims he shows in The Canterbury Tales, and being a man who was deeply influenced by at least three foreign cultures and languages, while showing little interest in his native English tradition. Naturally, I do not intend to subscribe to the view that Chaucer was a typical, rootless cosmopolitan. On the other hand, the matter of the so called worldliness, in the context of Chaucer’s work, seems to offer many shades of meaning, ranging from appreciation to condemnation.