Geoffrey Chaucer: As a Humorist

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Q:1 Discuss Chaucer's as a Humorist?

Q:2 Explain and illustrate the remark the Chaucer's whole point of view is that of a Humorist?

Chaucer's a born humorist, is rightly considered to be the first great many-sided humourist of Europe. His humor does not simply raise a slight smile which may receive us from our gloomy mood. He is, in fact, a great master of many-sided humour. All his writings abound in its variegated shapes. It is in this context that Masefield calls Chaucer "a great Renaissance gently mocking the Middle Ages".

We know that humour can be used in a broad as well as a limited sense. In a narrow sense, it means gentle mirth. In the broaden sense, it stands for boisterous humour, intellectual humour, gentle or mirthful humour, and bitter humour. Chaucer's works reflect all these different types of humour. E. Albert rightly says: "In the literature of this time, when so few poets seem to have any perception of the fun in life, the humour of Chaucer is invigorating and delightful. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is the best example of his many-sided humour. The humour of Chaucer is feebly illustrated by specimens,  for it springs up from the depths of his nature and pervades his whole work.

Chaucer reveals the fresh and spontaneous humour of the common man. He is never bitter and unsympathetic. Sometimes he ridicules the absurdities of his age. The Frair in the Summoner's Tale, who is a social parasite, is ridiculed. Chaucer's satirical tone is noted here and there when it depicts some characters in the prologue and in the Tales. He has employed pure irony against two culprits, the Pardoner, and the Summoner. Chaucer's aim is primarily to entertain us by his art of narration. For that, he never tends to be a satirist, a moralist or a preacher because he does not wish to instruct and preach. He observes his age sympathetically, humorously and liberally. Chaucer is a precursor of an essentially spontaneous English humour. Shakespeare and Fielding followed his footsteps and enriched the comic literature of the world. His humour is the outcome of generous sympathy and broad-mindedness. Humour is indeed the soul of all comedy as we find it in Chaucer.

Chaucer may be regarded as the first great English humourist. No English literary work before him reveals humour in the modern sense, Chaucer's humour highlights that quality of action, speech or writing which excites aesthetic amusement. As a humourist, Chaucer is a great humourist, because he loves mankind in spite of its foibles. Chaucer is the first writer to reveal a genuine sense of humour- humour as we recognize it today.

Except in his handling of a Monk and the Friar, there is no sting in "The Prologue" in Chaucer's ever -sympathetic humour.In his handling of the Wife of Bath, he reminds us of Shakespeare's treatment of Sir Toby in Twelfth Night and of Falstaff in Henry IV. He makes us appreciate a character even when laughing at it. When Chaucer exposes the corruption of the Church he does so with a good-humoured laugh. Moreover, Chaucer makes fun more of the individual than of the institution. He envokes in us that psychological state which makes us laugh without any malice. Moreover, he has not pledged himself to look only at the mud on the road, rather he likes also to glance at the flowers that grow around the mud. Thus his humour is essentially modern as it is steeped in the spirit of the Renaissance.

Chaucer was essentially the poet of man, intensely interested in a man and his affairs. He had good humoured tolerance for humanity. He had no disdain for fools and no disgust for rascals. While gently unmasking the roguery of rogues, he was grateful to them for the pleasure they gave. He loves to dwell on their funny traits, looked at their pranks and tricks with amused delight. His gentle temperament which made him observe with amused delight and half shut eyes the frailties of mankind made him a great humourist. His playful imagination could raise bubbles of fun out of unexpected places. It brightens whatever it touches.

Chaucer's work reflects the Kaleidoscopic humour that has a great variety: patronizing as in the case of the Clerk of Oxford, semi-farcical as in the case of the Wife of Bath, sharply satirical as on the case of the Pardoner and the Summoner. Humour with Chaucer is natural and spontaneous. Chaucer's humour is all- pervading and all-pervasive. For example, there are tragedies as well as comedies in The Canterbury Tales: but the thread of honest laughter runs through them all, serious and gay alike.

The height of tolerance comes when a writer makes fun of himself also. That is exactly what Chaucer does. Chaucer takes delight in raising a gentle smile at himself. For example, he has given a humourous description of himself in The Prologue to The Tales of Sir Thopas, in The House of Fame, and in The Prologue to The Legend of Good Women. Chaucer cracks many jests at his own self. In The Prologue, he refers to himself as a simple unlettered man: " My wit is short, as you may well understand".

Chaucer's humour sometimes takes resort to suggestion and paradox. The suggestiveness of his humour becomes all the more striking and effective when it becomes paradoxical. He says something but suggests just the opposite. He not only means more than what he says: sometimes he means just the opposite of what he says. Thus Chaucer accepts paradox in life and mirrors it in his paradoxical manner. Chaucer's skill in narration is mingled with his surpassing gift of many-sided humour. Chaucer was gifted with the power of ridiculing the follies and hypocrisies of his day but never like Swift. True humour enables us to love while we 'laugh with' other, and do not ' laugh at' others. Most of Chaucer's humour is perfectly innocent fun.

Conclusion:

Chaucer is a great humorist of his age. He is a great master of many-sided humour. We can say that Chaucer is the first writer to reveal a genuine sense of humour, humour as we recognize it today.

Critical Remarks:

"Now even if we consider Chaucer only as a humorist, he was in this very exact sense a great humorist.........! mean a humorist in the grand style; a humorist whose broad outlook embraced the world as a whole, and saw even great humanity against a background of great things...The Chaucerian irony is sometimes so large that it is too large to be seen. (G. K. Chesterton)

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