Leydi Felsefe mi yoksa gizli bir Bath’lı Kadın mı: Geoffrey Chaucer’ın Melibee’nin Hikâyesi’ndeki Prudence karakteri

Öz

Dante ve Chaucer’ın başucu kitabı olarak bilinen Boethius’un Felsefenin Tesellisi edebiyat dünyasında emsalsiz bir yere sahiptir. Dante, Vita Nuova, Convivio ve Commedia’da Boethian öğelerinden yararlanır. Diğer eserlerinin arasında, Chaucer’ın Troilus ve Criseyde’de Boethius’un Tesellisi’nden yararlanması Chaucer kritikleri tarafından etraflıca incelenmiştir. Roma İmparatorluğu’nun çöküş zamanına ait bir eser olan Teselli, kader, talih ve özgür iradeye odaklanır ve Chaucer’ın kendisi, Boece, ve bir Anglo-Sakson kralı olan Büyük Alfred tarafından da olmak üzere birçok dile çevrilir. Felsefi bir inceleme olarak kabul edilen bu istisnai eser, Aristoteles, Stoik, Epikür ve yeni-Platonculuk düşüncelerinin bir karışımı niteliğindedir. Teselli, felsefi konuların yanı sıra, Leydi Felsefe’yi Boethius’a rehber, öğretmen ve doktor olarak öne çıkararak kadın söyleminin gücü aracılığıyla kadınların erkekler üzerindeki otoritesini gösterir. Bir diğer kadın karakter Chaucer’ın Melibee’nin Hikâyesi’ndeki Prudence, Leydi Felsefe’nin izinden giderek güçlü söylemiyle kocası Melibee’yi teselli eder ve iyiliğe yönlendirir. Eleştirmenler tarafından çoğunlukla sıkıcı bir metin olarak görülen Melibee’nin Hikâyesi Chaucer’ın en az sevilen öyküleri kategorisine girer. Fakat ben bu makalede hikâyeyi olumlu bir bakış açısıyla kadın düşmanlığıyla bilinen bir dönemde toplumsal cinsiyet rollerini tersine çeviren kadınların erkekler üzerindeki hâkimiyetini ve otoritesini ortaya koyan bir metin olarak okuyacağım. Bu doğrultuda, Prudence’ın kadınlar ve erkekler arasındaki sonu gelmeyen güç mücadelesinde zafer bayrağını kaldıran gizli bir Bath’lı Kadın olduğunu iddia ediyorum. Son olarak makale Virginia Woolf’un Kendine Ait Bir Oda’daki tartışmasına uygun olarak kadınların kurgunun yanı sıra gerçek dünyada da paylarını almaları gerektiğine dair bir çağrıyla sona ermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Felsefenin Tesellisi
• Leydi Felsefe
• Melibee’nin Hikâyesi
• Prudence
• Ortaçağ Kadını

A Lady Philosophy or A Concealed Wife of Bath: Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prudence in the Tale of Melibee

Abstract

Renowned as a reference book of Dante and Chaucer, Boethius’s Consolation of Philosopy occupies a peerless room in literary realm. Dante draws on the Boethian elements in his Vita Nuova, the Convivio and the Commedia. Among his other works, Chaucer’s making use of Boethius’s Consolation in Troilus and Criseyde has been well documented by Chaucerians. A work belonging to the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Consolation focuses on fate, fortune and free will and was translated into numerous languages even by Chaucer himself, Boece, and by an Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great. Recognised as a philosophical treatise, this exceptional work embraces a patchwork of Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, and neo-Platonic thoughts. Alongside its philosophical concerns, featuring Lady Philosophy as a guide, teacher and a doctor to Boethius, Consolation suggests the authority of women over men via the power of female discourse. Tracing the footsteps of Lady Philosophy, another female character, Chaucer’s Prudence in the Tale of Melibee consoles and guides her husband Melibee to goodness via her powerful discourse. Mostly treated as a dull text by critics, the Tale of Melibee is put in the category of the least favourite tales of Chaucer. In this paper, yet, I will focus on the tale with positive lens and read it as a text revealing the mastery and authority of women over men reversing the gender roles in a period well-known for its misogyny. Thereby, I assert that Prudence is an undisclosed Wife of Bath who raises the flag of victory in the everlasting power struggle between women and men. Finally, the paper comes to an end with an appeal for attraction in that women should take their share in real world alongside in fiction in accordance with Virginia Woolf’s argument in A Room of One’s Own.

Keywords

• Consolation of Philosophy
• Lady Philosophy
• Tale of Melibee
• Prudence
• Medieval Woman

References

1. Benson, C. D. (1986). Chaucer’s drama of style. Chapel Hill, N.C.
2. Boethius. (2021, December 20). The consolation of philosophy. The Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14328/14328-h/14328-h.htm
3. Bornstein, D. (1978). Chaucer’s tale of Melibee as an example of the style clergial. The Chaucer Review, 12 (4), 236-254.
4. Camargo, M. (1991). The consolation of Pandarus. The Chaucer Review, 25 (3), 214-228.
5. Charles O. C. (1973). The tale of Melibee. ChauR, 7, 267-280.
6. Chaucer, G. (1957). “The tale of Melibee.” In Robinson, F. N. (Ed.), The canterbury tales. 2nd. ed. (pp.168-188). Houghton Mifflin.
7. Christmas, R. A. (1968). Chaucer’s tale of Melibee: Its tradition and its function in fragment vıı of the Canterbury tales. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California].
8. Curley, T. F. (1987). The consolation of philosophy as a work of literature. The American Journal of Philology, 108 (2), 343-367.

9. Foster, M. (2008). Echoes of communal response in the tale of Melibee. The Chaucer Review, 42 (4), 409-430.
10. Gaylord, A. (1961). Uncle Pandarus as lady philosophy. PMASAL, 46, 571-595.
11. Geismar, E. W. (1969). The style and technique of Chaucer’s translations from French. [Doctoral dissertation, Yale University].
12. Hanawalt, B. A. (1998). Medieval English women in rural and urban domestic space. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 52, 19-26.
13. Horbny, A.S. (1995). Philosophy. In Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary. (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.
14. Ker, W. P. (1895). The poetry of Chaucer. Quarterly Review, 180, 521-48.
15. Mackail, J. W. (1909). The springs of Helicon. Macmillan.
16. O’Keefe, E. T. (2021). The methods of Prudence in Chaucer’s tale of Melibee. [Master’s thesis, University of Dallas].
17. Owen, C. A. (1973). The tale of Melibee. The Chaucer Review, 7 (4), 267-280.
18. Pearsall, D. (1985). The Canterbury tales. Routledge.
19. Power, E. (1975). Medieval Women. Cambridge University Press.
20. Stillwell, G. B. (1940). The political meaning of the tale of Melibee. [Doctoral dissertation, State University of Iowa].
21. Strohm, P. (1967). The allegory of the tale of Melibee. The Chaucer Review, 2 (1), 32-42.
22. Stroud, T. A. (1951). Boethius’ influence on Chaucer’s Troilus. Modern Philology, 49 (1), 1-9.
23. Thundy, Z. (1976). Chaucer’s quest for wisdom in the canterbury tales. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 77 (4), 582-598.
24. Walling, A. (2018). Placebo effects. Studies in Philology, 115 (1), 1-24.
25. Whittock, T. (1968). A reading of the Canterbury tales. Cambridge University Press.
26. Woolf, V. (2021, December 20). A room of one’s own. Feedbooks. http://www.feedbooks.com
27. Wyatt, T. 2006. “Farewell to love”, In S. Greenblatt (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. I. 8th ed. (p.596). W. W. Norton & Company.
28. Yager, S. (1995). Boethius, philosophy and Chaucer’s marriage group. Carmina Philosophiae, 4, 77-89.