But Including This, Here Are
At Least Seven Different Themes Borrowed From Marco Polo's Book, On Which
To Be Sure His Poetical Contemporary Plays The Most Extraordinary
Variations.
[Sidenote: Chaucer and Marco Polo.]
[78 bis. - In the third volume of The Complete Works of Geoffrey
Chaucer, Oxford, 1894, the Rev. Walter W. Skeat gives (pp. 372 seqq.) an
Account of the Sources of the Canterbury Tales. Regarding The Squieres
Tales, he says that one of his sources was the Travels of Marco; Mr.
Keighley in his Tales and Popular Fictions, published in 1834, at p. 76,
distinctly derives Chaucer's Tale from the travels of Marco Polo. (Skeat,
l. c., p. 463, note.) I cannot quote all the arguments given by the Rev.
W. W. Skeat to support his theory, pp. 463-477.
Regarding the opinion of Professor Skeat of Chaucer's indebtedness to
Marco Polo, cf. Marco Polo and the Squire's Tale, by Professor John
Matthews Manly, vol. xi. of the Publications of the Modern Language
Association of America, 1896, pp. 349-362. Mr. Manly says (p. 360): "It
seems clear, upon reviewing the whole problem, that if Chaucer used Marco
Polo's narrative, he either carelessly or intentionally confused all the
features of the setting that could possibly be confused, and retained not
a single really characteristic trait of any person, place or event. It is
only by twisting everything that any part of Chaucer's story can be
brought into relation with any part of Polo's. To do this might be
allowable, if any rational explanation could be given for Chaucer's
supposed treatment of his 'author,' or if there were any scarcity of
sources from which Chaucer might have obtained as much information about
Tartary as he seems really to have possessed; but such an explanation
would be difficult to devise, and there is no such scarcity. Any one of
half a dozen accessible accounts could be distorted into almost if not
quite as great resemblance to the Squire's Tale as Marco Polo's can."
Mr. A. W. Pollard, in his edition of The Squire's Tale (Lond., 1899)
writes: "A very able paper, by Prof. J. M. Manly, demonstrates the
needlessness of Prof. Skeat's theory, which has introduced fresh
complications into an already complicated story. My own belief is that,
though we may illustrate the Squire's Tale from these old accounts of
Tartary, and especially from Marco Polo, because he has been so well
edited by Colonel Yule, there is very little probability that Chaucer
consulted any of them. It is much more likely that he found these details
where he found more important parts of his story, i.e. in some lost
romance. But if we must suppose that he provided his own local colour, we
have no right to pin him down to using Marco Polo to the exclusion of
other accessible authorities." Mr. Pollard adds in a note (p. xiii.):
"There are some features in these narratives, e.g. the account of the
gorgeous dresses worn at the Kaan's feast, which Chaucer with his love of
colour could hardly have helped reproducing if he had known them." - H. C.]
[1] See Ferrazzi, Manuele Dantesca, Bassano, 1865, p. 729.
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