Perhaps we call it a satiric norm. Or perhaps we associate it with the Augustinian idea that whatever is said obscurely or figuratively in one part of Scripture is said plainly elsewhere. Or perhaps we rely on a literal understanding and see it as being what the Parson's fellow Canterbury pilgrims wanted--"som virtuous sentence" that makes a suitable end for all of their tales. In any event, conventional wisdom maintains that Chaucer's Parson's Tale is a relentlessly straightforward presentation of the values underlying the entire Canterbury Tales (CT). Yes, it is a long "meditacioun" on the sacrament of penance and the seven deadly sins. And, no, it isn't nearly as interesting as the Miller's Tale or even the Knight's Tale. But how many believers would say that penance is their favorite sacrament?
Raybin and Holley's essay collection invites the reader to revisit this conventional wisdom about the Tale, even "to enjoy the sense of play to be found in it, the clarity of its method, and the rhythm of its prose". (xiv) This is indeed an ambitious undertaking, and on the whole the volume succeeds in it. The first submission, Siegfried Wenzel's "The Parson's Tale in Current Literary Studies", works well with the last, David Raybin's annotated "Bibliography of Scholarship Treating The Parson's Tale" in providing a sense of the range of opinion on the work. Wenzel distinguishes between perspectivist and teleological understandings of the Tale: in the former, the Tale is, like the others in CT, an individual's partial reflection of truth; in the latter, the Tale articulates the goal of the entire work and "forms a different and higher stage in a progression or forward movement of tale-telling" (9).
Wenzel maintains that the teleological understanding currently dominates the literature, and it is certainly better represented in this collection. But in arguing that the Parson "does not speak Truth, but truth-according-to-the Parson" (117), Judith Ferster ably articulates the perspectivist viewpoint. The most effective section of Ferster's essay is a chart that puts the Parson's language next to the Latin source and a literal English translation. Unlike his source, the Parson consistently calls attention to himself as speaker or "manager of the discourse". (131) Ferster emphasizes this point because it bears directly on her observation that the Parson's views on matters ranging from sexuality to politics, while orthodox, are not the only views on the matters that an orthodox believer could hold. Recognizing the partiality of the Parson's views reminds us that the "final, absolute voice" in CT belongs not to the Parson, but to God. (149)
A key component of Ferster's argument is her distinction between the attitudes towards confession reflected in The Parson's Tale and in Chaucer's Retraction. While both attitudes are orthodox, the former stresses human responsibility, the latter God's grace. But in the strongest of the collection's teleological readings, Gregory Roper argues that the Retraction is a result of "the lesson he taught others in The Parson's Tale" and that Chaucer speaks it in "his own true penitential voice" (173). Making sophisticated use of literary theory and medieval theology, Roper shows how readers might use the descriptions of sin in the Tale to construct autobiographies of sin; in doing so, they would see themselves as God might and would then undertake to reform themselves. Language in CT thus moves "from rhetoric, to meditation and psychological restructuring" (170). In contrast to Ferster, Roper emphasizes how little alteration Chaucer makes of his sources, saying that the Tale "moves away from artfulness, artifice, and rhetoric and into a submission to the general, typical, objective penitential process" (171).
Like Roper, David Raybin focuses on the process of penance in "'Manye been the weyes': The Flower, its Roots, and the Ending of The CT". But where Roper highlights the transformation of Satisfaction, Raybin emphasizes "the movement through life" that precedes such transformation (17). Building on the remarks that "manye been the weyes espirituels that leden folk to our Lord" and that penance is but one of the ways, Raybin argues for Chaucer's "tolerance for a flawed humanity", his acceptance of "many aspects of human nature and experience that would be deemed unsatisfactory by the spiritually conservative" (35). According to Raybin, Chaucer sees sin as the inevitable "preexistent drought" to "be broken by [the] rain" of penance (15). While his argument is provocative and more nuanced than can be fairly summarized here, it might be more convincing if he had elaborated on what these "manye...weyes" to God could have been other than heartfelt penance and transformation. Why, for instance, is the line not simply a pious acknowledgment of God's absolute power? One of God's ways is to strike a person down in his sin and turn him around, as he struck and transformed the unrepentant Saul on the road to Damascus. But as was emphasized again and again in late medieval thought, this is not at all the sort of thing God usually does. Instead, he customarily works through the sacraments he has ordained. Certainly "suffering and sin...seem to be the human lot" (35), but humans suffer because they sin, and each sin is to be remedied in thought, word, and deed.
The remaining contributions are somewhat less ambitious than these by Ferster, Roper, and Raybin. Richard Newhauser discusses the genre of vernacular penitential manual and argues that the closest equivalent to Chaucer's work may be Heinrich of Langenstien's Erchantnuzz der Sund. Peggy Knapp examines the Tale for evidence of the typical Lollard vocabulary discussed in the work of Anne Hudson. Knapp finds in the Tale an overlap of orthodox and heterodox views and suggests that it "functions to neutralize the demonization of Lollardy" (113). In an almost impenetrable technical discussion, Daniel J. Ransom supports Manly and Rickert's contention that Wynkyn de Worde made use of a "manuscript of considerable quality" in his printing of the Tale (77). In discussing how the Tale provides closure to CT, Charlotte Gross makes fascinating use of Augustine's understanding of time. The Parson closes the work both by orienting his listeners to the eternal and by reminding them that the work of their own lives is not yet over. And Linda Tarte Holley's Epilogue to the collection highlights the Parson's energetic rationality.
As is fitting for a book on the Parson's Tale, Raybin and Holley's collection performs a useful function with considerable vigor. The essays in Closure inThe Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale are well worth reading and should encourage reconsideration of this least read of all of Chaucer's tales.