Epilogue: Uncaging Chaucer’s Animal Voice

Abstract

When I first began to notice Chaucer projecting himself into talking birds, I became disenchanted with his dismissal of these vibrant voices, especially since he linked them with the voices of similarly dismissed women. But then I began to see that his lively avian performances also work to shift the emphasis of these stories in a way that lets the animal world into the equation, and this intriguing possibility suggested further thought.

Taak any bryd, and put it in a cage,

And do al thyn entente and thy corage

To foster it tendrely with mete and drynke

Of all deyntees that thou kanst bithynke,

And keep it al so clenly as thou may,

Although his cage of gold be never so gay,

Yet hath this brid, by twenty thousand foold,

Levere in a forest that is rude and coold

Goon ete wormes and swich wrecchednesse.

For evere this brid wol doon his bisynesse

To escape out of his cage, yif he may.

His libertee this brid desireth ay.

Flessh is so newefangel …

Chaucer, Manciple’s Tale 163–74, 193