‘With lokkes crulle as they were leyd in presse. Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse..’
The Clerk was a very studious person. He dedicated all his time to the pursuit of knowledge. He was indifferent to personal comfort and appearance, and too deeply immersed in his studies to join in the scramble for profitable appointments. He was very quiet, withdrawn from the world and didn’t enjoy the social prestige that the Squire had.
The Squire was a lover and a vigorous knight. He liked poetry and flirting with the woman. He had spent some time on military service in Floundres, Artore and Picardy. He sang and played the flute all day long and was as fresh as the month of May.
‘Singinge he was, or floytinge, al the day; He was as fresh as is the month of May.’
The Squire was lovely comfortable clothes which were embroidered all over so that he looked like a fields of red and white flowers. On the other hand the Oxford Scholar wore an outer cloak which was thread bare for he had not yet got himself a position in the church and was not worldly enough to have a circular post.
The Squire was very active and rode his horse excellently. He could even compose tunes and write lyrics for them. He danced, drew and wrote well. He enjoyed life and because of all his happiness never slept at night any more than a nightingale does.
‘He sleep namoore than dooth a nightingale.’
The Clerk sort of ignores the world and its physical attractions. He is shut up in a private world of study that takes up no account of his fellow men. He had not been appointed to an ecclesiastical living, such as a chaplainry or the cure of a parish. He was quite poor and had no time for permanent jobs, as he was too busy studying. Studying indeed was his overriding interest. The little money he had, and borrowed from his friends, he would spend on books rather than food, clothes, fiddles and psalteries.
‘Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre; But al that he mighte of his freendes hente, On bookes and on lerninge he is spente’
The Clerk’s speech was very edifying and concerned with moral issues.
‘Sowninge in moral vertu was his speche.’
He didn’t speak one word more that was necessary, and what he said was said properly, modestly very pithily and in a learned manner in order to inspire people. He would gladly learn and gladly teach.
‘Noght o word spak he moore than was neede, And that was seyd in forme and reverence, And short and quik and ful of hy sentence.’
The Squire too was a respectful man as he was courteous, humble, willing to serve, and he carved the meat before his father at his trouble.
‘Curteis he was, loely, and servisable, And carf biforn his fader at the table.’
Chaucer criticizes every character. He acknowledges the Clerk’s single-mindedness, his acute intellect and his high moral standards, but without overlooking the element of absurdity in such threadbare poverty and emaciation. Chaucer puts the Squire as a more symbolic figure of youthful vigour and light-heartedness. Personally I like the Squire better as he is a more sociable person who likes the outdoors and lives a happy life whereas the Oxford Scholar is not as outgoing and spends a risky life indoors studying, depending on his friends for money without having any jobs.
By
Emma
Mesilio
