This article is in a series about 5 different Arthurian legends that have some connection to the production of Spamalot. The piece of folklore that is of concern in this article is the tale of Sir Thopas, one of the 24 stories from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffery Chaucer.
Background on Chaucer
Before we begin this tale, it is imperative to explain that this is a story within a story. This is a parody of Arthurian romantic literature. The story itself is meandering, odd, and overall terrible compared to the actual mastery that Chaucer exhibits in his poetic skills.
“Since Chaucer is a poet who elsewhere shows complete mastery of his stanza-forms, the apparently random distribution of varying tail-rhyme forms in 'Thopas' demands explanation” (Burrow, 56).
The reason why the poem feels meandering and ‘random’ is because the story is told by a terrible bard.
Image: Sketch of Geoffrey Chaucer, Artist: Unknown
Chaucer as a Character
Before the tale of Sir Thopas is told, a pilgrim by the name of Chaucer (a fictional version of Geoffrey Chaucer) is making his way to the Canterbury Cathedral (Robinson, 2016). The pilgrim decides to make a pitstop and meets the host Harry Bailly who calls Chaucer out in an incredibly cruel manner.
“What sort of man are you?...he would be a little doll for any woman to embrace in her arms, small and fine in face. He seems elf-like in his countenance, for he is sociable with no creature” (Chaucer, 697-702)
So, the incredibly cruel Bailly mocks the pilgrim for his smaller frame and remarks that he isn’t very sociable. The host demands a story from the man and he replies that he only knows one rhyme, but it is “some excellent thing” (711). So he is really hyping this tale up for the crowd.
The First Fit*
Now that we have gone through the prologue, we can finally begin the Tale of Sir Thopas. Chaucer introduces Sir Thopas and describes some rather feminine attributes of the knight such as his “lips as red as a rosebud” (727), “Like saffron was his hair and his beard” (731), and “His robe was a rich silken material which cost many half-pennies (733-735). Of course, there is nothing wrong with a man being feminine or having saffron hair, or wearing silk, most of us would probably be envious of Thopas’ luscious locks or his incredible fit. I am merely pointing out that Chaucer is describing Thopas in a stereotypically feminine manner. Then, Thopas has a very nice dream about an elf queen (787-789) and he is really into this elf. He laments
‘“I will truly love an elf-queen, for in this world is no woman worthy to be my mate; I renounce all other women, and I will take myself over dale and hill to an elf-queen.”’ (Chaucer, 793- 796)
Image: Sir Thopas chasing after the Elf Queen. Artist: Warwick Gobble
Thopas is so enamored with this mystical Elf-girl that he hops onto his horse and rides straight into a fairyland to look for her (803-806). However, our knight is confronted by a terrible giant, Sir Elephant who demands Thopas to leave or else he will kill him and his horse.
“Young knight, by Mohamed, unless you spur out of my haunt, I will slay your charger with my mace” (811-816).
Our 'very brave' knight then somehow manages to forget his armor but totally promises that he will fight the giant threatening “As I hope for bliss, tomorrow I will meet you when I am in armor. And I hope, by my faith, you shall yet very bitterly pay for it by this lance’s point. I will thrust through your maw, I trust, before prime of day; and here shall you be slain.” (822-826). Not phased by the threat, the giant Sir Elephant throws stones at Thopas and he runs away from the adversary (827-832).
Image: The Confrontation of Sir Elephant and Thopas. Artist: Edward Henry Corbould
The Second and Third Fit
Thopas heads back into town, telling the peasants about his wild confrontation with the allegedly 3-headed giant that we just found out about its multiple heads (843-844). Perhaps this may be him attempting to appear more brave if a monster has more heads.
His minstrels arrive and gather some candy for the defeated knight. (854-856). Thopas declares that this giant will be defeated (873-874) and he puts on a new pair of clothes. At this point, Chaucer begins to lose the plot a bit. The narrator goes into unnecessary detail about the knight’s sleeping accommodations and other mythical figures that have nothing to do with Sir Thopas. Eventually, the host cuts Chaucer off complaining,
“‘No more of this, for God’s dignity! You so weary me by your very silliness that my ears ache with your rubbish-prattle” (921-923).
So the story of Thopas is never completed, the host, Harry Bailey even gives him advice on the structure of our poems and the story ends.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a very odd legend and has incredibly odd pacing. It is seamlessly described in the following, “The poem seems to narrow away, section by section, towards nothingness-like Alice's idea, in Lewis Carroll, of the 'long sad tale' told by the Mouse” (Burrow, 57).
Horrible storytelling aside, it is clear that Chaucer is parodying the traditional Arthurian tale. We can see elements of the Tale of Sir Thopas in our production through the character of Robin. He is a coward who runs out at the sight of the Black Knight and soils his pants.
*= Fit is just a term for dividing a long piece of poetry
Works Cited:
Burrow, J.A "'Sir Thopas': An Agony in Three Fits" The Review of English Studies , Feb., 1971, Vol. 22, No. 85 (Feb., 1971), pp. 54-58 Published by: Oxford University Press https://www.jstor.org/stable/512024
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Tale of Sir Thopas. NeCastro, Gerard, ed. and trans. http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/chaucer
Robinson, Richard S. "Sir Thopas" https://reflection.eleusinianm.co.uk/medieval-literature/red-book-of-shalfleet/canterbury-tales/geoffreys-tale-of-sir-thopas