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Part of the Canterbury Tales

"The Man of Law's Tale" is the fifth of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, written around 1387. John Gower's "Tale of Constance" in Confessio Amantis tells the same story and may have been a source for Chaucer. Nicholas Trivet's Les chronicles was a source for both authors. Wurtele provides a detailed compilation of the differences between Trivet's Chronicle and the poems of Gower and Chaucer. Gower strove for vividness and shortened the tale in places. Chaucer expanded the tale and emphasizes the holiness of Constance and how she was favoured by heaven. Hagiographic motifs are most abundant in Chaucer's version, e. g. “the miracles God works though Custance and the way she is miraculously fed while at sea”. [22] Wurtele observes that Chaucer makes frequent use of the adjective "hooly" but Gower never uses this word. or CA

The Sultan's mother, enraged that her son would turn his back on Islam, connives to prevent this by massacring her son and the wedding party and having Constance set adrift on the sea. MLT) converted to Christianity after learning of the two miracles. Alla's evil mother intercepts and falsifies letters between the Alla and his constable, which results in Constance's being banished. MLT Accepting the latter requires accepting the debatable claim that Gower was a practiced lawyer. Yeager asserts that Gower had a "lawyerly habit of mind" but there is no evidence that he received formal training in the law. Chaucer himself is another candidate. Yet another view is taken by David who sees the Man of Law as
"a representative of the self appointed poetry critics with whom Chaucer disagreed.

The Man of Law (referred to here as 'A Sergeant of the Lawe') is a judicious and dignified man, or, at least, he seems so because of his wise words. He is a judge in the court of assizes (civil procedures), by letter of appointment from the king, and has many goods and robes. He can draw up a legal document, the narrator tells us, and "no wight pinchen at his writing". The Man of Law rides in informal, silk adorned clothes. GP The Host addresses the Man of Law with more respect than he does the Miller and the Reeve. Whatever the identity of the narrator, his knowledge of literature is erratic. Some of the Chaucerian works have not been 'published', which suggests he is part of Chaucer's literary circle. He confuses the Muses with the Pierides. Fisher took the view that "moral Gower" was offended by the immoral tales found in the Canterbury Tales.

The narrator of the tale is less materialistic than the Sergeant of the Introduction (the description of the merchants' wealth is an exception ). "The tale, on the other hand, quite clearly reveals its narrator to be a devotee of justice in some ideal order, rather than a legal technician grown wealthy through sharp practices." Some scholars disagree with the arguments given above. Spearing downplays the notion that the narration is the voice of a lawyer. Pearsall found nothing specific to a lawyer other than the response to the Host in the Introduction.

The Tale is the first in Fragment 2. Fragment 1 contains tales told by the Knight, Miller, Reeve and Cook. The various manuscripts of the Tales differ in the sequence of the Tales. 35 manuscripts contain the Man of Law's epilogue, while 22 others (including the Ellesmere Manuscript) do not. In the epilogue, the host invites the Parson to speak next, but the Parson is interrupted before he can begin and a different speaker tells the next tale. In the various manuscripts, the interrupter is Summoner, the Squire, or the Shipman, but it is the Shipman whose character best matches the rude remarks (although the mention of his "joly body" sounds closer to something the Wife of Bath might say). What this probably shows is that Chaucer had not fixed his overall plan. There are also hints, with his claim he will talk in prose despite rhyming throughout, that the Man of Law originally told the Tale of Melibee before he was assigned Custance's tale late in the composition of the tales.