What's it all about, Geoffrey?

If you have been reading this blog, you know that a moment of amazing insight changed my life. I suddenly understood that Chaucer's pilgrims had a double identity in an allegory. They were all celestial figures disguised as pilgrims. I wanted to tell the whole world. I still do.
     But why did Chaucer include himself as one of them? It took a while for me to understand his plan.
     First, guided by the clues in his words, I needed to discover all the zodiac signs and the planets that were his companions. When I'd found all of them--there was one pilgrim left over! The Clerk. He tells a story of more that 1000 lines. But his presence seemed unnecessary. Trusting Chaucer's words, however, told me who the "extra" is, and gave me the reason for Chaucer to accompany the group as observer and commentator.
     The Clerk turned out to be Petrarch, Italian poet and letter writer. More important, he is "the first humanist" and renowned for his love of studying, solitude, classic literature and books. The loss of friends and loved ones to the plague gave him a deep sense of how fragile life can be.
     His hidden identity is that of a deceased human being.
          A Clerk there was of Oxford also, 
          That according to logic had long gone.
Associating the Clerk with Oxford expresses the presence of the "long gone" Petrarch's ideas, which rapidly spread throughout Europe.
          And he was not very fat, I declare.     
          But looked hollow, and thereto solemn.
A hollow and solemn image conjures up the medieval depiction of a cadaver: a skeleton. This is the deceased Petrarch.
          Completely threadbare was his outer garment;
          For he had got himself no ecclesiastical position, 
          Nor was he as worldly as to have other employment.
This "outer garment" is a threadbare shroud. His not being "worldly" indicates one who is no longer in this world. Chaucer goes on to itemize Petrarch's well-known qualities. He'd rather have
          Twenty books clad in black or red,
          Of Aristotle and his philosophy,
          Than rich robes, or fiddle, or gay psaltery.
"Aristotle" defines the period of literature Petrarch loved. Books were his passion compared to clothing or music-making.
          He had but little gold in his "cofre" (coffer/coffin).
The Middle English word "cofre" conceals an ambiguity: no concern about riches in his coffer; and he had no need for gold in his coffin.
          But all that he might of his friends receive,
          On books and on learning he spent.
     Petrarch accepted invitations from nobility only if they didn't interfere with his studies. "Study," he said, "provides us with the fellowship of [the] most illustrious men."
          Not one word spoke he more than was needed.
His habit was often to "remain silent" while others around him conversed.
     The very last line in the Clerk's portrait is one of Chaucer's oft quoted gems.
          Resounding in moral virtue was his speech
          And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.
There is a reverence here for Petrarch. Some believe he and Chaucer met in Padua.
     As a teacher, Petrarch's "Humanists' creed" shocked the tradition-bound Middle Ages taught to dwell upon death and prepare for the blessings of the hereafter. His words, "Among mortals, the care of things mortal should come first," encouraged the development of the whole person and each person's uniqueness.  
     The Clerk states in his prologue,
          I will tell a tale that I
          Learned at Padua from a worthy clerk.
He even confirms the "worthy clerk" as Petrarch. References in the third person refer to his former earthly life.

The Clerk is not an afterthought. He arrived at the Tabard at sunset as one of the company of journeyers. By including Petrarch among the otherworldly characters, Chaucer is transforming him from an earthly body into a celestial body. It's called stellifying.
     A mythological example describes Venus' action following Caesar's murder. She caught up the passing soul of Caesar and bore it toward the stars of heaven. Higher than the moon it mounted and gleamed as a star. In the same way, Chaucer's contemporaries immortalized King Arthur's ascension to the star Arcturus, "the bright castle which Astronomers call Arthur's Constellation." Chaucer bestows the same honor upon Petrarch!
     In the House of Fame, Chaucer wonders whether "Jove will me stellify." This poetic commonplace for a journey to the afterlife, then, is the underpinning, the basic structure of the Canterbury Tales. Traveling with companions whose covert identities are cosmic figures represents the creative fulfillment of the poet's clearly expressed longing for a heavenly destiny as recorded in his Retraction, the prayer of supplication that ends Chaucer's Tales.
     The cosmic plan of the tales is the poet's ardent desire to become "one of them," one of the lights of the firmament.