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Alcohol and Literature and Sex
This "lecture" is the second installment of Book Lush 101: A brief history of English Literature, Adult Beverage-style. Register and check out the course syllabus here. If you missed Lecture 1, Uncorking English Literature, or "Hand me another mead, Wiglaf,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], this epic poetry is killing me," get the class notes here or risk failing the midterms and having to wash everyone else's wine glasses throughout the course.
Lecture 2: The Canterbury Tales: Alcohol and Literature and Sex, my dear
The harmonious union of Alcohol and Literature had several hundred years to master itself after the birth of the first,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], great English lit offspring in the 700s, Beowulf.
When Geoffrey Chaucer took a swig of wine and laid quill to parchment within the late 1300s to start The Canterbury Tales, adult beverages of each and every sort were cropping up in practically everything people bothered to jot down. And, with valid reason. As Plato so pithily said:
He was a wise man who invented beer,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
The 29 pilgrims trekking to go to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral in The Canterbury Tales must have been wise,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], in addition to merry, with alcohol indeed.
Not even close to being the squeaky-clean version that might be inflicted on the helpless masses of humanity if this same story were written today, Chaucer's lengthy ditty is much more of the paean to the delights of ale, mead, and wine than that of piety.
Straight from the gate, ere the cork is balance out of the bottle, Chaucer lets the alcohol go to his head,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], describing April as having "bathed each vein with licquor that has power." Nearly every one of the pilgrims is described within the prologue in reference to their drinking habits, from the Prioress ("Her upper lip was always wiped so clean/ That in her own cup was no iota seen/ Of grease, when she had drunk her draft of wine"),[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], towards the Clerk ("He loved right well his morning sop in wine"),[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], to the Monk ("In towns he knew the taverns, every one/ And each good host and barmaid too").
When the pilgrims,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], at their Host's request,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], begin to while away time telling tales, the Pardoner's tale outdoes all of the rest in alcoholic indulgence: he begins his tale only after swallowing the last of his "corny ale" and then launches into a smilingly hypocritical diatribe against -- what else? -- drunkenness.
The Wife of Bath, before several portions of wine
Chaucer, as being a canny young lad, knew that however amusing anecdotes about the enjoyment of Bordeaux might be, it just wasn't enough to spark serious interest in a reading public (in those days consisting of approximately 20 people) who had heard enough about ale,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], mead, and wine to fill every bodily orifice. The wedding of alcohol and literature needed something else to liven some misconception a bit. Chaucer, always a guy in front of his time, chose the ever enticing sex to throw into the fray and succeeded in producing probably the most amusing alcohol-drenched comic sex scenes recognized to literature.
Take the Miller's tale: Alisoun and Absolon cavort while simultaneously tricking the earnest Nicholas into passionately kissing Alisoun's "naked ers."
What induced Chaucer to create this type of bawdy number of ditties? (And don't forget, Chaucer intended to write 124,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but died after having only completed 22. Good grief.) The answer may lie in a part of the Wife of Bath's tale, in which she comments that:
Whenever I take wine I must think of Venus, provided cold engenders hail/ A lecherous mouth begets a lecherous tail./ As lechers know from long experience.
Yes, even just in the 14th century people commonly thought that a woman drinking excessively would be a green light for sex. All Chaucer was doing was expressing the union of these two on the written page, perhaps within the misguided belief that, if alcohol was such a stimulant, an amount alcohol, the written word, AND sex do? It's a pity he died so young -- imagine what further delights he had in store. For readers, I am talking about.
Incidentally, if you are a Chaucer and/or Canterbury Tales aficionado,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], consider going to the Canterbury Tales museum in England. Located in Canterbury, Kent,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the museum features a reconstruction of 14th century England in St. Margaret's Church, filled with audio guides that take visitors via a narration of each of Chaucer's pilgrim's tales. The museum also hosts numerous nifty medieval-themed workshops, including medieval cooking,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Knight School, and the medicines and "cures" of the medieval physician (bring out the leeches). All of the goods are free freight,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and the the cost is competitive, and also can accept the paypal payment.,after the payment, can ship within short time.
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