Paying it off – An Analysis of Humorous Potential in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Shipman’s Tale”

Abstract

The fabliau seems to be a good starting point when trying to discuss humorous structures in medieval literature. There is only a small corpus surviving, with most of the texts having been written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The “Shipman’s Tale” is rarely the subject of academic attention, probably because its plot and humour seem to be so straightforward and adhere so strictly to the restrictions of the fabliau that, at least at first glance, it seems to exclusively play into the expectations of the reader familiar with the genre. As a consequence, the text appears to be so predictable that it seems unattractive from an academic perspective. In this paper, I argue that even though the outcome is rather easy to guess, especially for those familiar with the genre, the text remains humorous, either despite of, or exactly because of its predictability. I will do so in a pursuit to answer the following questions: Firstly, does the “Shipman’s Tale” ultimately bear humorous qualities because of the pre-determinedness of its plot, which equates personal relationships with commercial interaction? And secondly, if the humorous potential is really rooted in the pre-determined nature of the plot, how exactly is this humorous potential created?