Ethos  

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-"'''The Clerk's Tale'''" is the first tale of Group E (Fragment IV) in [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]''. It is preceded by the Summoner's tale and followed by the [[The Merchant's Prologue and Tale|Merchant's Tale]]. The Clerk of Oxenford (modern [[Oxford]]) is a student of what would nowadays be considered [[philosophy]] or [[theology]]. He tells the tale of [[Griselda (folklore)|Griselda]], a young woman whose husband [[test]]s her [[loyalty]] in a series of [[bizarre]] [[torment]]s that recall the Biblical [[book of Job]].  
-==Plot==+'''Ethos''' ({{pronEng|ˈiːθɒs}}) is a [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] word originally meaning "accustomed place", "custom, habit", equivalent to Latin ''[[mores]]''.
- +
-The Clerk's tale is about a marquis of Saluzzo named Walter. Lord Walter of Saluzzo is a bachelor who is asked by his subjects to marry in order to provide an heir. He assents and decides he will marry a peasant, named Griselda. Griselda is a poor girl, used to a life of pain and labor.+
- +
-After Griselda has borne him a daughter, Walter decides to test her loyalty. He sends an officer to take the baby, pretending to kill her, and convey it secretly to [[Bologna]]. Griselda makes no protest at this. When she bears a son several years later, Walter again has him taken from her.+
- +
-Finally, Walter determines one last test. He has a [[Papal bull]] of [[annulment]] forged which enables him to leave Griselda, and informs her that he intends to remarry. He requires her to prepare the wedding for his new bride. Secretly, he has the children returned from Bologna, and he presents his daughter as his intended wife. Eventually he informs Griselda of the deceit, and they live happily ever after.+
- +
-==Prologue==+
-One of the flawless characters created by Chaucer is the Oxford clerk, who is a student of philosophy. He is introduced as a diligent person who has a wide collection of books. He is portrayed as a perfect example for students in universities.+
- +
-==Sources==+
-The story of patient Griselda first appeared as the last chapter of [[Boccacio]]'s [[Decameron]], and it is unclear what lesson the author wanted to convey. Critics suggest Boccacio was simply putting down elements from the oral tradition, notably the popular [[Literary topos|topos]] of the ''ordeal'', but the text was open enough to allow very misogynistic interpretations, giving Griselda's passivity as the norm for wifely conduct. In 1374, it was translated into Latin by [[Petrarch]], who quotes the heroine, Griselda, as an ''[[exemplum]]'' of that most virile virtue, constancy. Circa 1382-1389, [[Philippe de Mézières]] translated Petrarch's Latin text into French, adding a [[prologue]] which describes Griselda as an [[allegory]] of the Christian soul's unquestioning love for Jesus Christ. As far as Chaucer is concerned, critics think he used both Petrach's and de Mézières's texts, while managing to recapture Bocaccio's opaque irony. +
- +
-The narrator claims that as a student in Italy he met ''Fraunceys Petrak'' from whom he heard the tale.+
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-==Chaucer's intentions==+
-Given the context of the Clerk's tale, what lesson, if any, Chaucer's intended remains an open guess. Certainly Griselda appears as the [[antithesis]] to the [[Wife of Bath]]. The intrusive narrator comments on the foolishness of the husband's test:+
-<blockquote>+
-:Nedelees, God woot, he thoghte hire for t'affraye.+
-:He hadde assayed hire ynogh bifore,+
-:And foond hire evere good; (455-457)</blockquote>+
- +
-In the course of the narrative he seems to treat Griselda's story as an ''[[exemplum]]''. He compares her to Job (''Men speak of Job, and mostly for his humility'' - l.932), and reminds his audience of the well-known reputation of clerks for misogyny to emphasize the fact that Griselda's virtue is such as to disarm the most prejudiced (l. 936-8). In conclusion he remarks that he did not tell the story to encourage wives to imitate Griselda, but as a lesson to all and sundry to face adversity with fortitude (1142-1146). +
- +
-However the ''Clerk's Tale'' is followed by an ''[[envoi|envoy]]'' whose tone is quite different. The clerk advises the ladies to disregard the heroine's passive acceptance of her husband's cruel whims, while exhorting them to indulge in the most outrageous forms of behaviour: ''Eer wag your tongues like a windmill, I you advise''. The irony is more in keeping with the clerk's [[Antifeminism|antifeminist]] ''[[ethos]]'' but contradicts his former conclusion. Finally, the host's wish that his wife might have heard this edifying tale is well within the scope of hackneyed antifeminist medieval discourse while suggesting that reality will be at odds with ''exempla'': +
-<blockquote>Me were levere than a barel ale<br>My wyf at hoom had herd this legende ones!</br>(1212c-1212d) </blockquote>+
 +''Ethos'' forms the root of ''ethikos'', meaning "moral, showing moral character". To the Greeks ancient and modern, the meaning is simply "the state of being", the inner source, the soul, the mind, and the original essence, that shapes and forms a person or animal. Late Latin borrowed it as ''ethicus'', the feminine of which (''ethica'', for "moral philosophy") is the origin of the modern English word ''[[ethics]]''.
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Ethos (Template:PronEng) is a Greek word originally meaning "accustomed place", "custom, habit", equivalent to Latin mores.

Ethos forms the root of ethikos, meaning "moral, showing moral character". To the Greeks ancient and modern, the meaning is simply "the state of being", the inner source, the soul, the mind, and the original essence, that shapes and forms a person or animal. Late Latin borrowed it as ethicus, the feminine of which (ethica, for "moral philosophy") is the origin of the modern English word ethics.



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