本論文嘗試探討傑弗瑞•喬叟在其《坎特伯里故事集》裡所呈現的婚姻與中古美學之間的關係。聖湯馬斯•阿奎納斯(St. Thomas Aquinas)提出美與技藝(art)的理論，主張美乃由「比例」(proportion)、「清澈」(clarity)與「完整」(integrity)三要素組成，而技藝具有模仿與製造的特性。本文借用聖湯馬斯所提出之美與技藝的理論，對喬叟於其《故事集》裡所描繪的婚姻所蘊含之美與技藝的要素作一詮釋。筆者視美與技藝為兩種關鍵性的美學概念，並以類比(analogy)為方法重新建構美學與婚姻之間隱含、想像的空間。婚姻可視為一種美的表現，透過聖湯馬斯的美學理論，可分析出《故事集》中呈現的婚姻形式與內容以及中古美學感受力之間的呼應與差距，以及婚姻如何體現「比例」、「清澈」與「完整」之美學。本論文第一章從聖湯馬斯的「比例」理論探討《故事集》裡〈牛津學者的故事〉、〈律師的故事〉、〈第二位修女的故事〉、〈紳士地主的故事〉、〈商人的故事〉、〈磨坊主人的故事〉、〈巴斯婦人的序言〉以及〈巴斯婦人的故事〉中所描述的貴族婚姻與平民婚姻之形式，如何呼應此一美學要素。第二章著重分析包含物質之美與靈性之美的「清澈」要素在婚姻中扮演的角色，另一方面，上述多則故事中對於美的此兩層級是否共存於婚姻之辯論也是討論的焦點。第三章探討「完整」要素與婚姻之間的密切關聯，並延伸中古技藝的內涵，使之與婚姻中的「生殖技藝」(procreative art)互相連結，進而分析生殖技藝與婚姻的完整性之間的互動。結論闡明喬叟對於上述故事中貴族與平民的婚姻美學之立場。

This thesis aims to interpret the elements of beauty and art in the marriages portrayed in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales by means of St. Thomas Aquinas’s theory of beauty and that of art. St. Thomas asserts that beauty consists of three elements: proportion, clarity and integrity, and that art imitates and denotes production. I take beauty and art as the crucial concepts and use analogy as the inquiring tool to examine the imaginary domain between beauty and art as applied to marriage, meanwhile investigating the implied language of intercommunication between aesthetics and marriage. Marriage is taken as a representation of beauty; its different forms and contents portrayed in Chaucer’s various tales will be analyzed so as to see to what extent they reflect and diverge from medieval aesthetic sensitivity and how aesthetic theory can be adopted to interpret medieval marriage. In Chapter One, the theory of “proportion” is applied to the various forms of marriage depicted in the Tales to explore how the marriage of the nobility and that of the commoners will correspond to this element of beauty, as portrayed in “The Clerk’s Tale,” “The Man of Law’s Tale,” “The Second Nun’s Tale,” “The Franklin’s Tale,” “The Merchant’s Tale,” “The Miller’s Tale,” “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and her tale. Chapter Two examines the roles the variants of “clarity,” that is, physical and spiritual beauty, play in marriage, and a debate on the coexistence and non-coexistence of physical and spiritual beauty of a wife among the pilgrim-tellers will be demonstrated. Furthermore, in Chapter Three I shall extend the medieval concept of art to that of the “procreative art” in marriage, and explore the relationship between the procreative art and the “integrity” of marriage in the aforementioned tales. The conclusion discusses Chaucer’s positions on the aesthetics of marriage of the nobility and that of the commoners portrayed in the tales.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Concept of beauty in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages 3
Concept of art in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages 6
Medieval aesthetics 10
Aesthetic judgment 11
St. Thomas’s aesthetic theory 13
Thesis statement 15
Methodology 18

Chapter One: The “Great Theory” as Evidenced in the Marriages in the Tales 22
Theory of “proportion”: the “Great Theory” 23
The relationship between the form of marriage and the theory of proportion 26
Mathematical aesthetics in the form of marriage 27
Mathematical aesthetics suggested in the iconography of marriage 29
Proportions of age, estate and religion between the couples in the Tales 30
Proportion of age between a couple 33
Proportion of estate between a couple 43
Proportion of religion between a couple 49

Chapter Two: The Debate on the Coexistence and Non-Coexistence of
Physical and Spiritual Beauty in the Marriages portrayed in the Tales 59
St. Thomas’s definition of “clarity” 60
The sense of “seeing” 62
Distinguishing the beautiful from the good 64
Mixed pleasure 66
The aesthetic debate on physical and spiritual beauty in the Tales 69
Argument: physical vs. spiritual beauty in marriage 70
Counterargument: physical and spiritual beauty in marriage 79
Aesthetic pleasure and moral or biological pleasure 87
Reconciliation in “The Second Nun’s Tale” 93

Chapter Three: The Integrity of Marriage and the “Procreative Art” in the Tales 98
St. Thomas’s definition of “integrity” and “art” 99
Integrity 100
The medieval definition of art 102
St. Thomas’s theory of art 103
The procreative art 105
Bridal chambers/rooms and bridal “workshops” 107
The “Sely instrument” 108
The bridal chambers/rooms and bridal “workshops” in the Tales 110
Aestheticism of the bridal chambers in “The Man of Law’s Tale” and
“The Clerk’s Tale” 111
Sacredness of the bridal workshops in “The Man of Law’s Tale” and
“The Clerk’s Tale” 115
Imitation-pleasure 121
Aestheticism of the bridal rooms in “The Merchant’s Tale” and
“The Miller’s Tale” 125
Profaneness of the bridal workshops in “The Wife of Bath’s
Prologue,” “The Merchant’s Tale” and “The Miller’s Tale” 133
Affection between Madonna and her “work of art” in “The Man of
Law’s Tale” and “The Clerk’s Tale” 138
Integrity of marriage without procreation in “The Second Nun’s Tale” 141

Conclusion 145

Works Cited 151

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