The Clerk's Tale Analysis

tale.” Again, the worthiness of the Clerk’s source is invoked. At the end of the tale, the Clerk admonishes the audience, telling all women they should be “constant in adversitee / as was Grisilde.” Here Chaucer appears to following the Petrarchan mould. To further emphasize this kinship, Chaucer once again cites Petrarch, immediately after the preceding admonishment regarding emulation of Griselde: “therefore Petrak writeth this storie, which with heigh stile he enditeth.” This seems a quite sincere debt of inspiration and gratitude, especially since it comes from the respected, sober and studious Clerk.
However, this does not conclude the Clerk’s Tale; Chaucer includes “L’envoy de Chaucer,” which concludes the tale as a sort of epilogue. What is interesting about this appended piece is that, rather than reflect Petrarchan sentiments, it seems instead to adopt Boccaccio’s paradigm on the tale of Griselda. Just prior to L’envoy the clerk announces that he “wol with lusty herte, fresh and grene / seyn [the pilgrims] a song to glad
Moreover, his revision of Boccaccio’s tale shows a desire to invest the characters with greater psychological depth. Greater detail in the story gives Chaucer more opportunity to round out these characters. He presents Walter more sympathetically. In Boccacio’s version, Walter is presented as a sadist who commits unspeakably barbaric acts with little purpose other than to test his wife. However, Chaucer deepens Walter’s role, demonstrating that he feels compassion and pity for his wife, yet is nonetheless driven by a deep psychological need – verging on obsession – to test her fidelity. Griselda, also, is altered radically from Boccaccio’s tale. Instead of being a slavishly devoted wife who silently suffers her husband’s cruel tests, she takes an active role in asserting her