"The Yiftes of Fortune And of Nature"

"Fortune reigns in gifts of the world,
not in the lineaments of Nature....
When Nature hath made a fair creature,
may she not by Fortune fall into the fire?"
-- As You Like It, I.ii.41-4.


"The yiftes of Fortune and of Nature
been cause of deeth to many a creature."
-- Pardoner's Tale, ll. 9-10.

The medieval world was a complicated place, full of the "chain of being," astrological influences, elements and humours. A man's life was supposedly influenced by all manner of externals acting by destiny or chance. "Fortune" and "Nature" are two terms which include many of these factors, representing chance and inborn qualities. Shakespeare mentions the two frequently, most notably in an extended dialogue between Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It. Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales also provide many examples of Fortune and Nature's combinations in human affairs. His Pardoner's Tale, Miller's Tale, and Wife of Bath's Tale all depend on the effects of these two metaphysical forces.

The Host wails that "The yiftes of Fortune and of Nature / Been cause of deeth to many a creature." (Pardoner's Tale, ll. 9-10). And so it proves, literally, in the Pardoner's Tale. The three young men, upon finding the treasure-trove of gold florins, explain that "This tresor hath Fortune unto us yiven / In mirthe and jolitee oure lif to liven." (ll. 491-2). Fortune has guided them on their quest, whether in the tavern as the funeral happens to pass by or on the road as they encounter the immortal old man who knows of Death's trove; and Fortune, too, causes their downfall, as "it happed him par cas / To take the botel ther the poison was, / And drank, and yaf his felawe drinke also, / For which anoon they storven bothe two." (ll. 597-600). Yet Nature assists in their demise: all "riotoures three" have already been established as drunkards, so it seems only "natural" for them to celebrate with the wine carried by their erstwhile comrade. The free-wheeling, physical, life-loving nature the comrades have displayed earlier in the tale, their "cupiditas" for wine, wassail, and women, set up the avarice that will spring to the fore after Fortune's intervention.

The Miller's Tale, likewise, results from a collusion of Fortune and Nature. Interestingly, Nicholas practices astrology, a science which reads Nature to determine future Fortune. Alison's Nature seems unclear to both John and Absolon, though Nicholas understands her well enough, and finds a Fortunate plan for removing her husband for a night. The Miller's contrived yet humorous tale would not work without the complex interaction of the character's individual Natures and the vagaries of Fortune that allow John's participation in Nicholas' plot, Absolon's attempted courtship, embarassing failure, and subsequent revenge, and Nicholas' pained cry of "Water!" to unite in the humorous finale.

The Wife of Bath arranges a similar juxtaposition for her story. Her lengthy prologue and much of her tale examines the Nature of women -- their behavior in and out of marriage. I wonder, though, how many of her habits result from Fortune as well, from being matched in her first three marriages with rich dotards who she could easily manipulate and control. Fortune throws the tempting maiden in the path of the errant knight -- "And happed that, allone as he was born, / He sawgh a maide walking him biforn; / ...By verray force her rafte hir maiden- head." (ll. 891-2,894) Fortune also provides the knight's last-minute meeting with the miraculous hag who rescues him -- "And in his way it happed him to ride / ...No creature sawgh he that bar lif, / Save on the greene he sawgh sitting a wif." (ll. 995, 1003-4). The fairy hag orates at length on "gentilnesse" as a property of Nature (inborn quality and obvious action) rather than of Fortune (birth and circumstance). But, in the end, the knight allows his noble Nature to direct him rather than the Fortune which has governed him previously -- he hands over sovereignty to his new wife and tells her to choose either beauty or faithfulness. His new strength of Nature (and her satisfaction) earns him both.

Fortune and Nature intertwine to produce the wonderful Canterbury Tales. Chaucer achieves comedy by careful arrangements of chance and characteristic behavior, or creates a hero by letting his Nature triumph over the Fortune that has determined his previous actions. These interactions could, perhaps, be viewed merely as clever use of what we moderns would call "character" and "plot." Yet viewing them in terms of Fortune and Nature puts us more firmly in the medieval mind-view that characterizes so much of the Tales and lends them so much of their charm.