Petrarch and Chaucer on Fame
23
transmission before piling onto the Goddess Fame, who in turn
decides on the lifespan of each piece (2111-2113), the merit of
earthly fame is profoundly doubtful.
The narrator’s qualms about the fickle nature of fame also
issue from the way in which Fame pronounces on whether to
bestow her blessings on her petitioners. Chaucer’s portrait of Fame
is, by and large, unappealing and even grotesque:
For as feele yen had she
As fetheres upon foules be,
Or weren on the bestes foure
That Goddis trone gunne honoure,
As John writ in th’hApocalips.
Hir heere, that oundye was and crips,
As burned gold hyt shoon to see–
And, soth to tellen, also she
Had also fele upstondyng eres
And tonges as on bestes heres–
And on hir fete waxen saugh y
Partriches wynges, redely. (Chaucer, 1997: 1381-1392)
The bizarre appearance and nature of Fame are crucially important
to our discussion. In his depiction of the character of Fame,
Chaucer is greatly indebted to Virgil’s
Aeneid
.
22
According to the
Virgilian account, after Aeneas and Dido consummate their
relationship in a cavern, rumor (
fama
), “the swiftest traveller of all
the ills on earth” (Virgil, 1986: 96), thereupon roves around and
snowballs along the way, transforming itself from a tiny thing into
a gargantuan entity. Her singularly hideous appearance
23
manifests
22
According to Minnis, prime among the influences on Chaucer’s portrayal of
Fame are Ovid’s
Metamorphoses
and Virgil’s
Aeneid
, and Ovid’s influence is
more marked in Chaucer’s depiction of Fame’s appearance (Minnis, Scattergood,
& Smith, 1995: 185).
23
A terrible, grotesque monster, each feather upon whose body–
Incredible though it sounds–has a sleepless eye beneath it,
