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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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128
INTRODUCTION
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ing of the napkin of St. Veronica, which I have quoted at
p. 216 of this volume. But including this, here are at least
seven different themes borrowed from Marco Polo's book, on
which to be sure his poetical contemporary plays the most
extraordinary variations.
[78 bis.—In the third volume of The Complete Works of
Geoffrey Chaucer, Oxford, 1894, the Rev. Walter W. Skeat gives
Chaucer (pp. 372 segq.) an Account of the Sources of the
and Marco Canterbury Tales. Regarding The Squzeres Tales, he
Polo. says that one of his sources was the Travels of Marco ;
Mr. Keighley in his Tales and Popular Fictions, published in
1834, at p. 76, distinctly derives Chaucer's Tale from the
travels of Marco Polo. (Skeat, 1. c., p. 463, note.) I cannot quote
all the arguments given by the Rev. W. W. Skeat to support his
theory, pp. 463-477.
Regarding the opinion of Professor Skeat of Chaucer's in-
debtedness to Marco Polo, cf. Marco Polo and the Squire's Tale,
by Professor John Matthews Manly, vol. xi. of the Publications
of the Modern Language Association of A merica, 1896, pp. 349-
362. Mr. Manly says (p. 36o) : " It seems clear, upon reviewing
the whole problem, that if Chaucer used Marco Polo's narrative,
he either carelessly or intentionally confused all the features of
the setting that could possibly be confused, and retained not a
single really characteristic trait of any person, place or event.
It is only by twisting everything that any part of Chaucer's
story can be brought into relation with any part of Polo's. To
do this might be allowable, if any rational explanation could
be given for Chaucer's supposed treatment of his ` author,' or
if there were any scarcity of sources from which Chaucer might
have obtained as much information about Tartary as he seems
really to have possessed ; but such an explanation would be
difficult to devise, and there is no such scarcity. Any one of
half a dozen accessible accounts could be distorted into almost
if not quite as great resemblance to the Squire's Tale as Marco
Polo's can."
Mr. A. W. Pollard, in his edition of The Squire's Tale
(Lond., 1899) writes : " A very able paper, by Prof. J. M. Manly,
demonstrates the needlessness of Prof. Skeat's theory, which
has introduced fresh complications into an already complicated
story. My own belief is that, though we may illustrate the
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