Scribes, Critics, and Malyne’s Tears

Abstract

ABSTRACT A pair of unrecognized textual cruxes in the Reeve’s Tale indicates the ways that scribal attitudes to gender can minimize attention to the role of Malyne. Analogously, her words and actions are also minimized by critics, both those who ignore Malyne’s speech while discussing key issues in the tale and those who cite her words (most typically only two words) but unpersuasively accept them at face value. Very few scholars discuss her almost weeping—the site of one crux. Malyne’s false claim to have participated in the theft of the students’ meal, universally elided, suggests a distinct view of her as rejecting her paternal heritage and seeking (although without much hope) to regain some of the agency she has lost in earlier action. The parallel between scribal and critical responses to Malyne emphasizes the value of philological knowledge as a prelude to critique.