Patient Griselda Talking Points

[callistotoni]

Patient Griselda is the last tale in Boccacio's Decameron, the Clerks Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury tales, and Petrach wrote another version when he translated Boccacio's version into Latin. I find this story fascinating because it's so easy to have a kneejerk modern reaction to it, but when you look at it you can see that contemporary tellers and listeners were conflicted about it too. And it was so popular it continued it's life into the 17th C, where it became an English play -- it's popularity itself might tell us something of the things going on in people's brains in our SCA period.

If, at Mists Coronet this coming Saturday afternoon, you are interested in joining in our discussion of Patient Griselda and the possible insights it give us into the medieval mind, here are some suggested things to think about (off the top of my head):

-- Differences in Boccacio's and Chaucer's version?

-- Motivations of the Marquis and Griselda

-- The reactions of the people both in the story, and the author's "listners".

-- Griselda: Job-like saint or freakish co-dependant ;-) ? She does agree to all this before her wedding after all...

-- It's easy to see what this might say about gender expectations, but I think it says something about class expectations as well.

-- What might this say about the views of action versus passive acceptance in the medieval mind? What does the listener reactions say about action versus passivity?

Just a few possible discussion points. Got to go now!

And just 7 more hours before I get to see my sweetie -- squee! :-)