A wise man once said that ignorance is bliss. Another said that knowledge is power. And a mother once complained that words go in one ear, and out the other. Proverbs such as these offer wisdom and advice, warning and consolation, and outline and abridge certain events. Proverbs may be defined simply as an authoritative phrase circulating among a common people with either a cultural folk origin or an ancient philosophic one. Archer Taylor, one of the foundational scholars on proverbs, recognized the difficulty in defining a proverb and instead offered a brief understanding: "a proverb is a saying current among the folk."¹

The medieval proverb is a sententious remark; it is a maxim, a common byword, or a wise man's speech. These seemingly sweet phrases bring a smile to the modern man's face and a knowledge that we all know, and yet certain logophiles mold these pithy phrases into something more expressive. The fourteenth-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer experimented with and transformed these sayings into quick weapons for his characters and subtle details for his narrators. This thesis examines the overwhelming number of proverbs in two of Chaucer's major works, Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales, and asks why did Chaucer use so many proverbs?

By examining the characters and narrators of these two works I show how Chaucer experiments with the medieval proverb as a device. He places proverbs in the mouths of his characters and lets them go in one ear, and out the other of the remaining characters. In particular I examine how the characters of Troilus and Criseyde respond to and with proverbial discourse. The characters and segments of The Canterbury Tales allow me to show a comparison within Chaucer's own catalogue. These literary works form the basis of the overall question on proverb experimentation with and usage of proverbs. Then, by analyzing sermonic texts of the fourteenth century, I compare how medieval preachers incorporated proverbs into their texts and how this incorporation differed from that of literary writers. To complete my analysis of the medieval proverb, I conclude by examining a collection of fourteenth-century chronicles. The chronicles act as foundations for historical record, and would seem an improbable place for proverbs.

This thesis aims to define the medieval proverb as a device and a tool of creative discourse within literature by showing Chaucer's overwhelming experimentation with the proverb in regard to his characters and his stories by establishing the placement of the proverb within theological and historical constructs.

¹ Archer Taylor, The Proverb (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931), 3.