When Jonathan Hsy and I began the Global Chaucers project in 2012, much of our energy was spent turning over rocks and peering into forgotten crevasses to find examples of Chaucer in non-Anglophone contexts and languages. We relied on internet searches and hunches. Like good detectives, we looked for clues that others had overlooked.
Soon, however, colleagues (some we knew, some we didn’t know) began contacting us with leads. We try to report on them as soon as possible, but too often “scouting reports” end up in a dedicated basket I keep next to my desk. That basket is now overflowing, and I have a small break in my calendar allowing me to report on these wonderful Global Chaucers.
This delightful posting comes from Pamela Wolters, a graduate student at University of Groningen. I met Ms Wolters when I was a guest lecturer (via the marvels of Zoom) at Sebastian Sobecki’s graduate course on Medieval Law and Literature at the university. Over a series of emails, she relayed the following story, slightly edited here. –Candace Barrington
A Guest posting by Pamela Wolters
Back in 2010, at the literary fair Manuscripta in Amsterdam, I was looking for cartoonist Peter de Wit (one of his cartoons of Sigmund is depicted on the back of the book and here), and was hoping to find him (being a fan of his work) during the interview with Jeffrey Wijnberg, since their collaboration went back a long time.
Quite unfamiliar with psychologist and author Jeffrey Wijnberg at that point, I asked a friendly person standing near the door: ‘Is this the room where the interview with Jeffrey Wijnders will take place?’ He affirmed gracefully. Quite soon it turned out that he in fact was Jeffrey Wijnberg and that he, thankfully, never reproached me for mispronouncing his name. It was a very interesting interview, and his book was about to be published (but had yet to be printed).
Horken en Heksen, derogatory terms for, respectively, men and women (but used here in a funny way), focuses on interactions and relationships between men and women. (Wijnberg works as a psychologist in Groningen and offers relationship therapy as well as individual therapy. He is known for his humour and provocative method.) Every chapter in Horken en Heksen starts with ‘Women are always right, and men find this difficult’ (in Dutch).
His answers during the interview strongly reminded me of Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and I got a chance to talk to Jeffrey Wijnberg and tell him so afterwards. He seemed immediately interested, but at that point I thought he was just being polite. Then he asked me to email him some quotes from Chaucer’s Tale, which I did. Some time after that, I received a copy of Horken en Heksen with a translation of one of the quotes that I had sent him on one of the first pages of the book, and my name added to it. I’m still very thankful for this experience, and a bit proud that – by a twist of fate – I managed to get a Chaucer quote in somebody else’s book.
Maar op het laatst, na menig heftig woord, Kwamen wij samen toch nog tot akkoord. Hij gaf mij alle teugels in de handen En dus was ik de baas in huis en landen Alsook over zijn lippen en zijn handen, Ik liet hem 't boek onmiddellijk verbranden. Mijn macht in huis was dra daarop een feit, 'k Had absolute soevereiniteit. Hij zei: 'Mijn eigen en zo trouwe vrouw, Doe in je leven wat je altijd wou, Bewaak alleen jouw eer en ook mijn stand!' En nadien was er nooit meer trammelant. --De proloog van de vrouw uit Bath. De Canterbury-verhalen, Geoffrey Chaucer. Berijmde vertaling: Ernst van Altena. Amsterdam: Ambo, 2004. (p.207/4.6429-6440). Met dank aan Pamela Wolters voor het vinden van dit toepasselijke citaat.
We fille acorded by us selven two. He yaf me al the bridel in myn hond, To han the goverance of hous and long, And of his tonge, and of his hond also; And made hym brenne his book anon right tho. And whan that I hadde geten unto me, By maistrie, al the soveraynetee, And that he seyde, 'Myn owene trewe wify, Do as thee lust the terme of al thy lyf; Keep thyn honour, and keep eek myn estaat'-- After that day we hadden never debaat. (III.812-822)