Based on the text, what do you think the moral of the Manciple’s Tale is? The narrator himself quotes his mother who says, “The first virtue, son, if though will learn, / Is to restrain and guard well thy tongue;” (332-333), suggesting that the takeaway is supposed to be to stay silent or be silenced. However, Phoebus’s wife, who never spoke, remained silent and was still silenced. Which message was your greater overall takeaway? Do you think that was intended to be the greatest takeaway? Or is this message intentionally left unclear and up to interpretation?

On p.135, Manne defines sexual solipsism as regarding “the only human minds as male ones” (italics added). Based on what we know about Chaucer and what was said in The Clerk’s Prologue, would you say that sexual solipsism is foundational to this text?