The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale Loyalty Quotes

Walter's "liges" are those noblemen sworn to remain loyal to him. They are "redy to his honde" in the sense that if he calls upon them to go into battle to defend his land claims, they must present themselves, with their lieges as well, ready to go to war. This system of loyalties and lieges is how feudalism works.

Walter's lords remind him of their loyalty to him by highlighting their constant willingness to do as he requests. They imply that in return for this loyalty, he owes them regard for their counsel.

Walter's lords say that their desire for him to produce an heir comes out of their loyalty to his particular bloodline. This passage demonstrates the way the loyalty of lieges extends to families rather than just particular individuals.

Walter makes his lieges promise that they will worship his wife "in word and werk" as long as she is alive. This reference to the worship of someone in "words" foreshadows the rumors that begin to circulate about Walter later in the tale. It also foreshadows the way that loyalty may be shown in the way you talk about a lord as well as in your obedience to his commands. By the way, do Walter's lieges actually live up to their promise?

Swearing an oath was a powerful gesture in medieval feudal relationships. This passage emphasizes that Walter's nobles do so in good faith by describing how they swear "with hertely wil."

Walter's definition of the loyalty a vassal owes his lord is extreme. It's not just obedience that he demands, but love and a total sublimation of his vassal's will to his own, so that "al that lyketh me […] it lyketh thee."

Walter draws on his people's loyalty to him to extract a similar loyalty to his wife. Basically, in order to be loyal to him, they'll have to be loyal to his wife. By saying that those who love him must love and honor her as well, he implies that they will be breaking their feudal oath if they do otherwise. So, is that real loyalty to Grisilde, or isn't it?

"Sadness" refers to steadfastness or constancy, a complete focus of your attention on one thing and one thing only. In effect, Walter wants to make sure that Grisilde is loyal to him by testing her obedience.

In a striking condemnation of blind obedience, the narrator remarks that the Sergeant's loyalty to Walter makes him just as capable as doing evil things as "grete" or honorable things. Walter can simply capitalize on the love and dread the Sergeant has for him to get him to do just as he wishes. Is the Sergeant loyal? If so, what kind of loyalty is that?

Here, in Walter's people's joy at the birth of his son, is another example of how a people's loyalty to their lord extends not just to him but to his bloodline.

As lord of his land, Walter has never had to prove his loyalty to anyone through obedience. It's no wonder, then, that he "wondreth" at the patience Grisilde shows when asked to do so.

The narrator's claim that no one can match the loyalty ("trueness") of a woman flies in the face of centuries of anti-woman rhetoric, which portrayed women as faithless adulterers. So is Grisilde a positive or negative portrayal of a woman? A little of each? Neither?

Here the narrator criticizes the townspeople for the quick shifting of their loyalties to Grisilde's younger replacement. By calling them "unsad," "untrewe," and of evil "constance," he places them in direct comparison with Grisilde, who is often described as exactly the opposite.

At the climax of the tale, Grisilde's "sadness," constancy, and "stedfastnesse"—in short, her loyalty to Walter—gain her the ultimate reward, in the form of Walter's devotion. Interestingly, though, Walter ends Grisilde's trials because of the emotion that Grisilde's behavior evokes in him.