How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Line). We used the line numbering found on Librarius's online edition.
Quote #1
He knew nat Catoun, for his wit was rude.
(119)
By calling John's wit "rude," this quote is not just saying that he's stupid, but that he's unlearned. That is, he does not have the schooling that people like Nicholas and Absolon do, which fills one's head with the sayings of learned philosophers like Cato.
Quote #2
He knew nat Catoun, for his wit was rude,
That bad man sholde wedde his similitude.
Men sholde wedden after hire estaat,
For youthe and elde is often at debaat.
But sith that he was fallen in the snare,
He moste endure, as other folk, his care.
(119-124)
The Greek philosopher Cato said that like should wed like. If people were too different, went the thinking, they would not be compatible. An misogynist "spin" on the saying claimed that a young woman was sure to be lustful and would not be satisfied by the sexual vigor of an older man. In either case, John is foolish for marrying Alisoun.
Quote #3
A clerk hath litherly biset his while,
But if he coude a carpenter bigile.
(196-197)
A clerk has an educational advantage over a carpenter; as we saw a few lines earlier, clerks are knowledgeable in the teachings of philosophers. The idea was that these teachings would provide one with life experience that one could not otherwise gain.
Quote #4
And thus she maketh Absolon hire ape,
And al his ernest turneth til a jape.
(286-287)
Is it really Alisoun who makes Absolon appear foolish? Or is it his own refusal to give up the courtship in the face of continued rejection? There is a way in which Alisoun turns Absolon's earnestness into a joke, in her refusal to take it seriously herself.
Quote #5
. . . Nicholas shal shapen him a whyle
This sely jalous housbond to bigyle.
(300-301)
"Sely" means stupid, but it also means innocent and harmless, the implication being that the innocent lack guile. It's a perfect word to describe John, whose "sely"-ness derives from a somewhat innocent nature that fails to see the treachery in others.
Quote #6
Ye, blessed be alwey a lewed man
That noght but only his bileeve can!
(352-353)
John's defense of the "lewed" or "unlearned" is rendered foolish by the ease with which he is duped by Nicholas only a few lines later. If John had probed further into Nicholas's story, perhaps he would not have been so easily tricked.
Quote #7
They tolden every man that he was wood,
He was agast so of 'Nowelis flood'
Thurgh fantasye, that of his vanitee
He hadde y-boght him kneding-tubbes three,
And hadde hem hanged in the roof above;
And that he preyed hem, for Goddes love,
To sitten in the roof, par compaignye.
(730-735)
"Vanitee" here means not pride in one's appearance, but something closer to "vain illusion." This is not the first time that John has been the victim of fantasy; earlier in the tale it is the vision of Alisoun's drowning that prompts him to procure the three tubs so hastily. John's particular brand of foolishness seems to grow out of an overactive imagination.
Quote #8
For what so that this carpenter answerde,
It was for noght, no man his reson herde.
With othes grete he was so sworn adoun,
That he was holden wood in al the toun.
For every clerk anonright heeld with other:
They seyde, 'The man is wood, my leve brother.'
(740- 745)
The sad thing about this passage is that it suggests that John is reasonable; it's just that nobody hears his reason. It suggests that madness may really just be an inability to get people to listen to and understand you.