Madame, you be of all beauty shrine
As far as circled is the mappamund
The opening lines of “To Rosamond” are probably the most difficult to interpret. As we discuss in Themes, the first line assigns religious connotations to Rosamond’s beauty by comparing her to the richly decorated tombs of medieval saints. However, its still a little ambiguous—is she beautiful like a shrine, or is she a shrine to beauty itself? The second line only makes things more confusing. Mappamundi were medieval world maps. They depicted the world divided into three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—and encircled by a great ring of water. (Note that educated people in the Middle Ages didn’t actually think the world was flat. The round disc of the mappamundi was just a diagram, much like modern maps.) The speaker describes Rosamond as encircled by beauty just as the world is encircled by water in the mappamundi. Maybe Chaucer is describing the breadth of Rosamond’s beauty; to the lover, his beloved seems as vast as the world because she contains so much physical and spiritual beauty. However, he doesn’t compare Rosamond to the world itself, but rather to an inaccurate representation of it. From that perspective, it appears that the poet is emphasizing the limits of Rosamond’s beauty. She doesn’t really contain all beauty, but is instead merely a small representation of the possibilities of beauty, just like the mappamundi is a small representation of the world itself. This latter reading aligns better with the rest of the poem, which often presents love as slightly ridiculous. However, it’s also possible to read both as true in their own way. While the poet sees the speaker’s love as small and silly, to the speaker himself it is vast and important. By the end of the poem, that difference makes the speaker appear somewhat ridiculous, but here we might take it a little more seriously. After all, part of what makes love special is its capacity to make the ordinary world seem extraordinary.
Your seemly voice, that you so small out-twine
Makes my thought in joy and bliss abound.
So courteously I go, with love bound
Chaucer rhymes "abound" with "bound" to emphasize the contradictions inherent in love. On the one hand, love feels like freedom. The speaker’s devotion to Rosamond provokes feelings of boundless joy and bliss, far beyond the constraints of ordinary life. But at the same time, love is also a form of constraint. Once a free man, he is now tied to his beloved, forced to follow her everywhere, and unable to derive joy and bliss from anyone but her. However, his freedom and constraint differ in their fundamental nature. His “joy and bliss” only abound in his thought. Conversely, love binds not his thought, but his actions. It constrains him to act the fool as he pursues a woman whose love he will never win. Chaucer thus deftly illustrates both how the lover feels and how he looks from the outside. Though he perceives himself as freed by love, we as the audience see him as a fool “bound” by irrational love.
For which full oft I of myself divine
That I am truly Tristan the second.
Tristan and Isolde are the main characters of the popular medieval love poem Roman de la Rose. Originally written in French, it became popular all over Europe, and was even translated into English, perhaps by Chaucer himself. Tristan is an English knight, and Isolde an Irish princess. Tristan is meant to deliver her to his more powerful and high-ranking uncle, so that she can become his bride, but on the way Tristan and Isolde fall in love instead. Chaucer’s allusion to this story suggests that the speaker is separated from Rosamond by virtue of circumstance, perhaps a difference in rank. The allusion also marks Chaucer’s own desire to associate his poetry with the continent. To Rosamund is written in a French-style rhymed meter; the reference to the Roman de la Rose reinforces the association between Chaucer and France. In the Middle Ages, England was a bit of a backwater, while France was considered the center of culture, so Chaucer is trying to establish himself as a distinguished poet by emphasizing his knowledge of and connection to French culture.
