Preface
Our greatest virtues are our emotions.
That is, a virtue is something we hope to have and to perform — it is something we want to feel. So, for instance, one may strive to be brave. Bravery is thus a virtue which one attempts to display. This is a good and noble thing. But some people simply are brave. For them, there is no hesitation. Being inherently brave may not be as noble as a person forcing himself to be brave, but it is probably more deeply felt.
In other words, a brave man feels bravery as an emotion but displays it as a virtue; a kind woman feels kindness but displays kindness as a virtue.
Bravery when no one is looking, kindness when there is no one to remember — these are not “rational” acts. Yet people do them every day. To give a drink to a dying man in a desert, to stand up for what is right when you could just “go along to get along” — these are virtuous acts, but people do them because their emotions bid them to. The virtue is the emotion.
This article is about a virtue — trouthe, which Geoffrey Chaucer once declared “the highest thing that man can keep.” But although regarded as a virtue, it also is an emotion. Today, trouthe does not seem to be a virtue people feel — but when I first read of it, I knew that this was “my” virtue, as bravery and obedience are the crucial virtues of a soldier or compassion and learning the great virtues of the cleric.
And I rather suspect that Geoffrey Chaucer, too, felt trouthe as an emotion. It is the central theme of The Franklin’s Tale, one of the most delightful of The Canterbury Tales — but in more subtle forms it seems to motivate all the Canterbury Romances. In them, trouthe works itself out in almost the same way that wyrd (fate) was seen in the Old English epics. How could anyone write such tales who did not feel the draw of this emotion?
I cannot prove this. I am autistic; my emotions are abnormal. Most people do not seem to feel trouthe. Did Chaucer feel it? Was Chaucer autistic? We cannot know.
This article is not intended to add significantly to Chaucer criticism. Most experts would agree that Chaucer valued trouthe; from the standpoint of the literary critic, all I am doing is arguing that he valued trouthe even more than most critics think. My argument, instead, is that this is a real virtue which was expressed by Chaucer, and more strongly than we realize today.
Virtues go out of date. “Chivalry” is dead. It seems trouthe is, too. Perhaps the end of feudalism, which was based on ties of loyalty, and the rise of capitalism, made it less useful. I do not know. I certainly can’t bring it back. But I hope to let others see a noble emotion in a new light.
I am not an artist, but I am autistic, and I truly need a muse to think creatively — or even to live a proper life. The idea of this book — that Chaucer’s trouthe was the same emotion that I feel toward my muses — came when I had a muse, but was written after my muse friends had abandoned me. So the writing is not what it should be. I can only hope that you will be able to understand my message anyway — and perhaps help other autistics whose needs are like mine.