The White Company · Chapter
How a Strange Company Gathered at the Pied Merlin explained
Alleyne Edricson, newly arrived at the Pied Merlin inn, observes a diverse and quarrelsome group of wayfarers.
What happens
Alleyne Edricson, newly arrived at the Pied Merlin inn, observes a diverse and quarrelsome group of wayfarers. He is reunited with his former cloister companion Hordle John, who has left the monastery. The company debates social class, the English king, and the aftermath of the Black Death, while Alleyne works on a panel and listens to the heated talk.
Themes in this chapter
Social Mobility and Class
The chapter highlights class tensions through debates about labor, wages, and the rights of common folk versus nobles.
English National Identity
The characters argue about the English king's use of French and what it means to be English, reflecting national pride and linguistic identity.
Faith and Morality
Alleyne's reaction to the gleeman's foul song and Hordle John's critique of monastic life touch on moral and religious themes.
Characters to notice
- Alleyne Edricson
The cloister-bred youth, now a guest at the Pied Merlin, observes the strange company and works on a wooden panel.
- Hordle John
Alleyne's former companion, a renegade monk, who has left Beaulieu Abbey and joins the gathering at the inn.
- Dame Eliza
The landlady of the Pied Merlin, who serves the guests and maintains order.
- Samkin Aylward
Mentioned as part of the company, though not directly featured in this excerpt.
Key passages
“I will not hear a word said against old King Ned... If he cannot speak like an Englishman I trow that he can fight like an Englishman, and he was hammering at the gates of Paris while alehouse topers were grutching and grumbling at home.”
Hordle John defends King Edward III, arguing that his military prowess matters more than his language skills.
Highlights English national pride and the contrast between action and idle talk.
“A raw rat... that is what it is ever my use to order for the plague—a raw rat with its paunch cut open.”
The physician recommends placing a raw rat on a plague sore to draw out humors.
Reflects medieval medical beliefs and the superstitions surrounding the Black Death.
“When half the folk in the country were dead it was then that the other half could pick and choose who they would work for, and for what wage.”
Jenkin argues that the Black Death improved conditions for laborers by creating a labor shortage.
Illustrates the social and economic consequences of the plague.
“The castle has thrown its shadow upon the cottage over long. For three hundred years my folk have swinked and sweated... Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.”
A peasant angrily declares that the nobility have exploited his family for centuries and should now work for themselves.
Expresses class resentment and desire for social change.