This article accompanies the fable The Whore's Revenge Chaucer
and Chaumpaigne One of the most celebrated cases of literary
rape (“raptus”) involved Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1380 charges were
dropped by one Cecily Chaumpaigne. The document on which the
charges were based - “concerning my rape” (“de raptu meo”) -
came to light in 1873. Chaucer apparently paid 10 pounds to
Cecily, which was a huge amount for the time. So why did he pay?
The pessimists have indicted Chaucer in academia as a forcible
rapist. Did Chaucer indeed rape her and does the evil deed
“haunt” his works and change forever how we feel about his
Canterbury Tales? The optimists have argued that the evidence
simply isn’t there, because we don’t have enough information
about what happened and the terminology is vague about whether a
rape actually occurred. Perhaps Cecily used it as leverage to
get what she wanted? The cynic might say it’s likely that sex
occurred, perhaps on a regular basis. Some see Cecily as
Chaucer’s mistress and she may have bec