The discussion is closed, but something has not been said.
In a competition you can win a prize (or not), but by gambling you can
loose your input. Things become serious when the input is your life
("Russian roulette"). Both ways go fairy tales in which the hero's
skill or lack of skill are vital: he can become king after having
successfully answered a difficult question (Sphinx) or having
fullfilled a hard task. If he failed - he would die.
I am sorry to make things difficult by adding that storytelling
competitions could involve not only prizes, but also punishment. There
was a Polish aristocrat (17th c.) who loved telling and being told
stories during feasts. Even the most phantastic lies were allowed, but
if a guest started a (made up) story and forgot (or could not invent)
how it should end - he was beaten severely by the servants.
Best regards,
Andrzej Dabrówka
www.mediewistyka.net/dab/teatr.htm
Sunday, February 20, 2005, 9:17:53 PM, you wrote:
Colleagues on the REED Listserve:
Many thanks for the comments received. My advice to the class matched the responses I received, that the storytelling competition is a rhetorical one, involving skill, whereas gambling has a large component of probability, or chance, not dependent on persuasive powers. My students, formerly unconvinced, now have the weight of academic authority before them. I have also sent them references on gambling from Benson's notes.
On the other hand, in medieval law, trial by combat was also dependent on skill, but the outcome was believed to include divine aid, in favor of the innocent. Was "chance" really chance in medieval thought? Was the outcome of a game of skill potentially influenced by divine will, through recognition of the virtue, perhaps combined with the skill, of the contestant?
However, I do not want to plague this listserve, which is for drama, with endless philosophical and theological/rhetorical problems. Thanks again for your thoughtful guidance--I will follow up on these matters separately in my reading and research. You have all given me much to consider.
Elza C. Tiner
Professor of English
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Lynchburg College
Lynchburg, VA 24501 USA
----- Original Message -----
From: Tiner, <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Elza
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:49 PM
Subject: Definition of Gambling
Colleagues on the REED Listserve:
Where would I find a good definition of forms of gambling in the fourteenth century? My students have raised a question about the Canterbury Tales, that is, the storytelling competition, in which the pilgrims are competing for a prize, resulting in all the others having to pay for the winner's meal at the Tabard, as a form of gambling. While the storytelling competition is a game, would it have been considered a form of gambling?
When I looked up gamble in the OED, I did not see a form of this word from the 14th century, though game, its possible predecessor, goes back that far. In notes to the Pardoner's Tale, where gambling is mentioned, Larry Benson describes the game of hazard, with dice, as a game of chance (909). However, is a storytelling competition also a game of chance--does such a connection turn up in any REED accounts?
Many thanks for your thoughts on this matter.
Elza C. Tiner
Professor of English
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
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