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WALTER is the name of the young marquis of Saluzzo who marries Griselda, then torments her in The Clerk's Tale. In Petrarch's Latin story, De obedientia ac fide uxoria mythologia (1373-1374), the marquis is named Valterius; in the anonymous French source, Le Livre Griseldis, his name is Wautier. [Griselde]

Although Walter is one of the main characters in The Clerk's Tale, the name occurs only ten times, twice initially with initial stress, ClT 1107, 1111; seven times in medial positions, ClT 77, 421, 631, 761, 722, 986, 1044; and once in final position where the second syllable is given primary stress to emphasize the rhyme, ClT 612.

Boccaccio, Decameron, trans. J. Payne, rev. and annotated C.S. Singleton, II: 780-794; E.P. Kadish, "Petrarch's Griselda: An English Translation." Mediaevalia 3 (1977): 1-24; N. Lavers, "Freud, The Clerk's Tale, and Literary Criticism." CE 26 (1964): 180-187; Petrarch, De insigni obedientia et fide uxoris; Le Livre Griseldis, ed. J.B. Severs, S&A, 296-331.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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