SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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benign, sympathetic interpretation of the incest depends upon the understanding of kynde
as a natural, and therefore acceptable, human reaction.
At the same time the fact that Canace and Machaire are brother and sister makes
sexual intercourse unkynde. Incest is a sin against kynde in the obvious sense that it is
against kin, and simultaneously against the laws of nature—nature which has been
formulated to benefit man and his divine gift of reason. Genius’s use of the term unkynde
indicates that although he acknowledges the natural attraction that occurs as a matter of
course between male and female, he also recognizes that the consummation of such
sexual attraction is prohibited between siblings. Canace and Machaire’s actions are
under the control of Cupid and Nature instead of their own reason.
Even more horrifying, though, is the unkyndness of Eolus’ response; it is both
cruel and unnatural for a father to murder his own child. When Canace becomes pregnant
she fears her father’s anger as does Machaire, who flees. And when King Eolus does
uncover the story his rage is immense. Eolus acts against kynde when his rage blinds him
to the ties of kinship and leads him to murder his own child. Canace pleads for mercy
and swoons at the feet of her father. He spares her no sympathy and instead sends
Canace a sharpened sword upon which she impales herself. As she lies bleeding and
dying, her son falls from her arms, bathed in her blood. The next few lines are found
only in Gower’s tale, and the horror that they produce emphasize the horror of unnatural,
unkynde rage:
Sche fell doun ded fro ther sche stod.
The child lay bathende in hire blod
Out rolled fro the moder barm,