The Prioress's Tale
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Variorum Chaucer (Collections and Selections — II.20), The Canterbury Tales
12 Members (4.50)
On This Page
Description
Part Twenty Of all Chaucer?s tales in the Canterbury Group, The Prioress?s Tale of the Virgin Mary and the murdered child ranks among the most popular and surely the most admired for its artistry. Nonetheless, it has encountered its fair share of somewhat hostile criticism on purely social and cultural grounds, owing in part to a negative evaluation of the Prioress herself (she is seen by some as a shallow person who does not recognize the harmful implications of her utterances), in part to show more the anti-Semitic cast of the tale. Beverly Boyd?s tough-minded, crisp approach to the tale enables her to present an overview of the great diversity of scholarship in both the sympathetic and hostile approaches to the work; to examine its strongest ingredients, the liturgical borrowings that form a kind of subtext; and thus to offer a balanced view of one of Chaucer?s most carefully crafted poems. Her examination of the sources and analogues, of Miracles of the Virgin, of considerations of style and structure, along with a full treatment of the textual tradition of the Prioress?s Sequence and an unusually full corpus of explanatory notes, taken together, provide a rich and complete edition of the tale, one that will prove to be of exceptional value for the teacher and the scholar. show lessTags
Member Reviews
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
459+ Works 45,772 Members
Geoffrey Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, was born in London about 1340, the son of a wine merchant and deputy to the king's butler and his wife Agnes. Not much is known of Chaucer's early life and education, other than he learned to read French, Latin, and Italian. His experiences as a civil servant and diplomat are said to have show more developed his fascination with people and his knowledge of English life. In 1359-1360 Chaucer traveled with King Edward III's army to France during the Hundred Years' War and was captured in Ardennes. He returned to England after the Treaty of Bretigny when the King paid his ransom. In 1366 he married Philippa Roet, one of Queen Philippa's ladies, who gave him two sons and two daughters. Chaucer remained in royal service traveling to Flanders, Italy, and Spain. These travels would all have a great influence on his work. His early writing was influenced by the French tradition of courtly love poetry, and his later work by the Italians, especially Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. Chaucer wrote in Middle English, the form of English used from 1100 to about 1485. He is given the designation of the first English poet to use rhymed couplets in iambic pentameter and to compose successfully in the vernacular. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a collection of humorous, bawdy, and poignant stories told by a group of fictional pilgrims traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket. It is considered to be among the masterpieces of literature. His works also include The Book of the Duchess, inspired by the death of John Gaunt's first wife; House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and The Legend of Good Women. Troilus and Criseyde, adapted from a love story by Boccaccio, is one of his greatest poems apart from The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer died in London on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in what is now called Poet's Corner. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Prioress's Tale
- Original publication date
- 1987
- People/Characters
- The Prioress; Little Saint Hugh; Hugh of Lincoln
- Important events
- Middle Ages
- Epigraph
- Trumped up stories of "Ritual Murders" of Christian Boys by Jewish communities were common knowledge throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many innocent Jews their lives. Lincoln ha... (show all)d its own legend, and the alleged victim was buried in the Cathedral in the year 1255.
Such stories do not redound to the credit of Christendom, and so we pray:
Remember not, Lord, our offenses, nor the offenses of our Forefathers
-- NOTICE AT THE SITE OF THE SHRINE OF LITTLE SAINT HUGH, THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT MARY, LINCOLN - First words
- General Editors' Preface
A Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is a collaborative effort of forty-two medievalists whose chief interest is the work of Geoffrey Chaucer and his time.
Preface
This edition of The Prioress's Tale includes the amusingly clever Verba Hospitis, the sublime liturgical prologue, and the miracle of the Virgin, which must surely be one of the most famous items in m... (show all)edieval literature.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 12
- Popularity
- 1,878,063
- Rating
- (4.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
