Conlee, John W.
Studies in the Humanities 3.1 (1973): 1-3.
Suggests that the Pardoner's specification of "eight" bushels of treasure at PardT 6.771 symbolizes betrayal and the irony of desiring to achieve ultimate happiness through worldly means.
Montelaro, Janet J.
South Central Review 8 (1991): 8-16.
Psychological studies of pain help us understand the Pardoner's personal suffering, his abuse of others, and his "harassment" of Paul's letter in PardP. His intent, style, and argument subvert his biblical model.
A recognition of the Pardoner as a "parodic relic custodian" calls for a fresh look at his sexuality--relic custodians were to be celibate--and casts into relief the tension in CT between restrictive ecclesiastical power and "lay desire" for access…
Jungman, Robert E.
Philological Quarterly 55 (1976): 279-81.
The theme of the Pardoner's sermon, "Radix malorum est cupiditas," comes from 1 Tim. 6:10. Appropriately, the dispute between the Pardoner and the Host following the sermon illustrates Paul's assertion in 1 Tim. 6 that teaching based on "cupiditas"…
Late medieval literary and historical attitudes toward pardoners suggest that the depictions in "Piers Plowman" and PardPT are exaggerated. Shaffern documents ecclesiastical efforts to control abuse of the office.
Spearing, A. C., ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Rev. ed.. 1994.
Text of PardPT and the GP description of the Pardoner (based on Robinson's edition, 1957) with end-of-text notes and glosses. In his Introduction, Spearing summarizes the practices of medieval pardoners and preachers, assesses the character and…
Kirkham, David, and Valerie Allen, eds.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Study guide to the PardPT and the GP description of the Pardoner that includes the Middle English text, with facing-page glosses and commentary that encourages careful reading. The volume includes a summary of CT and an introduction to Chaucer's…
Swan, Richard.
Deddington, Oxfordshire: Phillip Allan Updates, 2009.
Study guide to PardPT, with discussion of themes, genre, verse, and characterization. Includes running commentary on the poem and various pedagogical tools for teachers and students, keyed to the U. K. exam board specifications and assessment…
da Costa, Alex.
Critical Survey 29.3 (2017): 27-47.
Reconsiders the possibility that the Pardoner is a woman passing as a man in PardT, which raises anxieties about the relation of outward appearance and inner substance. These parallel anxieties about the authenticity of relics and the validity of…
Green, Richard Firth.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 15 (1993): 131-45.
The breeches-kissing episode in PardT is analogous to fabliau narratives of the "Friar's Pants" in which a cuckolded husband is duped into believing that the cuckolder's pants are relics. Green adduces several versions of the account and suggests…
Purdon, L. O.
Studies in Philology 89 (1992): 334-49.
Summarizes the theological tradition of second or eternal death that results from mortal sin. The concept is reflected in the figure of the Old Man, who is paradoxically both in death and deathless.
Purdon, L. O.
English Language Notes 28:2 (1990): 1-5.
When the old man of PardT quotes Leviticus in his reproof of the three rioters, he omits the penultimate clause, "and fear the Lord your God." The omission suggests an Augustinian doctrine that the damned are unmindful of God.
The Pardoner threatens to lead the pilgrims astray to venerate his dubious relics, not to seek Saint Thomas. PardT mirrors this aberrancy. Thus the Host, as acknowledged leader, must be the one to snub him violently before order can be restored.
Owen, Nancy H.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 66 (1967): 541-49.
Discusses PardPT as a "dramatic monologue, in the form of a sermon," set within a "'fabliau' framework." Identifies the various parts of the sermon structure and explains similarities between the "framework" and Chaucer's other fabliaux, particularly…
Boenig, Robert.
ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 13.4: 9-15, 2000.
Examines the almost ubiquitous assumption that hypocrisy is reflected in PardPT and suggests an alternative reading in which the Pardoner's words do not reveal his morality but parody WBPT.
In Chaucer's famous line "I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare" the word "mare" is best glossed "homosexual," and the description of the Pardoner fits all three medieval confusions with homosexuality: effeminacy, eunuchy, and hermaphroditism.
Lynch, Kathryn L.
R. F. Yeager and Charlotte C. Morse, eds. Speaking Images: Essays in Honor of V. A. Kolve (Asheville, N.C.: Pegasus Press, 2001), pp. 393-409.
The Pardoner's "misunderstanding" of gluttony as a sin "becomes emblematic of his inability to appreciate significance in general." Lynch discusses digestive imagery from medieval commentaries on memory and meditation to clarify the nature of the…
Copeland, Rita.
Sarah Kay and Miri Ruben, eds. Framing Medieval Bodies (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1994), pp. 138-59.
Explores the roles of sexuality and gender in the institutional history of rhetoric and argues that the Pardoner's ambiguity dramatizes a double sense of rhetoric, both as an academic discipline and as a regulated body of practice.
Reads PardPT for the ways they reveal more about the Pardoner than he intends. The Old Man shows the pain of the Pardoner's "joyless existence," even though he has attempted to disguise it in his Prologue; the rioters reveal his obsession with death…
Argues that the reference to ale and cake in PardP (6.321-22) is a "device operating on three levels": 1) creating cohesion in PardPT; 2) introducing the theme of gluttony; and 3) reinforcing the irony of the portrait of the Pardoner through a…
Explores the differences between PardP and PardT—differences in genre, atmosphere, and temporal dimension—arguing that they are part of the Pardoner's efforts to manipulate his audience. Contrasts the self-interested, time-bound play of the Pardoner…
Rhodes, James F.
Modern Language Studies 13:2 (1983): 34-40.
Various legends, iconography, and etymology of Saint Veronica illuminate the "vernycle" emblem on the Pardoner's cap as a clue to his character and motives."
Trigg, Stephanie.
Ruth Evans, Helen Fulton, and David Matthews, eds. Medieval Cultural Studies: Essays in Honour of Stephen Knight (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2006), pp. 166-78.
Trigg addresses relationships among the reading audience, the pilgrim audience, and the "lewed peple" of PardPT. Set against the GP description of the Parson and his flock, the Pardoner's description of his preaching to the people may indicate their…
Jordan, William Chester.
Sheila Delany, ed. Chaucer and the Jews: Sources, Contexts, Meanings (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 25-42.
Examines the framing narratives and the relics in PardT to demonstrate that Chaucer achieves dramatic closure at the end of the Tale with the pilgrims' rejection of the relics.
