Apostrophe, Prayer, and the Structure of Satire in The Man of Law's Tale
- Author / Editor
- Astell, Ann W.
Apostrophe, Prayer, and the Structure of Satire in The Man of Law's Tale
- Published
- Studies in the Age of Chaucer 13 (1991): 81-97.
- Description
- Chaucer's additions to Trevet's tale of Constance consist chiefly of rhetorical additions by the narrator and prayers by Custance, converting the tale to a satire of the narrator's long-winded fatalistic views. Apostrophe and prayer, "converse" forms of address in rhetorical tradition, here pit Custance's providential outlook against that of her narrator rather than that of her persecutors in the plot.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Man of Law and His Tale.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.