Mercury, Virgil, and Arcite: 'Canterbury Tales', A 1384-1397
- Author / Editor
- Bachman, W. Bryant,Jr.
Mercury, Virgil, and Arcite: 'Canterbury Tales', A 1384-1397
- Published
- English Language Notes 13 (1976): 168-73.
- Description
- The appearance of Mercury in Arcite's dream is usually thought to be derived from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', I. A more probable source, however, is Virgil's 'Aeneid', IV, where Mercury commands the hero to hasten on to Italy, just as in Chaucer Arcite is instructed, "To Atthenes shaltou wende" (KnT 1391).
- Chaucer Subjects
- Knight and His Tale.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.