Inverse Counsel : Contexts for the 'Melibee'

Author / Editor
Johnson, Lynn Staley.

Title
Inverse Counsel : Contexts for the 'Melibee'

Published
Studies in Philology 87 (1990): 137-55.

Description
Mel should be read in light of England's disrupted domestic state and especially of parliamentary dissatisfaction with Richard II in the 1380s. Thus, Prudence's advice, which emphasizes the contractual relationship between ruler and ruled but also stresses clemency toward the guilty, takes aim at both Richard and his detractors. Chaucer uses Albertano of Brescia's treatise as a literary screen for political analysis.

Chaucer Subjects
Tale of Melibee.