Samson and Arcite in the 'Knight's Tale'

Description: Chaucer prepares for Arcite's Samsonlike vow to cut his hair by drawing on the traditions of Samson as a fool for love and by reworking and adding details to the story of Boccaccio's "Teseida." Samson was commonly paired with Hercules as biblical and classical examples of strong men defeated by love; alternatively, the Old Testament judge was named with Solomon (or David) as exemplars of love folly.; Chaucer draws on both traditions and also uses, perhaps invented, the variant of Samson as love-suicide. Deguilleville's "Le pelerinage de la vie humaine," which treats Samson and Delilah as a psychomachia, may have inspired Chaucer to elaborate the Samson-Arcite parallel.

Chaucer Subjects: Knight and His Tale.; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.