The Medieval 'Apology for Poetry': Fabulous Narrative and Stories of the Gods
- Author / Editor
- Chance, Jane.
The Medieval 'Apology for Poetry': Fabulous Narrative and Stories of the Gods
- Published
- Jane Chance, ed. The Mythographic Art: Classical Fable and the Rise of the Vernacular in Early France and England (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1990), pp. 3-44.
- Description
- In ParsP, the Parson vehemently rejects the "lies" of pagan fables, as in the scandalous ManT. Yet, medieval poets often used "unseemly stories of the gods"--especially stories dealing with love, sex, and immorality--for their own political or moral ends. Macrobius had rationalized such use, and all educated persons knew the classics.
- Chance reviews commentaries, glosses, and handbooks of medieval "literary critics" and discusses the Latin mythographic tradition used by vernacular poets, including Chaucer. She reviews scholarship and gives a chronological list of medieval mythographers.
- Alternative Title
- The Mythographic Art: Classical Fable and the Rise of the Vernacular in Early France and England.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Background and General Criticism.
- Parson and His Tale.
- Manciple and His Tale.