Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford as Rhetorician
- Author / Editor
- Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford as Rhetorician
- Published
- Mediaeval Studies 51 (1989): 313-28.
- Description
- The Clerk's dismissal of Petrarch's opening "descriptio" is ironic--for the "king of rivers" would be understood by knowledgeable pilgrims to signify rhetorical powers and divine wisdom. In fact, the Clerk deploys a full range of rhetorical figures throughout the tale, in large part to create an extended rebuttal to the Wife's views on marriage.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Clerk and His Tale.