Two Versions of Tragedy: Ugolino
- Author / Editor
- Boitani, Piero.
Two Versions of Tragedy: Ugolino
- Published
- Piero Boitani. The Tragic and the Sublime in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1989), pp. 20-55.
- Description
- The Monk's "de casibus" tragedy poses a problem for the modern reader with an idea of tragedy that involves fallibility, sin, and error. Chaucer himself holds a more complex idea of tragedy than does the Monk. Chaucer's version differs from Dante's chiefly in that he omits the historical and political frame and adds details: Hugelyn's innocence and the number and ages of the children.
- In light of historical background, Boitani compares Dante's story of Ugolino in "Inferno" 33, in which absolute evil and terror dominate, to Chaucer's version, the Hugelyn story in MkT, in which discrepancies between the "fact" and the "word" are annulled by a mouth that speaks ambiguously.
- Alternative Title
- The Tragic and the Sublime in Medieval Literature.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Monk and His Tale.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.