Chaucer's 'General Prologue', A 673 'Burdoun' and Some Sixteenth-Century Puns

Author / Editor
Orton, P. R.

Title
Chaucer's 'General Prologue', A 673 'Burdoun' and Some Sixteenth-Century Puns

Published
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 3-4.

Description
"Burdoun" as an obscene pun in Chaucer's description of the Pardoner in the GP is supported in Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and even more strikingly in Wyatt's poem "Ye Old Mule". The latter shows the ribald possibilities of the word as either "a burden" or "a phallus".

Chaucer Subjects
Pardoner and His Tale.