That Oath of the Prioress

Author / Editor
Fleissner, Robert F.

Title
That Oath of the Prioress

Published
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 86 (1985): 197-98.

Description
"Loy" may refer to the law (from Old French "loy"), compounding the irony of the Prioress's oath "by Seinte Loy." In "taking an oath by the Law 'per se'," she would have taken a stand against unprincipled, secular swearing.

Chaucer Subjects
Prioress and Her Tale.