A Distinction of Stories: The Medieval Unity of Chaucer's Fair Chain of Narratives for Canterbury

Description: Medieval literary theory in general, and commentary on Ovid's "Metamorphoses," the tales-in-a-frame book most certainly important to Chaucer, suggest that CT can best be understood when grouped in four kinds: natural, magical, moral, and spiritual.; When Chaucer's established fragments are reordered, under the guidance of this medieval precedent, as I, VIII, V, III, VI,II, IV, IX, VII, X, a structure emerges of four groups of tales. In each group--KnT to CkT, SNT to PardT, MLT to ShT,PrT to ParsT--the tales come in a logically descending order.; Although marriage is in some sense paradigmatic for the whole collection, the third, moral, group is a newly proposed marriage group. The tales are put into a fresh order that stimulates new ideas.