'Partriches Wynges': A Note on 'Hous of Fame,' 1391-92

Author / Editor
Newman, Francis X.

Title
'Partriches Wynges': A Note on 'Hous of Fame,' 1391-92

Published
Mediaevalia 6 (1980): 231-38.

Description
The "partridge wings" at the end of the "pictura" of Fame result not from error but from Chaucer's following the commentary on the "Metamorphoses" in "Ovide moralise," where Perdix (partridge) represents a clever but deceitful craftsman and Daedalus the type of the wise man. "Partriches wynges" is a precise iconographic gesture, implying the emptiness of Fame and the verbal arts.

Chaucer Subjects
House of Fame.