Chaucer's Tyrants of Lombardy
- Author / Editor
- Hardman, Phillipa.
Chaucer's Tyrants of Lombardy
- Published
- Review of English Studies 31 (1980): 172-78.
- Description
- Chaucer's contemporaries were familiar with his "tyraunts of Lumbardye" (LGW, G. 353), notorious for their cruelty. The Lombard setting of ClT suggests proverbial Lombard tyranny for Walter, an imperfect mixture of tyranny and pity, for he rues Griselda's suffering. MerT, a parody of ClT, emphasizes lust, for which Lombard tyrants were also notorious, as well as avarice, another of their vices.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Clerk and His Tale.
- Merchant and His Tale.