Satiric Fable in English: A Critical Stydy of the Animal Tales of Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, and Orwell

Description: The satiric fable, with oral origins among the Orientals and Greeks, is usually characterized by economy, light-heartedness, and singleness of impression. The popularity of the genre continued into the Middle Ages and beyond not only because of its beguiling literal surface but also because it was a safe allegorical vehicle for social and political criticism.; In Chaucer's NPT (Chapter 3), the Nun's Priest serves as a mouthpiece for Chaucer, who can speak equivocally and yet disavow responsibility for his words. Although the cock and hen are convincing both as birds and as representatives of the human race, the tale in its mock heroics overleaps the boundaries between human truth and beast fiction.