History and Form in the General Prologue to the 'Canterbury Tales'

Author / Editor
Martin, Loy D.

Title
History and Form in the General Prologue to the 'Canterbury Tales'

Published
ELH 45 (1978): 1-17.

Description
The form of GP is descended from the genre of the rhetorical catalogue of types, represented in simpler form by the lists of trees and birds in PF. In PF, the garden represents the world of timeless values and the catalogs the earth-bound realities; in GP the pilgrims are dressed according to their callings but located by class and wealth.

Chaucer Subjects
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
Parliament of Fowls.