Chaucer's Theseus and the 'Knight's Tale'

Author / Editor
Scheps, Walter.

Title
Chaucer's Theseus and the 'Knight's Tale'

Published
Leeds Studies in English 9 (1976-77): 19-34.

Description
Although it is uncertain whether Chaucer knew Plutarch's "Life" of Theseus, in KnT the character is a mixture of the two traditions of the interpretation of Theseus: an Apollonian rationalist in Statius (the source in Anel) and a fickle lover in Ovid (the source in HF and LGW). KnT presents an eclectically-based, balanced, morally ambivalent Theseus, which is a mixture of the Statian and Ovidian characters, much in the pattern of Plutarch.

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.