'Muscipula Diaboli' and Chaucer's Portrait of the Prioress

Author / Editor
Witte, Stephen P.

Title
'Muscipula Diaboli' and Chaucer's Portrait of the Prioress

Published
Papers on Language and Literature 13 (1977): 227-37.

Description
Chaucer's use of the mouse, traditionally associated with gluttony and drunkenness, his juxtaposition of it to Christian terms like "charitee" and "tendre herte," and the possible allusion to Christ's sacrifice as Satan's "mousetrap" suggests harsh satire on a nun, knowingly or not, following the devil.

Chaucer Subjects
Prioress and Her Tale.