Chaucer's Knight: What's Wrong with Being Worthy?

Author / Editor
Brown, Emerson, Jr.

Title
Chaucer's Knight: What's Wrong with Being Worthy?

Published
Mediaevalia 15 (1993, for 1989): 183-205.

Description
Chaucer initially uses "worthy" for the Knight in GP with clear denotative meaning, but by the word's final appearance its meaning becomes ambiguous. The Knight is not being criticized; rather, the semantic degeneration of "worthy" indicates a corresponding degeneration of the chivalric ideal.

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale.
Language and Word Studies.