'What Amounteth Al This Wit?': The Aims of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' and Boccaccio's 'Decameron'

Author / Editor
Sylvester, Louise.

Title
'What Amounteth Al This Wit?': The Aims of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' and Boccaccio's 'Decameron'

Published
New Comparison: A Journal of Comparative and General Literary Studies 11 (1991): 137-57.

Description
Chaucer's borrowings from "Decameron" are more often poetic strategies and individual episodes than complete plots. The wife in ShT echoes Peronella in "Decameron" 7.2; MilT reflects "Decameron 2.4 more than RvT does 9.6. Generally, Chaucer extends Boccaccio's realism and his exploration of the relations between writers and characters.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General.