Chaucer's 'Newe Rachel' and the Theological Roots of Medieval Anti-Semitism
- Author / Editor
- Adams, Robert.
Chaucer's 'Newe Rachel' and the Theological Roots of Medieval Anti-Semitism
- Published
- Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 77 (1995): 9-18.
- Description
- Questions whether PrT is an exercise in dramatic irony in which the Prioress's anti-Semitism is exposed to ridicule. The mother in PrT is called "this newe Rachel," but Rachel was a Jewish mother lamenting the massacre of Jewish babies by a Gentil ruler. If this is an ironic reference it could imply that Chaucer was attacking the whole exegetical system of interpreting the Bible.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Prioress and Her Tale.