The Fiend and the Summoner, Statius and Dante: A Possible Source for the 'Friar's Tale'
- Author / Editor
- Brody, Saul Nathaniel.
The Fiend and the Summoner, Statius and Dante: A Possible Source for the 'Friar's Tale'
- Published
- Chaucer Review 32 (1997): 175-82.
- Description
- The questioning of the fiend by the Summoner in FrT echoes "Purgatorio" 25. Both humans (Dante and the summoner) ask material questions of their supernatural guides; both guides direct the questions to the realm of the spiritual. The place of both humans in the afterlife depends on their ability to understand what they are being taught. Dante, however, ascends to Paradise; the Summoner descends into Hell.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Friar and His Tale.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.