Chaucer's Host: Up-So-Doun

Description: Allegorical reading of the CT Host as an image of Christ, a figure of the Eucharist associated with joy, heroism, and omnipotence. The Host is a guide of others and the only pilgrim not in need of penance. His name, his language, and his leadership reveal his identity with Christ. His wife, Goodelief, is a figure of the recalcitrant Church.; Argues that Chaucer and his audience were accustomed to seeking "hidden meaning" and derives the fourteenth-century notion of Christ from various sources, including Corpus Christi plays, the liturgies of Corpus Christi and Lent, Cursor mundi, and others.