The 'Povre Widwe' in the 'Nun's Priest's Tale' and Boccaccio's 'Decameron'

Author / Editor
Finlayson, John.

Title
The 'Povre Widwe' in the 'Nun's Priest's Tale' and Boccaccio's 'Decameron'

Published
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 99 (1998): 269-73.

Description
The vivid details of Decameron 7.3 (the story of Friar Rinaldo)-the corrupt clergy, their obesity and sweating faces, their rich foods and wine, together with the simplicity of the widow's life-suggest that Boccaccio's work may have inspired NPT as a pointed satire of the clergy's failure (especially the Monk's) to meet the needs of lay people.

Chaucer Subjects
Nun's Priest and His Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.