Natural Law in the Manciple's Tale and the Squire's Tale
- Author / Editor
- Houwen, L. A. J. R.
Natural Law in the Manciple's Tale and the Squire's Tale
- Published
- Geoffrey Lester, ed. Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 100-17.
- Description
- Derived from Boethius's Consolation and from the Roman de la Rose, the exemplary image of the caged bird invoked for the audience of ManT and SqT the "natural law" of sexual drive and the requirement that human beings, unlike birds, curb this drive. The image provides motive for immoral behavior in the Tales but also encourages ethical critique of such behavior.
- Alternative Title
- Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Manciple and His Tale.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.
- Squire and His Tale.