'A Straunge Succesour Sholde Take Youre Heritage' : The Clerk's Tale and the Crisis of Ricardian Rule

Author / Editor
Hanrahan, Michael.

Title
'A Straunge Succesour Sholde Take Youre Heritage' : The Clerk's Tale and the Crisis of Ricardian Rule

Published
Chaucer Review 35: 335-50, 2001.

Description
ClT reflects aspects of Richard II's life and philosophy of kingship--and perhaps Chaucer's fanciful solutions to Richard II's political dilemma of an heirless realm: divorce or a consort advisor. The insistence on "obedience to authority" in ClT mirrors Richard's growing concern with disobedience as "the greatest affront to a ruler" and acquires "very real political associations for its Ricardian readers."

Chaucer Subjects
Clerk and His Tale.
Chaucer's Life.