The Mercantile (Mis)Reader in The Canterbury Tales
- Author / Editor
- Ladd, Roger A.
The Mercantile (Mis)Reader in The Canterbury Tales
- Published
- Studes in Philology 99 : 17-32, 2002.
- Description
- By fitting merchants directly into his larger exploration of the relationship of sentence and solaas, Chaucer uses them to test the limits of the satiric form that dominated previous literary discussions of trade. Portraying merchants as consistently unable to separate fruyt from narrative chaff, Chaucer ultimately questions whether merchants can reform themselves and thus challenges the very basis of the satiric form.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Canterbury Tales--General.
- Merchant and His Tale.
- Shipman and His Tale.
- Man of Law and His Tale.