Maintaining Love Through Accord in the Tale of Melibee

Description: Events depicted in Chaucer's French source "mirror a popular English legal remedy, the loveday or accord," and Chaucer uses the occasion to comment on the importance and role of "maintenance" (the "exchange of money and influence between a lord and high level-servants, kinsmen, and friends"). Chaucer's translation reveals the "limitations of out-of-court settlement: informal conflict resolution could be compromised by powerful retainer lords," just as it often was in the courts and Chancery.