Dante in Inglissh'; What Il Convivio Really Did for Chaucer

Author / Editor
Minnis, Alastair.

Title
Dante in Inglissh'; What Il Convivio Really Did for Chaucer

Published
Essays in Criticism 55 (2005): 97-116

Description
The Loathly Lady's lecture on "gentilesse" in WBT goes beyond sexual sovereignty to encompass dominium, a concept central to Wyclif's challenge to authority. Without naming his source, Chaucer channels orthodox, Boethian ideas about "gentilesse" through Dante's vernacular Convivio to allow for observations without the taint of Lollardy.

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.