Chaucer's Summoner's Tale: Flatulence, Blasphemy, and the Emperor's Clothes

Author / Editor
Finlayson, John.

Title
Chaucer's Summoner's Tale: Flatulence, Blasphemy, and the Emperor's Clothes

Published
Studies in Philology 104 (2007): 455-70.

Description
SumT is not a hidden allegory, but a narrative that exploits characteristics of the fabliau to explore larger issues of morality and ethics. By focusing almost solely on the distribution of the "gift," critics have ignored most of the story and missed Chaucer's concern with the foundations of ecclesiastical claims of "authority."

Chaucer Subjects
Summoner and His Tale