Chaucer's Pardoner, Rutebeuf's 'Dit de l'Herberie,' the 'Dit du Mercier,' and Cultural History

Author / Editor
Friedman, John Block.

Title
Chaucer's Pardoner, Rutebeuf's 'Dit de l'Herberie,' the 'Dit du Mercier,' and Cultural History

Published
Viator 38.1 (2007): 289-319.

Description
Friedman argues that French comic "trade" literature is source material for PardP, identifying parallels in details and in the hucksterish rhetoric of the works. He suggests that the Pardoner's sexuality may have been influenced by discussion of the spice "garingaut" in the anonymous "Dit du Mercier" and identifies a number of medieval works--French and English--in the broad tradition of sales-pitch literature. Includes modern English translations of the "Dit du Mercier" and Rutebeuf's "Dit de l'Herberie."

Chaucer Subjects
Pardoner and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and LIterary Relations.