Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature: Valuing the Vernacular

Author / Editor
Minnis, Alastair.

Title
Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature: Valuing the Vernacular

Published
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Physical Description
xvi, 272 pp.

Description
Six studies by Minnis on the relationships among the vernacular, demotic attitudes, and Lollard concerns. One study pertains to Chaucer: chapter six, "Chaucer and the Relics of Vernacular Religion" (pp. 130-62), reads the Pardoner's involvement with relics and his altercation with the Host at the end of PardT in light of various late medieval attitudes toward the veneration (and kissing) of relics. Minnis discloses the comedy of the Host's "put-down of the Pardoner" and exemplifies how to discover non-elite attitudes within "high-culture texts."

Alternative Title
"Chaucer and the Relics of Vernacular Religion."

Chaucer Subjects
Pardoner and His Tale