English Comedy: Its Role and Nature from Chaucer to the Present Day
- Author / Editor
- Rodway, Allan.
English Comedy: Its Role and Nature from Chaucer to the Present Day
- Published
- London: Chatto & Windus, 1975.
- Physical Description
- x, 288 pp.
- Description
- Defines and classifies various kinds of comedy according to their natures, subject matters, and social functions; then surveys this variety in the English literary tradition from the Middle Ages to 1970. Describes Chaucer's comedy (pp. 67-75) as "skeptical and complex," atypical of England at the time in its balanced views and rich development. Comments specifically on Chaucer's comedic techniques in MilT, RvT, and WBP, in contrast with that of William Dunbar in Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Miller and His Tale
- Reeve and His Tale
- Wife of Bath and Her Tale