'Maken Melodye': The Quality of Song in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Author / Editor
Francis, Christina.

Title
'Maken Melodye': The Quality of Song in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Published
Georgiana Donavin and Anita Obermeier, eds. Romance and Rhetoric: Essays in Honour of Dhira B. Mahoney. Disputatio, no. 19. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010), pp. 149-70.

Series
Disputatio, no. 19.

Description
Contrasts human song and birdsong in GP, NPT, MilT, PrT, and PF: humans employ reason to understand and appreciate music, while birds sing purely for pleasure. Generally, the human voice is "an indicator of how Chaucer's characters misuse their voices to celebrate or pursue pleasure," and most of Chaucer's pilgrims are "inappropriate music makers."

Contributor
Donavin, Georgiana, ed.
Obermeier, Anita, ed.

Alternative Title
Romance and Rhetoric: Essays in Honour of Dhira B. Mahoney.

Chaucer Subjects
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
Nun's Priest and His Tale
Miller and His Tale
Prioress and Her Tale
Parliament of Fowls