Talking Bird and Gentle Heart: Female Homosocial Bonding in Chaucer's Squire's Tale

Author / Editor
Schotland, Sara Deutch.

Title
Talking Bird and Gentle Heart: Female Homosocial Bonding in Chaucer's Squire's Tale

Published
Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge, eds. Friendship in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Explorations of a Fundamental Ethical Discourse (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2010), pp. 525-41.

Description
Canacee's kindness toward the formel eagle shows Chaucer's sympathy for women and appreciation of female friendship. The formel, like other females in Chaucer, has been abused by men--and warns Canacee against them. In creating a painted mew for the falcon (an ekphrasis), Canacee expresses her pity and affection for the injured bird. Their friendship is brief but ideal, crossing apparently formidable borders.

Alternative Title
Friendship in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Explorations of a Fundamental Ethical Discourse.

Chaucer Subjects
Squire and His Tale.