'Translatio': 'Difficult Statement' in Medieval Poetic Theory

Author / Editor
Nims, Margaret.

Title
'Translatio': 'Difficult Statement' in Medieval Poetic Theory

Published
University of Toronto Quarterly 43 (1974): 215-30.

Description
Traces commentaries on metaphor ("translatio") among medieval classicizing poets and rhetoricians, especially Alan de Lille and Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and examines samples of metaphor in Chaucer's works that reflect these commentaries. Focuses on "complex metaphors" that guide episodes or complete narratives, e.g., the garden in MerT, pilgrimage in CT, etc.

Chaucer Subjects
Style and Versification
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Merchant and His Tale
Canterbury Tales--General