'A beest may al his lust fulfille': Naturalizing Chivalric Violence in Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale'

Author / Editor
Withers, Jeremy.

Title
'A beest may al his lust fulfille': Naturalizing Chivalric Violence in Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale'

Published
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 173-83.

Description
In KnT, warriors are compared to animals, a seemingly desirable condition that would allow warriors to "discharge at will their power and violence." However, several references to shackled, confined, or endangered animals create a contrast between warrior self-identification with animals and animals' subjugation in the realm of chivalric warfare.

Alternative Title
Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts.

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale