The 'Physician's Tale' and Love's Martyrs: 'Ensamples Mo Than Ten' as a Method in the 'Canterbury Tales'

Description: Studies aspects of PhyT that derive from hagiography, particularly its emphasis on Virginia as a "virgin martyr," not found in Chaucer's sources. As a result of Chaucer's various changes and genre modifications, the tale raises "grave questions of absolute and relative moral authority." Like other Chaucerian tales of victimization (especially ClT and those in LGW), PhyT challenges its audience to reassess moral categories and assumptions.

Chaucer Subjects: Physician and His Tale; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations; Clerk and His Tale; Legend of Good Women