The Old Way and the Parson's Way: An Ironic Reading of the Parson's Tale

Author / Editor
Allen, Judson Boyce.

Title
The Old Way and the Parson's Way: An Ironic Reading of the Parson's Tale

Published
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 3 (1973): 255-71.

Description
Reads ParsT as "just another tale" (rather than the crescendo of CT), adducing Boethian aesthetic and moral attitudes, Aristotelian poetics, and the sequence of the last four tales as evidence that we should read the penitential message of ParsT ironically. The Ret is the genuine ending of CT.

Chaucer Subjects
Parson and His Tale
Chaucer's Retraction