'The Sentence of It Sooth Is': Chaucer's 'Physician's Tale'

Description: Treats PhyT as an instance of Chaucer's use of "indirection" when applying a moral to an exemplary narrative. Like ManT in this respect (also ClT, NPT, and part of TC), and unlike its analogues in Livy, Gower, and the "Roman de la Rose," PhyT closes with an interpretation that is inconsistent with its action; it thereby highlights a theme of the tragic nature of the world "where personal knowledge of sin is the best qualification for a parent, guardian, or judge."

Chaucer Subjects: Physician and His Tale; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations; Manciple and His Tale; Clerk and His Tale; Nun's Priest and His Tale; Troilus and Criseyde