The Goddess Natura in Medieval Literature

Author / Editor
Economou, George D.

Title
The Goddess Natura in Medieval Literature

Published
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972.

Physical Description
ix, 213 pp.

Description
Traces the uses and development of personified Nature in classical and medieval traditions, focusing on Boethius, Bernard Silvestris, Alain de Lille, Jean de Meun, and Chaucer's relations with all of them in PF. Following tradition, Chaucer presents Nature as "pronuba as well as procreatrix" and "vicaria Dei," the universal vicar of God whose "doctrine of love" is an orderly combination of pleasure, productivity, and marriage.

Chaucer Subjects
Parliament of Fowls
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations