Chaucer's Daun Piers and the Rule of St. Benedict: The Failure of an Ideal

Author / Editor
White, Robert B. Jr.

Title
Chaucer's Daun Piers and the Rule of St. Benedict: The Failure of an Ideal

Published
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 70 (1971): 13-30.

Description
Characterizes the Monk as the "satiric consummation of all possible monastic faults," analyzing him in light of the "seven points of disciple" of the Rule of St. Benedict (obedience, poverty, celibacy, propertylessness, labor, claustration, and proper diet) and showing where details and nuances in his character contrast with monastic strictures.

Chaucer Subjects
Monk and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations