Chaucer's Anti-Fable: 'Reductio ad Absurdum' in the 'Nun's Priest's Tale'

Author / Editor
Scheps, Walter

Title
Chaucer's Anti-Fable: 'Reductio ad Absurdum' in the 'Nun's Priest's Tale'

Published
Leeds Studies in English 4 (1970): 1-10.

Description
Argues that the rational absurdity of the plot of NPT and the inapplicability of the various morals applied to the Tale expose the ridiculousness of the fable genre; the Tale is an "anti-fable," as Th is an "anti-romance."

Chaucer Subjects
Nun's Priest and His Tale
Tale of Sir Thopas