Chaucer and the Theme of Mutability

Description: Describes considerations of mutability from "Antiquity Through the Middle Ages" and then focuses on Chaucer's works, with individual sections that assess aspects of the theme in Chaucer's translations, his lyric poems, his dream visions, TC, KnT, and the "Remainder" of the CT. Considers several sub-themes: "decay of the world, 'ubi sunt,' mutability, mortality, contempt of the world ['contemptus mundi'], putrefaction," and "the world in all its transitoriness," arguing that the theme is prevalent throughout Chaucer's career and that it helps to account for the "tension and universality of his poetry."