Dismal Science: Chaucer and Gower on Alchemy and Economy

Description: Contrasts Gower's and Chaucer's depictions of alchemy in, respectively, the "Confessio Amantis" and CT, and analyzes what these narratives reveal about the poets' views of money and economy. Unlike the depiction of money in Book V of the "Confessio," alchemy is depicted as a productive good in Book IV. In CYT, Chaucer excoriates alchemy as a false and deceptive science because he understood it to be the opposite of a proper economy--the "social technology" of money.

Chaucer Subjects: Canon's Yeoman and His Tale; Sources, Analogues, and Literary RElations