"Rowned she a pistel": National Institutions and Identities According to Chaucer's Wife of Bath.

Author / Editor
Nakley, Susan.

Title
"Rowned she a pistel": National Institutions and Identities According to Chaucer's Wife of Bath.

Published
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 114.1 (2015): 61-87

Description
Establishes how WBT's treatment of sovereignty and of civic and domestic institutions "redefine[s] English nobility as a national form of identity" that crosses class and gender boundaries. Further argues that Chaucer's anachronistic use of Dante in the old woman's sermon creates a sense of nobility based not on heritage but on "shared ethical standards of virtuous living" and "civic responsibility."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations