Chaucer's Man of Law as Interpreter.
- Author / Editor
- Wood, Chauncey
Chaucer's Man of Law as Interpreter.
- Published
- Traditio 23 (1967): 149-90.
- Description
- Reads MLT as a satire on its narrator whose volatile comments on the action of the poem contrast sharply with Constance's own patient acceptance, and characterize him as "anti-Boethian, anti-humanistic, [and] anti-religious," a man interested in "temporal satisfaction." He is a poor literary critic who misinterprets the works of Innocent III and Bernard Silvestris, and he misunderstands the "astrological situation" in the poem. Comparison of MLT with Trevet's version indicates that Chaucer's lawyer does not distinguish between romance and hagiography or between Providence and destiny.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Man of Law and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations