Chaucer's Artistic Use of Pope Innocent III's "De Miseria Humane Conditionis" in the Man of Law's Prologue and Tale.

Author / Editor
Lewis, Robert Enzer.

Title
Chaucer's Artistic Use of Pope Innocent III's "De Miseria Humane Conditionis" in the Man of Law's Prologue and Tale.

Published
PMLA 81 (1966): 485-92.

Description
Argues that Chaucer uses portions of Pope Innocent's "De Miseria" in MLPT to "further characterize" the Man of Law, deepening the "concern with wealth" found in the GP description of the Sergeant. Furthermore, the portions from "De Miseria" unify the Man of Law's concerns with merchants, lend moral seriousness to the Tale deepening Custance's misfortunes, and help us to understand Chaucer's composition, revision, and patterned episodic construction.

Chaucer Subjects
Man of Law and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations