Chaucer's Canon and the Unity of "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale."
- Author / Editor
- Reidy, John.
Chaucer's Canon and the Unity of "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale."
- Published
- PMLA 80 (1965): 31-37.
- Description
- Explores the characterization of the Canon in CYP and the first part of CYT, arguing that he is embarrassed at being a "simple puffer" and not an illuminati of the alchemical arts--"a pathetic if not a tragic figure, broken through following a chimerical vision." Part 2 of CYT "shows what kind of person he is likely to become," thereby completing "the story of decline and fall." Supplies supporting evidence for the characterization from early Renaissance alchemical literature by Thomas Norton, George Ripley, and others.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Canon's Yeoman and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations