Old Age and "Contemptus Mundi" in "The Pardoner's Tale."
- Author / Editor
- Steadman, John M.
Old Age and "Contemptus Mundi" in "The Pardoner's Tale."
- Published
- Medium Aevum 33.2 (1964): 121-30.
- Description
- Argues that the old man of PardT is neither a Messenger of Death nor Old Age personified, but a figure of the exemplary wisdom and virtue of the aged, set in contrast the youthful rioters and their foolish avarice. Compares Chaucer's "aged stranger" with analogous figures in Maximianus and Innocent III, showing how, patiently accepts the "miseries of the world," he is aloof to its lures.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Pardoner and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations