Chaucer's Artistic Accomplishment in Molding the "Wife of Bath's Tale."

Author / Editor
Albertini, Virgil R.

Title
Chaucer's Artistic Accomplishment in Molding the "Wife of Bath's Tale."

Published
Northwest Missouri State College Studies 28.4 (1964): 3-16.

Description
Identifies "traces of the primitive folk tale" that underlie the Cupid and Psyche myth and WBT, and maintains Chaucer's familiarity with some version of the myth. Compares and contrasts aspects of the Tale with its English analogues, and argues that the superiority of Chaucer's version is due to the influence of the myth (especially evident in the motif of "double transformation") as well as to the "genius" of Chaucer's "narrative skill" in combining various motifs.

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