The Merchant's Tale: "Beryn" and the London Company of Mercers.

Author / Editor
Irvin, Matthew W.

Title
The Merchant's Tale: "Beryn" and the London Company of Mercers.

Published
Studies in the Age Chaucer 40 (2018): 113-53.

Description
Connects "The Prologue and Tale of Beryn" (PTB) with the London Company of Mercers that met at St. Thomas Acon, suggesting that PTB was composed on the occasion of their feast in 1428 or 1430, exploring connections of the poem with John Carpenter, Richard Osbarn, "Dick" Whittington, and Thomas Marchaunt, and tracing the poem's concerns with pardoners and indulgences; social conflict; folly; and fellowship to the Company's interests, domestic and international. Also analyzes the thematic placement of PTB in CT manuscript Alnwick, Duke of Northumberland MS 455.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucerian Apocrypha
Manuscripts and Textual Studies