Wrath and Rhetoric in "The Summoner's Tale."

Author / Editor
Merrill, Thomas F.

Title
Wrath and Rhetoric in "The Summoner's Tale."

Published
Texas Studies in Literature and Language 4 (1962): 341-50.

Description
Treats Friar John's "digression" on anger in SumT as an "instance of mistaken penitential preaching" that is, satirically, aimed at Huberd the Friar. The awkward, inappropriate length of the address is part of the Sommoner's riposte to his adversary and, moreover, rebounds on the Summoner himself, especially when seen in light of ParsT and its shared concern with anger and related Senecan source material pertaining to hypocrisy, slander, and flattery.

Chaucer Subjects
Summoner and His Tale
Friar and His Tale
Parson and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations