Chaucer's May 3.

Author / Editor
McCall, John P.

Title
Chaucer's May 3.

Published
Modern Language Notes 76.3 (1961): 201-05.

Description
Argues that Chaucer's references to May third, assigned in Ovidian tradition to "the goddess Flora and her celebrations," is a day on which the "force of love is especially and powerfully felt," and therefore "a suitable day for Pandare [TC 2.56], Palamon, Arcite [KnT 1.1462ff.], and Chauntecleer [NPT 7.3187ff.] to be moved by carnal desires--albeit according to their own particular dispositions and circumstances."

Chaucer Subjects
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Troilus and Criseyde
Knight and His Tale
Nun's Priest and His Tale