The Astonishing Performance of Chaucer's Pardoner.

Author / Editor
McNamara, Leo F.

Title
The Astonishing Performance of Chaucer's Pardoner.

Published
Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters 46 (1961): 231-37.

Description
Rejects the "drunkenness hypothesis" as a way of explaining the Pardoner's character, arguing that pride and "counterfeit humility" underlie the characterization and that the "[s]uspicion, aversion, and contempt" of the pilgrim audience toward him provoke his vain "stance of flattery and accommodation" toward them.

Chaucer Subjects
Pardoner and His Tale