Geoffrey Chaucer.

Author / Editor
Barrington, Candace.

Title
Geoffrey Chaucer.

Published
Candace Barrington and Sebastian Sobecki, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 135-47.

Description
Reviews Chaucer’s experience with law and legal proceedings, and argues that in his poetry he "questions the fourteenth-century English legal system" and critiques its tendencies to favor the powerful. Focuses on "virtuous women undone or ignored by established legal systems" in PhyT, SNT, MLT, and Mel, assessing them in light of the Cecily Chaumpaigne proceedings, and reading WBP as an "extended legal plaint" that shows "how a woman can circumvent a legal system designed to limit her."

Contributor
Sobecki, Sebastian, ed.

Alternative Title
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Life
Wife of Bath and Her Tale
Man of Law and His Tale
Physician and His Tale
Monk and His Tale
Second Nun and Her Tale