Seed of Felicity: A Study of the Concepts of Nobility and "Gentilesse" in the Middle Ages and the Works of Chaucer.

Author / Editor
Gaylord, Alan Theodore.

Title
Seed of Felicity: A Study of the Concepts of Nobility and "Gentilesse" in the Middle Ages and the Works of Chaucer.

Published
Dissertation Abstracts International 20.09 (1960). Princeton University Dissertation, 1958. 592 pp. Full text available at ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Description
Surveys the intellectual and social backgrounds of medieval understandings of nobility and "gentilesse," and analyzes noble birth and noble action in TC and CT, especially the ironies of failed "noble potential" in TC, the framing noble ideals of the Knight and Parson in CT, and the Franklin's literal rather than spiritual understanding of gentility in FranT.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde
Franklin and His Tale
Knight and His Tale
Parson and His Tale