Lies, Puns, Tallies: Marital and Material Deceit in Langland and Chaucer.”

Author / Editor
Taylor, Jamie.

Title
Lies, Puns, Tallies: Marital and Material Deceit in Langland and Chaucer.”

Published
Speculum 93 (2018): 111-21.

Description
Analyzes Langland's and Chaucer's uses of "tally-tale-tail" puns in "Piers Plowman" and ShT, clarifying medieval understandings of signification, polysemy, equivocation, deception, economic value, and misogyny. Unlike Lady Mede, who is trapped in a "loop of polysemous equivocations"” the merchant's wife in ShT recognizes "the mercantile, circulatory structures that ensnare her and use[s] them to pursue her own pleasures."

Chaucer Subjects
Shipman and His Tale
Language and Word Studies