Chaucer and the Commonplaces of Alchemy.

Author / Editor
Grennen, Joseph E.

Title
Chaucer and the Commonplaces of Alchemy.

Published
Classica et Mediaevalia 26 (1965): 306-33.

Description
Shows that "clichés of thought and expression" abound in medieval alchemical treatises, and explains how Chaucer's uses of these "topoi" or commonplaces "contribute to the meaning" of CYPT. Tabulates commonplaces of alchemical behavior, preparation, and procedure and describes how they function, respectively, in CYP and in the first and second sections of Prima Pars in CYT. Suggests that evidence "works against the ascription of a single source" for CYPT.

Chaucer Subjects
Canon's Yeoman and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations