An Aube in the "Reeve’s Tale."

Author / Editor
Kaske, R. E.

Title
An Aube in the "Reeve’s Tale."

Published
ELH 26 (1959): 295-310.

Description
Examines the "apparent momentary tenderness between Aleyn and Malyne" in RvT 1. 4234-48, reading the passage as a parody of the "dawn-song," variously known as the "aube," "aude," "aubade," or "tageliet," an "established form in the medieval poetry of the Continent." Shows that, detail by detail, the passage mocks the literary form and undercuts its courtly implications, Also comments on the dawn-song in TC 3.1422-1520, 1702-8.

Chaucer Subjects
Reeve and His Tale
Troilus and Criseyde
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations