The Book-Burning Episode in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue: Some Additional Analogues.

Author / Editor
Steadman, John M.

Title
The Book-Burning Episode in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue: Some Additional Analogues.

Published
PMLA 74 (1959): 521-25.

Description
Identifies a series of analogues to the book-burning episode in WBP 3.816 in eastern versions of the "Seven Sages" (or "Books of Sindibad"), identifying similarities and differences between them and Chaucer's account, and suggesting that oral transmission may be the likeliest explanation for how Chaucer may have encountered one or another version.

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations