The Parlement of Foules: An Interpretation.

Author / Editor
Bennett, J. A. W.

Title
The Parlement of Foules: An Interpretation.

Published
Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. 2d ed. 1965.

Physical Description
[ix], 217 pp.; 7 b&w illus.

Description
Reads PF as a thematic exploration of Christian love infused with Neoplatonic thought and imagery, and influenced by Cicero, Macrobius, Alain de Lille, John de Meun, and Dante. Demonstrates the poem's tight verbal structure and its allusiveness, assessing its central themes and images, and discussing the importance of love in Chaucer's conceptions of social and cosmic order. In PF and its tradition, love is the natural binding force of the universe, even though humans can perceive this only imperfectly.

Chaucer Subjects
Parliament of Fowls
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Style and Versification