Chaucer's Retraction and the Degree of Completeness of the Canterbury Tales.

Author / Editor
Lumiansky, R. M.

Title
Chaucer's Retraction and the Degree of Completeness of the Canterbury Tales.

Published
TSE: Tulane Studies in English 06 (1956): 5-13.

Description
Argues that a "shift to extreme piety" in ParsPT and Ret had "nothing to do with" Chaucer's "general plan" for CT, which the poet considered to be "a nearly complete work." Considers evidence of changes in Chaucer's plan and justifies them largely in terms of his "dramatic method," addressing "seventeen successive passages which refer to [and indicate ongoing changes in] the general scheme proposed by the Host for the trip."

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General
Parson and His Tale
Chaucer's Retraction