Research Catalog

Title

Chaucer and the mystics : the Canterbury tales and the genre of devotional prose / Robert Boenig.

Author

Boenig, Robert, 1948-

Publication

Lewisburg, Pa. : Bucknell University Press ; London : Associated University Presses, c1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

231 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

Chaucer and the Mystics is a contextualization of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in terms of the genre Chaucer himself valorizes in his Retraction, the prose treatise of morality and devotion. The many works of this kind have not yet been studied for their connections with Chaucer's writings - a surprising fact, given Chaucer's interest in them and the occasional inclusion of works like the Parson's Tale, the Tale of Melibee, and the Monk's Tale anonymously in flfteenth-century compendia of devotional treatises. Analogues among the five great Middle English mystics (Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, and Margery Kempe), together with works from the body of anonymous treatises of prose devotion, are described, with attention given to Chaucer's sometimes comic, sometimes serious purposes.

Subject

• Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400
• Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400 > Religion
• To 1500
• English prose literature > Middle English, 1100-1500 > History and criticism
• Devotional literature, English (Middle) > History and criticism
• Christian literature, English (Middle) > History and criticism
• Mysticism > England > History > Middle Ages, 500-1500
• Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages in literature
• Mysticism in literature
• Literary form
• Mysticism > England > History > Middle Ages, 600-1500
• Literary form > History > To 1500

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-221) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Introduction. Chaucer and the Genre of Devotional Prose. Pseudo-Dionysius and His Followers. The Middle English Mystics -- 2. Experience and Authority. Margery and Alice. The Parson. Pertelote's Dreams and the Reeve's Horse -- 3. Comic Tales. The Miller's Tale. The Friar and the Summoner -- 4. The Prioress's Tale. The Prioress and the Women Mystics. Doubled Language and a Grain on the Tongue -- 5. Good Women. The Man of Law's Tale. The Clerk's Tale. The Second Nun's Tale -- 6. Other Women. The Merchant's Tale. The Franklin's Tale. The Shipman's Tale. The Manciple's Tale -- 7. Chaucer Himself. Sir Thopas. The Tale of Melibee. The Retraction. Silence.

ISBN

0838752888 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^94033130^

OCLC

• 30976646
• SCSB-12541533

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library