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- Title
CHAUCER COMPROMISING NATURE.
- Authors
White, Hugh
- Abstract
The article focuses on the works of English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer employs nature terms in a normative capacity, and when he is most engaged with the idea of the natural he seems to display a skepticism about the normative status of the natural and, indeed, about the goodness of the order nature superintends. In several of his works Chaucer makes this skepticism apparent by offering a view of nature which asserts the goodness and rightness of the natural and then suggesting that this view does not fit the reality the work in question presents. The article author cites passages from "The Manciple's Tale" and "The Squire's Tale," in which Chaucer, though not introducing an apparently authoritative nature and then asking awkward questions of it, does stand on its head the idea of the natural as good and right presented to him by his source, Roman philosopher Boethius' "Consolation."
- Subjects
CHAUCER, Geoffrey, d. 1400; ENGLISH poets; CANTERBURY Tales: The Manciple's Tale; CANTERBURY Tales: The Squire's Tale; ENGLISH poetry; NATURE in literature
- Publication
Review of English Studies, 1989, Vol 40, Issue 158, p157
- ISSN
0034-6551
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/res/XL.158.157