A major and original contribution to the debate as to Chaucer's use
and knowledge of Boccaccio, finding a new source for the "Shipman's
Tale". A possible direct link between the two greatest literary
collections of the fourteenth century, Boccaccio's Decameron and
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, has long tantalized readers because
these works share many stories, which are, moreover, placed in
similar frames. And yet, although he identified many of his
sources, Chaucer never mentioned Boccaccio; indeed when he retold
the Decameron's final novella, his pilgrim, the Clerk, states that
it was written by Petrarch. For these reasons, most scholars now
believe that while Chaucer might have heard parts of the earlier
collection when he was in Italy, he did not have it at hand as he
wrote. This volumeaims to change our understanding of this
question. It analyses the relationship between the "Shipman's
Tale", originally written for the Wife of Bath, and Decameron 8.10,
not seen before as a possible source. The book alsoargues that more
important than the narratives that Chaucer borrowed is the literary
technique that he learned from Boccaccio - to make tales from
ideas. This technique, moreover, links the "Shipman's Tale" to the
"Miller's Tale"and the new "Wife of Bath's Tale". Although at its
core a hermeneutic argument, this book also delves into such
important areas as alchemy, domestic space, economic history,
folklore, Irish/English politics, manuscripts, and misogyny.
FREDERICK M. BIGGS is Professor of English at the University of
Connecticut.
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