The Nun's Priest's Taleを読む
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概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
The Nun's Priest's Tale, the source of which Chaucer must have sought in one of the fables that were popular in Medieval Europe, enjoys, in a sense, greater celeblity than any other tale in The Canterbury Tales. In The Nun's Priest's Tale, however, we encounter no such honoured protagonist as Troilus nor such pitiable heroine as Constance in The Man of Law's Tale, but only find a fox, a cock, and a hen-"---all beasts. As regards the plot, we are sure that Chaucer never tried to renew what his alien ancestors had handed down to him. What then are the causes of its celebrity ? A close reading will make us aware that they consist in ; 1.The tone of mock-heroic which invite ironical sneer as well as hearty laughter. 2. The poet's erudition shown in the degressions upon the analysis of dreams or medical advice, upon rhetoric or other encyclopaedic display of classical events and fables, together with the metaphysical problems of the limitation of human wisdom, the danger of self delusion, and the controversy over Boethius' doctorine. 3. The poet's exquisite versification of the theme ; the concurrence of tone and import. 4. The symbolic meaning in the imagery of beasts. To trace these idiosyncracies, I tried to read and analyse The Tale as closely to the text as possible, though my reading, I am afraid, may have made so great a mistake as to 'take the chaff and let the fruit be still.'
- 東海大学の論文