Chaucer and the Subversion of Form, ed. Thomas A. Prendergast and Jessica Rosenfeld. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 104. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. ix, 224.

Abstract

Readers of Chaucer become accustomed to his self-deprecating humor. In one famous example, the character of Chaucer the Canterbury pilgrim begins telling the tale of a knight named Sir Thopas who tries to rescue the elf queen. He uses such complicated verse forms that the host tells him to stop the “rym doggerel” and to “telle in prose somewhat.” Chaucer the poet thus shows his virtuosity and his humanity. The host is not an uncultured boor, as some early critics said; however, the pilgrim does not speak as Chaucer himself would have done on such an occasion.