Reading the Prioress's Tale in the Fifteenth Century:

Abstract

Abstract This article considers the fifteenth-century circulation of Chaucer's Prioress's Tale outside of the Canterbury Tales in devotional anthologies. It examines three specific manuscripts—London, British Library MSS Harley 2251 and Harley 2382, and Manchester, Chetham Library MS 6709—in which the tale appears as one of a series of texts devoted to Marian devotion. From this context, we argue that in the fifteenth century Chaucer enjoyed a reputation as a Marian poet, and that two of his famous immediate successors, Hoccleve and Lydgate, engaged with his reputation on precisely this ground. The article finishes by reading two Marian miracle tales written by Hoccleve and Lydgate as self-conscious responses to the Prioress's Tale.