CLASSICIZING AND MEDIEVALIZING CHAUCER: THE SOURCES FOR PYRAMUS' DEATH-THROES IN THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN

Author: BURNS M.

Source: Neophilologus, Volume 81, Number 4, October 1997 , pp. 637-647(11)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

This article demonstrates that Chaucer based his version of the Pyramus and Thisbe story in the "Legend of Good Women" on Ovid's version in the Metamorphoses, rather than on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, as has been suggested. Textual evidence can be found in a comparison of the "Legend" with the Metamorphoses and with the Ovide Moralisé. Further evidence lies in the history of Pyramus' death-throes outside Ovid. Chaucer's episode does not show any special indebtedness to Geoffrey, for similar episodes also occur twice in the Aeneid, as well as in the Waltharius, in the Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd, and in the Anglo-Norman Brut. Chaucer's choice of names has also been put forward as evidence to support the Historia as a direct source but a broader survey of the above works points out variations that disprove this theory. Chaucer's source for this topos in the Pyramus tale must be the Metamorphoses, while his use of Geoffrey's Historia still remains unproven.

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: The Pennsylvania State University Department of Comparative Literature 434 N Burrowes Building University Park, PA 16802-6204 USA

Publication date: 1997-10-01