Chaucer's Tale of Melibee and the Failure of Allegory

Author: Taylor, Jamie

Source: Exemplaria, Volume 21, Number 1, Spring 2009 , pp. 83-101(19)

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Abstract:

When Chaucer calls his Melibee “a litel thyng in prose,” he signals a key formulation for understanding his inclusion of a translation as his contribution to the Canterbury Tales. This article argues that Chaucer draws upon the legal model of ownership and use developed in Henry de Bracton's De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae as an analogue to literary ideas about textual ownership and borrowing. In doing so, he posits that the central problems the Melibee addresses revolve not around the specific political circumstances of Ricardian England, as has long been assumed by critics, but around the possibility of a vernacular author “owning” and “using” allegory.

Keywords: TRANSLATION; ALLEGORY; LAW; CHAUCER; RES NULLIUS; DOMINION; HENRY DE BRACTON; TALE OF MELIBEE

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/175330709X372030

Publication date: 2009-03-01

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