The Legacy of the Bestiaries in Chaucer and Henryson

The influence of bestiaries on Chaucer and Henryson is not an obvious one. Thus, Chaucer avoids explicit allegorizations and merely hints at the allegorical dimension of his animals. Yet, he makes use of the ready symbolism of (bestiary) animals in his similes and characterizations of protagonists. Henryson, on the other hand, applies the technique of allegorical interpretation of animals - a typical feature of the bestiaries -to the protagonists of his Aesopic and Reynardian fables.