Geoffrey Chaucer, The Franklin's Tale

Andrea Schutz (St. Thomas University, New Brunswick)

Ed. by , Richard Utz, Georgia Institute of Technology
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1387

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)
Story

Resources

The Franklin's Tale (FranT) is the second and final tale in Fragment V (E). It interrupts The Squire's Tale, and this narrative dynamic is as important to the Franklin’s Tale 's themes and style as is the teller interrupting. It dates from the high period of Chaucer's work on the Canterbury Tales, and may perhaps be more precisely dated to 1394 (Cooper 231).

The tale itself derives – very loosely – from one told twice by Giovanni Boccaccio, once in the Filocolo (c. 1336), and again in the Decameron (c. 1353); Chaucer's numerous changes and handling, however, result in a very distinct tale. The context of the Franklin’s Tale within its fragment and w…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2643 words

Citation: Schutz, Andrea. "The Franklin's Tale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 January 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19962, accessed 22 November 2024.]

Save this article