Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight's Tale

Darragh Greene (University College Dublin)

Ed. by Sebastian Sobecki, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
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. 1386 - c. 1386

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

The Knight’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer is a late-fourteenth-century chivalric romance in rhyming couplets. Since its narrative is set in the pre-Christian world of Ancient Greece, it might best be classified as a roman antique. The 2,250-line poem — Chaucer’s longest after Troilus and Criseyde — is divided into four books of varying lengths, and is disposed as the first Tale in the poet’s ultimate story compilation, The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387-1400).

In The Prologue to the Legend of Good Women (c. 1386-88), there is reference to a work that concerns “al the love of Palamon and Arcite / Of Thebes” (F 420-21; G 408-9). This has been taken as …

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2959 words

Citation: Greene, Darragh. "The Knight's Tale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 June 2021 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38760, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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