Geoffrey Chaucer, Manciple's Tale

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Following the

Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

(

CYT

)

,

Chaucer’s

Manciple’s Tale

(

MancT

) constitutes Fragment IX and the penultimate story in the

Canterbury Tales

, preceding the didactic sermon of the

Parson’s Tale

. The dating of the tale is contested, as those critics who think it a poor tale consider it a product of Chaucer’s early years. For critics who see the tale as a more accomplished work or a parody of John Gower’s version of the story in the

Confessio Amantis

, it suggests a date post-1390; Baker argues for a date between 1388 and 1399 (11-13). Opening with a sordid interchange between the Manciple and the Cook in the

Prologue

, it is presumably a short retelling of Ovid’s

Metamorphoses

etiology of how the once white crow was turned black. Earlier scholarship has often…

2555 words

Citation: Obermeier, Anita. "Manciple's Tale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 December 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34224, accessed 19 March 2024.]

34224 Manciple's Tale 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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