The Dynamics of the European Short Narrative in its Manuscript Context: The Case of Pyramus and Thisbe.
- Author/Editor
- Pratt, Karen.
- Title
- The Dynamics of the European Short Narrative in its Manuscript Context: The Case of Pyramus and Thisbe.
- Published
- Pratt, Karen. "The Dynamics of the European Short Narrative in its Manuscript Context: The Case of Pyramus and Thisbe." In The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript: Text Collections from a European Perspective. Eds. Karen Pratt, Bart Besamusca, Matthias Meyer, and Ad Putter. (Göttingen: V&R Academic, 2017). Pp. 257-85.
- Review
- Pratt traces the development "of the Pyramus and Thisbe material . . . from its Ovidian origins via medieval Latin rhetorical exercises, adaptations in French, German, and Dutch and its eventual inclusion in late medieval story collections, notably Chaucer's 'Legend of Good Women' and Boccaccio's 'De mulieribus Claris'," considering along the way Gower's version in "Confessio Amantis" III.1331ff., briefly comparing it with the Christine de Pizan's tale as a moralized exemplum of foolish haste in love--noting Gower's "innovative assertion" that the lovers "make the hole in the wall themselves" (275)--and contrasting it with Dirc Potter's account which exemplifies good love. Pratt reports Kathryn McKinley's claim (2011) that Gower removed the tragi-comic or bathetic features of Ovid's original by following the version in the "Ovide moralisé"; she does not address the manuscript contexts of Gower's version, as she does with most of the others she discusses. [MA. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 39.2]
- Date
- 2017
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations