The Knight’s Tale

Summary

INTRODUCTION 87

APPENDIX

Three redactions of the Teseida 120

Table 1: Sources of The Knight’s Tale 126

Table 2: The Teseida in The Knight’s Tale 131

Table 3: The Thebaid in The Knight’s Tale 133

Table 4: Boethius in The Knight’s Tale 134

TEXTS

I. Boccaccio, Il Libro Chiamato Teseo 136 (ed. W. E. Coleman and E. Agostinelli)

II. P. Papinius Statius, Thebaid 217 (ed. Alfred Klotz and Thomas C. Klinnert)

III. Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae 236 (ed. Israel Gollancz)

Whilom, as olde stories tellen us (KnT I, 859)

Several books occupied Chaucer’s desk while he was composing The Knight’s Tale: Boccaccio’s Teseida, Statius’s Thebaid, and Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae (in Latin and in Chaucer’s own translation, the Boece). In Chaucer’s mind’s eye, if not also on his desk, were Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Vulgate Bible, Dante’s Commedia, and perhaps the Roman de la Rose and the Roman de Thèbes.

Boccaccio’s Teseida

The most important book on that very crowded desk was the Teseida. Boccaccio composed the Teseida c. 1340 in response to Dante’s observation in the De vulgari eloquentia that a vernacular work on the theme of arms still remained to be written. The poem consists of 1238 octaves, totaling 9904 lines, or about the same number of lines as in the Aeneid. Boccaccio envisioned the Teseida as a demonstration piece to show that a classical epic could be written in a modern language and, with its ottava rima structure, that it could be cast in a contemporary poetic idiom.

From the time that Chaucer acquired his copy of Boccaccio’s poem, the Teseida was a major presence in his work. Chaucer seems to have thoroughly digested the Teseida over a long period of careful reading. Its influence is clear in the Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Criseyde, The Franklin’s Tale, Anelida and Arcite, the Legend of Good Women, and perhaps the House of Fame, but its most extended use occurs in The Knight’s Tale. In constructing The Knight’s Tale, Chaucer borrows from all twelve books of the Teseida. All told, the Teseida was Chaucer’s source for some 1805 (of 2250) lines, that is, for 80% of The Knight’s Tale.