The
Squire’s Tale(
Canterbury Tales, V.1-708, including its framing material) is in many ways one of the more puzzling of the Canterbury sequence, and it has elicited critical disagreement to match. Its date of composition is a matter of dispute; its sources are uncertain; its position in the sequence varies widely between manuscripts; its unfinished state (it promises, or threatens, to be very long indeed, containing as it does two distinct parts and the opening couplet of a third, with an epic-sized plot summary of what is to come) makes an estimation of its narrative and thematic qualities difficult; and readers’ evaluations of it have differed to extremes over time, with Milton longing to “call up him who left half-told / The story of Cambuscan bold” (
Il Penseroso, 109-10) ,…
1941 words
Citation: Cooper, Helen. "The Squire's Tale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19958, accessed 31 October 2024.]
