Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 5693
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Orsten , Elisabeth M.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Madame Eglentyne in Her Day and in Ours: Anti-Semitism in "The Prioress’s Tale" and a Modern Parallel [The author assesses twentieth-century scholarship on Chaucer’s Prioress and the controversy over whether the character is anti-Semitic (she tells a story about a little boy killed by Jews). Although one might see the Prioress as anti-Semitic according to our modern post-Holocaust perspective, it is ultimately unknowable whether Chaucer shared her views. The author finds a modern parallel to “The Prioress’s Tale” in the story of a shrine in Rinn, Austria (dedicated to a boy supposedly killed by Jewish merchants in 1462); its cult following endured through the late twentieth-century. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Florilegium 11, ( 1992): Pages 82 - 100.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Antisemitism Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poet- Canterbury Tales- Prioress’s Tale Devotional Practices Jews in Literature Literature- Verse Prioress (Literary Figure) Women in Literature Women in Religion
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Trent University
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 07095201