Chaucer's Retraction: A Review of Opinion

Romans 15:4 and the Canterbury Tales: A Modest Proposal Concerning Chaucer’s Entente

“…In 1961, James D. Gordon was able to write, If there is anything like a general trend today on this subject, it is toward recognizing the Retraction as authentic, as the poet's final statement concerning his whole literary production, even though it is appended to the Canterbury Tales, and toward explaining it as a matter of conscience rather than of aesthetics. 19 That evaluation evidently proved premature, however, seeing as in 1999 Obermeier's summary of criticism on the Retraction lists a number of critics arguing against it in the elapsed decades (not to mention Obermeier herself). 20 It seems that critics must make a choice, and strong feelings are bound to be get involved.…”