United States or Isle of Man ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Among the Ménagier's longer illustrations is the favourite but intolerably dull moral tale of Melibeu and Prudence, by Albertano of Brescia, translated into French by Renault de Louens, whose version the Ménagier copied, and adapted by Jean de Meung in the Roman de la Rose, from which in turn Chaucer took it to tell to the Canterbury Pilgrims.
The section on Avarice is particularly valuable for its picture of the sins of executors of wills, rack-renting lords, extortionate shopkeepers, false lawyers, usurers, and gamblers. See ibid., I, pp. 44-5. Prudence and Melibeus is worth reading once, either in Chaucer's or in Renault de Louens' version, because of its great popularity in the Middle Ages, and because of occasional vivid passages.
Word Of The Day