Three Middle English poetic texts - the Testament of Cresseid, the characterisation of the Summoner in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and Amis and Amiloun - illustrate the social function performed by skin disease, ‘leprosy,’ in medieval literature. Skin marred by disease marks questionable characters such as Cresseid, Amiloun, and the Summoner as the perpetrators of grave sins. Consequently, we can read their skin, and presumably contemporary readers did, as evidence of and special emphasis on the sinful state of the physically marred characters’ souls. Such texts demand that we read the skin of leprous characters as an indication of their misdeeds. Moreover, they suggest that anyone that follows the bad example of such characters risks having their own face inscribed with sin.
CY - Berlin, Boston DO - 10.1515/978311057813310.1515/9783110578133-005 LA - eng N2 -Three Middle English poetic texts - the Testament of Cresseid, the characterisation of the Summoner in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and Amis and Amiloun - illustrate the social function performed by skin disease, ‘leprosy,’ in medieval literature. Skin marred by disease marks questionable characters such as Cresseid, Amiloun, and the Summoner as the perpetrators of grave sins. Consequently, we can read their skin, and presumably contemporary readers did, as evidence of and special emphasis on the sinful state of the physically marred characters’ souls. Such texts demand that we read the skin of leprous characters as an indication of their misdeeds. Moreover, they suggest that anyone that follows the bad example of such characters risks having their own face inscribed with sin.
PB - De Gruyter PP - Berlin, Boston PY - 2018 SP - 77 EP - 93 TI - Legible Leprosy: Skin Disease in the Testament of Cresseid, Chaucer’s Summoner, and Amis and Amiloun UR - https://books.google.nl/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=3I1uDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA77&dq=leprosy&ots=ZTZI22f8LB&sig=sbrK6OwovxgK5XsBI9nXNhXVRqQ#v=onepage&q=leprosy&f=false ER -