The Millers Story, a ribald and bawdy fabliaux about the era gap, younger lust, older foolishness, plus the selfishness and cruelty of folks towards the other person, contains loads of color terms which help to increase and grow the meaning of this rustic experience. The teller, too, the Miller, is described in detail in Chaucers Prologue with several hues attached to him. The colors utilized by Chaucer were important not only for the vividness in the description to help to make a mental image pertaining to the hearers (or visitors, ) but in addition for clues towards the nature from the characters described. Sometimes there are lots of layers of meaning in one color term describing an element of a person or a part of clothing, and these connotations can generate multiple blood pressure measurements of more and more revelatory and frequently contradictory significance.
Color significance was much more important in medieval world than it is today. Hues meant a lot of things, and the distinct shades and hues chosen for clothes, furnishings, as well as hair-tinting (in additions to all-natural variations of such hues) were all imbued with that means within a social and spiritual context:
color [was] a favorite ploy of Satan and his cohorts, used in all their tireless efforts to trip up mankind as it battled along the rugged path to solution. Adherents with this theory thought color incredibly suspect, doubly corrupted by the Fall of Man that had built the material world ephemeral and transientThe Dark ages had color cultists, yet , who contended that color was actually the product of a divine light that brought matter to life. (Pleij 1-2)
A fascinating side note, described by simply Pleij, is that before the Renaissance, bright and rich colours were regarded both formal and suitable for daily wear, that is why the Callier could use a engine of blue and a white layer (Chaucer 18) for his traveling costume. Our belief of the Middle Ages, portrayed in film, is of most of the the general public clothed in drab brownish and grey homemade fabric, interspersed, perhaps, with the richer attire of the clergy and the nobility. However , color was employed in every possible way in garments, even among the poor, and if we were able to view the dress in the Pilgrims described by Chaucer, we would almost certainly see a huge range of color. It was certainly not until much later than Chaucers time which the colors of blue and black (colors of the firmament, and, therefore , of God) became the colors of earthly abnegation, intense asceticism, profound sorrow, and supreme humility (Pleij 6). Bright colors became traits of the devil, and the somber blues and blacks became the colors with the righteous (especially later among the list of Protestants note the consistently black use of Dutch merchants from the Renaissance, plus the black-and-white attires of the Puritan Pilgrims in the united states. ) This preference intended for blue and black continues to be held above even to the current day, in modern formal and evening wear, especially for men (Ibid).
The middle ages folk referred to by Chaucer had simply no such compunctions about color. If anybody era could possibly be singled out as being the most captivated with color, it will be the Middle Ages. (Pleij 4) What, then, did the colors in the description of the Miller, and then the colours employed by him in his Adventure, contribute to the which means of the story? The Millers hair is definitely Red as the brush bristles in an older sows hearing. Red was often associated with hot-temperedness and sexual incontinence, and reddish colored hair and ruddy epidermis were linked to the other in medieval fine art. The devil can be depicted, infernally, with red hair. (JTS article). Crimson hair was, in fact , an investment negative significance for a whole host of evil personas, including, particularly, greedy millers (Pleij 82). Medieval adverse attitudes toward redheads were so serious that all redheads were regarded as imposters and cheats. (Ibid) There may have been the irrational belief, also, that red hair was a item of a getting pregnant occurring throughout a womans menstrual time period. This guilty act, intended for the sexual act outside the specific aim of procreation was thought to be sinful, was considered to have got marked the child for life. Generally, physical characteristics involving the color red are hardly ever very good (83).
In addition , the Millers nostrils are black as they are extensive (Chaucer 18, blake were and wide, Benson 32), which may be simply a calumniatory personal description, but the notions of dark-colored as a color associated with humans were difficult in ancient times. Still the irrational belief persisted against things from the night, plus the takeover in the idea of dark-colored being a divine color had not yet happened. In many instances in medieval sentirse black is a colour related to the devil and to fiends (Heather, II, 215).
To date, in two lines, Chaucer has been capable to create two demonic referrals to the Callier just inside his personal information. The working joke amongst medieval villagers, no doubt centered at least partly actually was that millers were robbers, and therefore the attracting of a parallel between the Callier and the devil was not only apt yet funny. His description because burly, like a pig (and therefore greedy and overfed, ) with hair porcine in structure and devilish in color, with a extensive nose (a short or broad nostril could betray an passionate nature, Brewer 44, along with the nature of his tale) is very thick with meaning already that the Miller hardly appears to need additional explication. He could be greedy, he is probably loving, and possibly affectionate in a way away from the recognized mores. He can like the satan, perhaps or in other words of accurate evil, or perhaps, depending on just how he interacts with the different pilgrims, just with a feeling of mischief. He has been established as being outside the usual, with his reddish colored hair (a possible holdover prejudice against either the native Celts or the entering Danes), and his black nostrils have completed the cosmetic picture not merely of ugliness, but also a including a recommendation of the breathing of the infernal regions.
The Millers thombe of gold (Benson 32) was obviously a direct reference point, of course , to his cheating ways around the scale with his customers grain and flour. Millers had been proverbially looked at as thieves, (Langdon 244) as well as the reference to golde not only a metal but a color meant that his thumb was heavy indeed. It is additionally a suggestion of his inhumanity, for if a part of his body could possibly be other than drag, he was below human and not as worthy of respect or sympathy like a true man. Gold and red are often spoken of together in medieval passage (Heather, IV, 322) and the parallel along with his red frizzy hair (which, naturally , is really orange, or red-gold) could be extended here. Or perhaps, it could be that he can so infatuate of profit, in the form of thieved grain or perhaps flour or perhaps in precious metal itself that his thumb has become made of it.
The Millers whit cote and a blew cover (Benson 32) are more troublesome. White was almost always affiliated in the Middle Ages with purity and holiness, so his white coat belies the Millers characteristics. The whiteness of the heart and soul after getting shriven (Heather, III, 266) was an important image in medieval verse, and therefore it is hard to state what Chaucer was planning to describe, in the event anything, by providing the Miller a white coat. Probably this was in reference to a real callier he had well-known, who dressed in such a coat. It absolutely was eminently not practical color (as well as being somewhat costly, for fabric bleaching was obviously a difficult procedure during medieval times) for a journey, pertaining to the pilgrim were certain to get soiled and messy on an unpaved road upon horseback. Perhaps, though there is certainly little data for this, it had been a symbol of his impracticality fantastic willingness to show off his ill-gotten profits in sartorial display.
The blew hode is definitely slightly much easier to understand, but nonetheless contradictory. It could be associated with the planet Venus (Heather, IV, 326, ) which in turn would be another reference to the Millers bawdy tale wonderful supposed intimate incontinence. However , blue is additionally explained by Chaucer as being the color of constancy in love (in reference to Canaces blue purple velvet mew in The Squires Adventure, Chaucer 500). This is relatively confusing. Perhaps it is whether validation or maybe a repudiation from the virtue with the Millers very own wife. He admits that:
I have a wife, God is aware, as well as you
However not for every one of the oxen during my plough
Would I engage to take that on me now
To think myself a cuckold simply because
I am pretty sure I am not and not was.
One should not be too inquisitive in life
Either regarding Gods secrets or ones wife (Chaucer 88)
So perhaps the green hood he wears, if it has any kind of color meaning at all, is actually a token of his idea in (or benign forget of) the faithfulness of his wife. It could, backwards, be a mocking of his inattention to his very own wifes lovemaking infidelities, and thus be a substitute for cuckolds sides, too. The blue cloth over the brain of the Virgin was proverbial in statues and art work of this time (and to the present day in several representations of her, ) so the Millers blue hood could either be his own homage to the Virgin mobile Mary (which seems unlikely, ) or perhaps another of Chaucers comments about the lack of chastity on the Millers or the Millers wifes part.
This kind of array of attributes and colors will serve to impress upon, amuse, and confuse the reader. It would had been much simpler if the Miller had been arrayed in green, (the color of lightness in take pleasure in Chaucer 500). Being dressed up in dressed in greenwas [a] trait of the satan in old lore. (Howard 62) Yet Chaucer doesnt make points so basic for us, and instead piles around the allusions and the contradictions to generate us prevent and consider not only the Millers words and phrases, but the perception behind his words (such as his possibly too-eager protests of his wifes faithfulness. ) It is undoubtedly that, via these handful of terms, Chaucer creates a lively and completely human picture in our heads of the teller of The Millers Tale.
The first mention of a color term in the Tale on its own is in reference to the small lover Nicholass cupboard or perhaps linen press being covered with a faldyng reed (Benson 68. ) Faldyng was obviously a kind of rough cloth, presumably cheap and easy to obtain possibly for a poor student just like Nicholas. The coarseness of the fabric just might be a marker for the coarseness, and, indeed, your deviousness of Nicholas fantastic sexual and revenge-taking escapes. The picture is quickly made of a man who had been at the same time focused on luxury and appearances (red or scarlet was linked to luxury cloth, especially in the previously Middle Ages when it was really the sole luxury textile available) yet only ready, either through his own low and showy tastes, or by restrictions of low income, to make his room look like a cheap bordello.
Red, also, was linked to the color of fire (Heather, IV, 320) which may be a seite an seite either for the devil (as in the browsing of the Millers appearance, above) or to the flame of sexual desire. However again, there exists contradiction from this color. Reddish colored had, for several years, been linked to royalty and honor (Heather, ibid) and Scarlet and crimson had been especially sought after, as these high priced red dyestuffs were extracted from snail and earthworms that were difficult to obtain (Pleij 6. ) This was a tasteful color, and the red color of Nicholass cupboard-covering was perhaps selected by him to help draw in young women. The character of Nicholas Of deerne take pleasure in he koude and of solas (Benson 68, And sex in magic formula was his talent Chaucer 89) undoubtedly supports the concept of a young man who would choose his garments and apartment furnishings based on what this individual thought can have him one of the most mileage sexually with the small women of his buddie.
Chaucer was so in a position to create a identity for a persona in just a couple of lines it seems that color was element of his plan for mentioning possible attributes for character types by means of personal description. Reddish was Pertaining to centuriesthought as the exact contrary of light (Pleij 17) rather than dark. If this kind of thought nonetheless held sway in Chaucers time (and there is no evidence directly from the text, but it is a possibility) after that Nicholass crimson cloth in the room was like a red light (or a red mild in a prostitutes window, or maybe the red fabric thrown on the lamp within a prostitutes room) announcing his sexual determination and less-than-scrupulous morals.
Professor Sherbo argues the concept the choices of words in Chaucer are not about poetic diction, nevertheless were this is the words utilized in everyday writing. For, as Dr . Johnson said, just before Drydens time there was not any poetical diction: no system of words at once refined from the grossness of domestic work with and free from the harshness of conditions appropriated to particular disciplines. One could argue against this chronological division, intended for Shakespeare composed incarnadine to get red (Macbeth Act II ii, ) but from this idea we might suggest that Chaucers motivation in selection of colors were even more about the symbolism from the color than any kind of elegances or blossoms of conversation. (Sherbo 1) Since:
Chaucers poetry is nearly entirely innocent of poetic diction, quite understandable. As far back as 1913 Havens wrote in proportion as those men of poems draw close to those of common conversation the language and style increase conversational, and poetic diction is employed only in pathways which it can be desirable to have as different as possible from prose. (Sherbo 44)
If it is true, plus the conversational instead of formal strengthen of the Millers tale (it is referred to as a cherles story Benson 67, a churl being a low-class person) fits with this kind of idea, then the selection of color terms had not been based on visual, aural, or perhaps musical facets. Words has been chosen to suit within the colocar (and Chaucers color conditions are brief and easy to rhyme and fit into a line reed, barred, whit, col-blak, blew as opposed to later poetic Latinisms, incarnadine, striation, achromatic, nigrous, or cerulean, for example) but weren’t chosen, in least not primarily, to develop an clear effect. Therefore , it can be asserted that the selection of colors was based, firstly, on how they fit into the tale, and, subsequently, on the meaning that those hues signified.
Ongoing on to the information of the fair Alison, Chaucer uses a further more wealth of color terms. Quickly Chaucer lets us know that her girdle was of striped silk (Chaucer 90). Stripes, or parti-colored cloth, while both high-priced and jazzy (as was silk), is also considered an indication of her deviance. Each time a painter outfitted a estimate hose of one leg reddish and the various other leg yellow, he was informing the viewer he was a dubious character (Pleij 73). While we could not told the actual colours of the stripes on Alisons belt, maybe this was Chaucers first way of marking her, visually, while gaudy, showy, perhaps over-willing to spend her rich aged husbands funds on fine things, and, even, possessing her approaching sexual deviance. Women who decided to wear colorful clothing were religiously chastised. The thirteenth-century hellfire preacher Berthold of Regensburg railed against ladies who let themselves be overly enthusiastic by stylish colors. He noticed that that they no longer contented themselves with all the infinite selection of colors which will God got placed in the disposal of nature an abundant supply of darkish, red, green, white, green, yellow, and black. Simply no, the latest in female satisfaction involved incorporating these colors in dots and lines (Pleij 75)
The notion that it was female pride, and not merely personal taste or perhaps sexual advertising campaign, fits while using character of Alison. She’s so happy that your woman not only think that she may fool her husband (which she and Nicholas accomplish easily, ) but she feels no sorrow for her fraudulent acts and infidelity, will not nothing to conserve her husband from the insults of the townspeople at the end from the tale (Chaucer 105-106). Her striped belt is a signal of her willingness to violate her marriage vows and are very proud of deceiving her husband. A damning clothing, indeed.
White while morning dairy was the apron of Alison, as was her smock. A white-colored apron soon gets soiled, so this was probably an expression of Alisons vanity, while was the more costly white material a marker of her willingness to shell out her husbands money. Light was considered as the most suitable color for women (Pleij 68) for it was the color of heaven and sinlessness, thus perhaps Alison wore these types of white garments in order to offer herself an incorrect aura of respectability. But the embroidery within the smock is black (Chaucer 90), demonstrating not only Alisons ability to blend colors (something frowned upon as against Gods nature) nevertheless her motivation to mitigate the whiteness of her garment with the blackness with the devil. The embroidery, too, in man made fiber, was a deemed a vanity, without a doubt, and was of satisfactory unusualness to get Chaucer to comment on it. One may imagine that Alison thought she was either creating a fashion, or perhaps leading this within her village. This kind of, too, may have been considered immodest, and perhaps an signal of long term sinfulness.
These stunning garments (a striped seatbelt, a white apron, a silk smock with dark-colored embroidery) tend not to end here. There are tags and frills on her milky mutch (cap, Chaucer 90) to match this ensemble. Her white headdress was perhaps required, since noted over, for colors of headdresses other than white-colored were considered to be the height of vanity and sexual display. But Alison doesnt take a look at a light cap the lady gilds the lily with tapes and ribbons, as being a young woman might choose to do. Its interesting that Chaucer would include this depth. Whether it had been sheer whimsy, however , yet another indicator of Alisons wantonness is challenging to say.
The next color term applied to Alison is within regard to her eyebrows. And she got plucked her eyebrows in bows, /Slenderly arched they were, and dark as sloes. (Chaucer 90) A sloe, of course , is known as a small dark fruit utilized for flavoring liquor, and scarcely one of the traditional comparisons pertaining to female beauty. Chaucer injects a bit of wit and satire here, intended for lower-class natural beauty of Alison would not always be classified and catalogued in a similar manner as the upper-class natural beauty listed, claim, in The Book from the Duchess. [The information of Alison] is, indeed, to some extent a rhetorical joke, the actual of which may be the absurdity of describing a carpenters partner, a wanton village wench, as if the girl were a heroine, a noble and ideal magnificence. There is likely also some component of social satire here. Chaucer is writing for a courtly audience. He is a snob, (Brewer 42)
The dark eyebrows on a blonde (we are assuming that she is golden-haired, as it is not really stated, although it seems very likely. We know simply that her complexion had a brighter tint/Than a new florin from the Regal Mint, [Ibid] Also, Her hue can be bright rare metal as any woman of relationship, but it is definitely compared to a new-minted respectable, a coin worth 6s. 8d. What is Alisons selling price? Brewer 42) were not regarded strange. Actually it was considered as the ideal. At the center Ages, blonde girls were supposed to have brownish eyes and black or at the very least darkish eyebrows. This combination, so strange to us nowadays, opened the way for hair-dyeing methods that enabled all those dark-eyed brunettes to achieve the best with comparative ease. (Pleij 50) The reference to the florin from the Royal Mint could be a suggestion that Alison dyed her naturally darker hair to a blonder color. This was not a great uncommon practice. Possibly, her hair color was bought by gold. The other possibility of that reference, also, certainly, is that her appreciate or virtue were low-cost and easily bought by gold or additional favors.
Incidentally, the prejudice against blue eye (considering the generally good associations attached to that color) possibly in the case of organic blondes has a number of feasible origins. One which seems to have one of the most age and credence was your prejudice in antiquity against invaders through the North, who were naturally even more blue-eyed compared to the majority of Mediterranean peoples. (Ibid) Though do not know the colour of Alisons eyes, it seems probably her eye were dark as her eyebrows had been, and Alison was quite possibly held up for example of the middle ages ideal of beauty (albeit a lower-class and hilarious one. )
Another possible color term is usually latoun (Benson 69), or the brass-like alloy on her leather purse, that was tasseled with silk and silver droplets (Chaucer 90). These metallic colors decorating the tote attached to her striped girdle add another element to her already showy ensemble, and were likely expensive. White-silver, although this color was more linked to heraldry (argent) than the metallic colors defined by Chaucer, are confusingly associated with a childs early life (up to age group twelve) when ever children were considered the many innocent and angelic. (Pleij 15) It appears unlikely this association could apply to the eighteen-year-old sexually mature and wanton Alison, so it appears much more plausible that Chaucer, here, with the mention within six lines of three metallic colors (brass, sterling silver, and gold) with the addition of pearled to simply be a catalogue in the richness with which this young lady is attired.
Another flurry of color conditions comes when Alison visits church, and sees the lovelorn Absalon. Significantly, Alison enticed/The colour to her encounter to make her mark: (Chaucer 92). Possibly Alison was pinching her face to create her cheeks red and make her more attractive (red faces had been often provided to fools in Terences comedies, Pleij 55, and blushing red encounters were thought to be indicative of lunacy, aggression, slyness, and betrayal. 82) In that one tiny details the whole of the tale is unveiled. Alison is definitely aggressive sexually, sly in the extreme, and quite happy to betray not simply sexually but socially her elderly partner. It is very clear that blushing cheeks, when attractive, weren’t something found on a reliable woman.
Moving on to the description of the parish attendant Absalon, another riot of color characteristics are given to him:
His hair was all in golden curls and shone:
Just like a fan it strutted outwards, beginning
To left and right via an accomplished parting
Ruddy his encounter, his sight as off white as goose
His shoes cut down in tracery, as in employ
In old St Pauls. The hose upon his feed
Confirmed scarlet through, and all his clothes were neat
And proper. In a coat of light blue
Flounced at the midsection and tagged with baignoire too.
He went, and wore a surplice just as gay
And white colored as any flower on the aerosol.
Six color terms are used on him: gold, ruddy, greyish, scarlet, lighting azure, and white-colored, (in Middle section English: gold, reed, greye, rede, lumination waget, and whit, Benson 69-70) in only eleven lines. It would be challenging to draw just one or even two conclusions using this array of colours, assuming that the colours are meant to include any representational meaning besides description. There is not any such point as an unequivocal system of medieval color symbolism, unless of course the term can be used to refer to medieval guys desperate and contradictory efforts to players colors in the role of meaningful symptoms planted around the narrow way to eternal salvation. There is no 1 defining idea that could range from the symbolism of gold, reddish, scarlet, light blue, grey, and white. This array of Absalons color features seems to have significantly less meaning, straight, than either the explanation of the Callier in the Sexual act, or of Alison at the outset of the tale.
The clerks golden curls would have recently been proverbial to get a wanton fresh lover, and might have looked incongruous in his drab part of attendant. Being ruddy of deal with has been identified as amorous, unreasonable, and fraudulent, which indeed Absalon can be. The fact that his eyes are grey as a goose rather than a gander was perhaps a reference to his effeminacy. Since grey eyes were considered as the height of female splendor (such as with the Prioress, ) perhaps grey eyes were regarded too girlish in a guys face. It is just a rather washed-out color, maybe meaning that Absalon lacked energy or virility. (He is later on referred to as squeamish and seems to be a dandy. ) This is maintained the information of the young mans fancy shoes, which are the latest style. His scarlet hose may simply be the example of the dandy Absalon trying to put on the latest and the most bold clothing, or is actually a mocking of his office. Since scarlet was one of many colors of the curtains in the tabernacle with the Temple in Exodus, (Pleij 15) and was often used for priestly vestments (such as by Pentecost) the mockery of your sacred color worn by a young clerk setting out specifically to commit adultery would probably not really be shed on Chaucers readers.
Modern vogue does not include a taste pertaining to the mix of red or perhaps scarlet with light blue (the light blue of Absalons jacket. ) To the eyes this could seem to be a garishly mismatched set of clothing, perhaps even clown-like. This is certainly how Absalon is pictured, for he is the victim from the jokes of Alison and Nicholas from this Tale (though Nicholas gets some comeuppance from him eventually, too). Medieval fashion allowed the mixture of light blue and scarlet, yet , so this could possibly be an entirely modern day reading. Suffice it to say, however , that Absalon, just like many a lover whom fancies himself successful with women, got great discomfort with his overall look and clothes. His white colored surplice may have fit well at church, and was maybe his one concession towards the solemnity of his location.
The next color term occurs the moment Nicholas can be roused via his sleep or hypnotic trance by the superstitious and concerned carpenter. Drive away night-hags, light Pater-noster the carpenter says as part of the plea he says above Nicholas when he tries to wake up him. A Pater-noster was the Our Daddy prayer in Latin, plus the white Pater-noster was a kind of sing-song warding-off charm disguised as a prayer. There are several different versions, including the I lay me down to rest poem explained by children. This poem, a sort of magic-working parody associated with an older Latina prayer. (Carrington 132) This could have simply served to make the Carpenter appearance foolish, for he is aiming to ward off evil spirits from your pretending Nicholas, who is employing this ploy as part of his intend to dupe the Carpenter. This sort of magical superstition was made fun of inside the lower classes, and Chaucer is not immune to it.
Later, once Nicholas can be instructing John the father on how to rig up the kneading tubs to get the coming inundation, he examines their escape by flotation as merrily, I undertake, as any lily-white duck at the rear of her drake. (Chaucer 99) This is an immediate allusion to Nicholass and Alisons treason, because the a pair of them are not lily-white. Likewise, the picture of a duck in back of her drake is a pointer to what Alison, the sweet, is doing behind her partners (the drakes) back with Nicholas.
When Absalon makes his fatal kissing error with the window, Chaucer is mindful to point out the fact that night is definitely black because coal. (Chaucer 103) This can be, of course , a crucial plot system to make sure that Absalon mistakes Alisons bottom on her face due to lack of light. (The Middle section English includes not one but two sources to earthy black substances, pitch and coal: Derk was the night as pich, or because the cole/ Benson 75) However , it has to be taken into account, that, although also fitting the colocar, the comparisons that Chaucer drew were to two grimy earth-substances (not, for example , black as obsidian or black as a beetle. ) This can be an earthy, lower-class account, and Chaucer takes care to select his similes accordingly.
Finally, the moment Absalon results to take his revenge upon Nicholas and Alison, this individual significantly offers Alison a golden engagement ring (Chaucer 104). This is a continuation with the theme of Alison as being a girl of convenient virtue, highlighting, perhaps, about prostitution. Absalon, in his contempt, makes it very clear that her virtue (whether she is getting faithless with her husband, or faithless to Absalon) can be purchased by such a trinket, hearkening returning to the explanation of her metallic finery at the beginning of the story. In fact , instead of a golden diamond ring, Nicholas, attempting to improve upon the jape (Ibid) receives a painful burn from a popular coulter, and the parallel between gold/red and flame is continued.
Color symbolism often means many things, and not all of these understanding, of course , had been either intended by Chaucer or perceived or learned by his readers. The fact that Chaucer uses numerous rich and varied color terms, and finds these people so important in descriptions of human beings, yet , indicates that they must have got some value. For example , instead of just telling all of us that the Burns was a be unfaithful, disliked by the villagers, along with a lecherous nature, Chaucer layers in poetic allusions to his attributes through color terms, all of which were subject to interpretation. It could be seen that Chaucer did less direct common sense on his designs, and alternatively left the suggestions valuable judgments, somewhat revealed or incited by simply color lingo, up to his readers. It is an extremely wealthy field of study, which one poem of 667 lines is made up of many color terms and myriad conceivable interpretations. There can be many more color terminology associations which are not as yet understood by simply literary historians, and there may have been additional subtleties, ironies, and jokes provided by Chaucers rich color-filled descriptions of his characters and their qualities.
Performs Cited
Benson, Larry Deb., Gen. Impotence. The Riverside Chaucer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.
Machine, Derek. Traditions and Development in Chaucer. London: Macmillan Press, 1982.
Carrington, Evelyn. An email on the White-colored Paternoster. The Folk-lore Record. Vol. 2, 1879, pp 127-134.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Neville Coghill. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
Davis, Norman, ainsi que al. A Chaucer Glossary. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1979. (Consulted only, indirectly quoted)
Heather, P. T. Color Significance. Parts II-IV. Folklore. Volume. 60, Nos. 1-3. 03 September, 1949.
Howard, Donald L. Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World. New york city: E. L. Dutton, 1987.
Kerker, Milton. Charles Dickens, Fagin, and Riah. Best of Legislation Theological On;ine seminary Magazine, 2003. 29 Summer, 2007. http://www. jtsa. edu/about/communications/pubs/bestof/dickens. shtml
Langdon, John. Mills in the Ancient Economy: England 1300-1540. Oxford: Oxford College or university Press, 2004.
Pleij, Herman. Shades Demonic and Divine: Shades of Meaning at the center Ages and After. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Sherbo, Arthur. English Poetic Diction by Chaucer to Wordsworth. East Lansing, The state of michigan: Michigan Express University Press, 1975.
