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MELIBEE, MELIBEUS is the hero of Chaucer's second tale, The Tale of Melibeus. A translation of the French tale, Le Livre de Mellibee et de Prudence, by Renaud de Louens (after 1336), it is also an adaptation of the Liber consolationis et consilii (The Book of Consolation and Counsel), by Albertanus of Brescia (c. 1246). After his enemies attack his wife Prudence and his daughter Sophia, Melibee wants to avenge himself, but Dame Prudence, by quoting the scriptures, the ancient philosophers, and the folk wisdom of proverbs dissuades him, and he is reconciled to his enemies. [Prudence: Sophie]

In both Latin and French sources the hero's name is Melibeus and Mellibee, meaning "a man that drynketh hony," Mel 1410. Melibee occurs thirty-two times, Mel 1019, 1054, 1111, 1410, 1426, 1444, 1451, 1518, 1540, 1671, 1681, 1697, 1711, 1724, 1742, 1745, 1768, 1769, 1773, 1784, 1789, 1791, 1801, 1805, 1806, 1808, 1809, 1827, 1830, 1832, 1834, 1870; and once in final rhyming position, MkP 1887. Melibeus appears thirteen times, Mel 967, 973, 986, 1001, 1003, 1008, 1026, 1049, 1051, 1232, 1261, 1279, 1333. Melibees, the ME genitive case, appears once, Mel 1787.


Albertanus Brixiensis, Liber consolationis et consilii, ed. T. Sundby; Renaud de Louens, Le Livre de Mellibee et de Prudence, ed. J.B. Severs. S&A, 568-614; L.J. Matthews, "The Date of Chaucer's Melibee and the Stages of the Tale's Incorporation in The Canterbury Tales." ChauR 20 (1985-1986): 221-234; D. Palomo, "What Chaucer Really Did to Le Livre de Mellibee." PQ 53 (1974): 304-320.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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