Moments of Silence, Acts of Speech: Uncovering the Incest Motif in the Man of Law's Tale

The persistent silence of the heroine regarding her history has tradi tionally been seen as an uncomfortable feature in the Man of Law's Tale and its closest analogues, an unfortunate necessity of the plot inexpertly dealt with by the authors.1 It has long been noted that the tale-type to which Chaucer's tale belongs begins with the Constance character flee ing an incestuous father,2 and many critics locate the source of Custance's unexplained refusal to divulge her identity or her history in the traces of this incest motif that remain in the tale.3 This same odd