SOURCE: “Chaucer's Maiden's Head: ‘The Physician's Tale’ and the Poetics of Virginity,” in Representations, No. 28, Fall, 1989, pp. 113-28.

In the following essay, Bloch points out that apparent discrepancies exist between the motivation and actions of the characters in Chaucer's “The Physician's Tale.” The key to making sense of such disparity, Bloch maintains, is understanding how the character Virginia's virginity would have been understood by medieval readers. Bloch explains how the Church Fathers of the time would have viewed the story, noting that once Virginia is looked upon with desire by Appius, she ceases to be a virgin.

It is hard not to be struck in reading Chaucer's “Physician's Tale” by the insufficient motivation of this narrative account of how a virgin named Virginia is espied by a judge named Appius, who, through the churl Claudius, brings an indictment against her father Virginius, who, in turn, puts his daughter...