Term: a Chaucerian parallel

[Donka Minkova]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
>(Hey -- how come no women?)
>
>Larry Trask
 
This is not a feminist response to the terminological quest, but it seems
to me that balance in nature is so pervasive that we don't need a special
term for it. The situation is well covered by the Latin legal maxim:
 
"Qui in uno gravatur in alio debet relevari"
 
which Chaucer turns cleverly into:
 
For, John, ther is a lawe that says thus:
That gif a man in a point be agreved,
That in another he sal be releved. . .
 
The context is famous: "John" is one of the clerks in The Reeve's Tale.
Funny things are about to happen. . .
 
Donka Minkova
 
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Donka Minkova
English Department
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Office (310) 825-4978
Fax (310) 206-5093