Poetic Invention and Chaucer's "Parlement of Foules" Author(s): Kurt Olsson Source: Modern Philology, Vol. 87, No. 1 (Aug., 1989), pp. 13-35 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/438526 Accessed: 03-10-2017 06:28 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/438526?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern Philology This content downloaded from 195.113.54.40 on Tue, 03 Oct 2017 06:28:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Poetic Invention and Chaucer's Parlement of Foules1 Kurt Olsson Anima . facit novas compositiones, licet non faciat novas res. [BONAVENTURA] I Although the Parlement of Foules centrally describes a book-inspired process of discovery, it is, as a statement about that process, both playfully and seriously enigmatic. Chaucer's narrator, perplexed by the miracles of Love, reads an old book to learn a certain, unidentified thing; his search for knowledge turns into a dream-quest which culminates in his witnessing a parliament of birds, held "on seynt Valentynes day" (line 309).2 What the narrator learns or discovers from this experience remains a subject of scholarly debate, and it merits further inquiry.