Introduction. Having The World By The Tale: A New Comparative Reading Of The Decameron And The Canterbury Tales; A Note On The Text Of The Canterbury Tales -- 1: Mapping The Uncertain World Texts And Contexts; The Historical Lineage And Cultural Breeding Grounds Of Pragmatic Prudence; Aristotle, Cicero, And The Centrality Of (moral) Prudence; The Cultural Parturition Of An Amoral Prudence: Three Possible Stimuli; Governance; Commerce; Institutional Religion; Narrative Antecedents; Fabulation: The Triple Challenge; Why Tell? The Function Of The Fabula In The Decameron And The Canterbury Tales; The Mimetic Topography Of An Uncertain World -- 2: Fortuna, Fama, And The Challenge To Agency; Fortuna; Fama -- 3: Can You Trust The Sign?: Uncertainty Of Signification, Comprehension, And Perception; Introduction; Language; Cosyn/cozzen; The Instability Of Signifying Systems; Decameron 3.2--destabilizing Signs: King For A Night, Or, The Royal Rod Strikes Again; The Reeve's Tale: What The Cradle Will Rock (or, Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?) -- 4: The Uncertainty Of Intention; Introduction; Decameron 3.3: The Confessor As Go-between; Decameron 8.7: Men And Women Behaving Badly; The Wife Of Bath, Apostle Of Uncertainty; Authorities; Sexual Contradictions: Parody/exposure/seeking To Outrage; Timothy; Jankyn; Postlude: The Pardoner Makes The Scene -- 5: Power; Introduction; Part 1: Phallic Imprudence, Or, Patriarchal Power And The Primal Fear; Decameron 4.1: Tragic Agency; Part 2: The Power Of Desire; Decameron 2.7: The Power Of Desire, Refracted Through Commerce And Politics; The Miller's Tale: Goddes Pryvetee And The Nye Slye; Goddes Pryvetee: Domesticating The Cosmic And The Prisoners Of Genre; When Worlds Collide: The Clashing Terrains Of Public And Private Desire In The Miller's Tale. Robert W. Hanning. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. Oxford Available Via World Wide Web.