Covetousness, ‘Unkyndenesse’, and the ‘Blered’ Eye in Piers Plowman and ‘The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale’

This article considers the significance of the ‘blered’ eye as a figure for covetousness in Piers Plowman and ‘The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale’. It argues that Langland and Chaucer drew on the particular symptoms of the ‘blered’ eye, and on its complex moralised, idiomatic and allegorical meanings, to describe covetousness as a characteristically ‘unkynde’ sin, which alienates people from ‘kynde’ relationships and ‘kynde’ knowledge.