A new introduction to Chaucer /
A New Introduction to Chaucer is the result of Derek Brewer's distinguished career spanning fifty years of research and study of Chaucer and contemporary scholarship and criticism. New interpretations of many of the poems are presented including a detailed account of the Book of the Duchess. De...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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London ; New York :
Longman,
1998.
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| Edition: | 2nd ed. |
| Series: | Longman medieval and Renaissance library
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| Subjects: |
Table of Contents:
- Chapter 1 In the beginning; The new and the old, archaic and modern; The life of a page at court; Chaucer's family; The City of London
- Chapter 2 Chaucer's education; Latin; French; Italian; Arithmetic and numerology; Books and speech; The English language; To make his English sweet upon his tongue; The end of schooling and the development of the literate layman
- Chapter 3 The courtly life; Froissart's account; The material and practical basis of court culture; Religion in court life; The personal religion of Edward III; Leisure and culture in the court; Chivalry and its ideals; The love of ladies; The tournament; Music in court; Feasting; Literature; Out-of-doors; Chaucer's representation of courtly life; Chaucer's experience of war
- Chapter 4 The English and European literary traditions; Early reading; The English romances; English lyrics; Le Roman de la Rose; Machaut; Other reading and influences
- Chapter 5 Courtier and soldiers; A six-year gap in the records; Continuing education; Chaucer was probably in Aquitaine; Chaucer's wife Philippa; Working in the king's court; King Edward III and the Hundred Years War; The Black Death
- Chapter 6 The Book of the Duchess I: quest and commemoration; Grand translateur; The death of Blanche, the Duchess; The story and style of the poem; The strength of an ending; Centre and margin; Quest and questioning; Arithmetic and numerology
- Chapter 7 The Book of the Duchess II: dreaming the spoken and written self; Dream poetry; Dream and reality; The construction of the self; Is there a narrator separate from the poet?; Orality and literacy; Literalism
- Chapter 8 The Book of the Duchess III: death, laughter, repetition and comfort; Death and laughter; Love and gender roles; Repetition and commemoration
- Chapter 9 Diplomat and civil servant: private and public trouble; The Italian journey; Fourteenth-century Italian culture; What Chaucer learned from Italian literature; Comptroller of customs; Chaucer's release from accusation of rape: his friends; Chaucer's political attitude; Withdrawal to Kent
- Chapter 10 From House of Fame to Parliament of Fowls: discontent and search; Where do e go from here? A Gothic miscellany; What is fame?; Anelida and Arcite; The Life of Saint Cecilia
- Chapter 11 The Parliament of Fowls: communality and conflict
- Chapter 12 The fair chain of love: the consolations of philosophy and Venus; How charming is divine philosophy?; Boethius; The form of The Consolation of Philosophy; A great lady instructs the author; The content of the Consolation; Date and quality of the translation; Oxford intellectual scepticism and empiricism; Other intellectual interests and Chaucer's attitude; Astrology; Mythology and mythography; The classical heritage; The scientific basis; The mythographers; Fulgentius to Boccaccio
- Chapter 13 The Tale of Palamon and Arcite: love and death; The story of Palamon and Arcite; Some inner structures of the story; The story resumed; Spectacle and implication
- Chapter 14 Troilus and Criseyde I: from a view to a death
- Chapter 15 Troilus and Criseyde II: characters and critics; The ambiguity of Criseyde; Troilus; Youth, royalty and manhood in the fourteenth century; Troilus's manhood
- Chapter 16 Troilus and Criseyde III: the lore of love; Book I: the commentary; The conduct of the story; Book II: the story; Book II: commentary; Characterisation; Realism and society; Words and the poet's attitudes; Book III: the story; Book III: commentary; Honour; Love as a purely personal relationship; Love and destiny; Book IV: the story; Book IV: commentary; The exploration of a dilemma; Variation of style; Book V: the story; Book V: commentary; The ending; The use of the Consolation in Troilus; The question of love
- Chapter 17 The Legend of Good Women: Cupid's saints; The Prologue to The Legend of Good Women: its versions and dates; The further creation of the poetic self; Who does Alceste represent?; The naked text; The revision of The Prologue; Let us now praise famous pagan women; Trouthe is the hyeste thyng that man may kepe; Love and marriage; Pathos, goodness and mockery; Let us not praise pagan gods and men too much; Reculer pour mieux sauter
- Chapter 18 Prologue to The Canterbury Tales; In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle; Competition; Social structures; Rhetorical dislocation for location; Manuscript culture; The manuscripts; The sequence of tales
- Chapter 19 The Canterbury Tales I: love and rivalry tragedy and comedy; The raw material of stories; Stories come first, characters second; The Miller's Tale; The Reeve's Tale; The Cook's Tale
- Chapter 20 The Canterbury Tales II: constancy and inconstancy love and anger trouthe and gentilesse; The Man of Law's Tale; The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale; The Friar's Prologue and Tale; The Summoner's Prologue and Tale; The Clerk's Prologue and Tale; The Merchant's Prologue and Tale; The Squire's Tale; The Franklin's Prologue and Tale
- Chapter 21 The Canterbury Tales III: family honour you find what you seek; The Physician's Tale; The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
- Chapter 22 The Canterbury Tales IV: a gift returned; virginity and martyrdom, parody and prudence, flattery and reversal; The Shipman's Tale; The Prioress's Tale; Sir Thopas; The Tale of Melibee; The Monk's Tale; The Nun's Priest's Tale
- Chapter 23 The Canterbury Tales V: spirit and matter, restraint and repentance; The Second Nun's Prologue and Tale; The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale; The Manciple's Prologue and Tale; The Parson's Prologue and Tale
- Chapter 24 Closure and beyond.