Chaucer and Deschamps' 'Natural Music'

Author / Editor
Wimsatt, James I.

Title
Chaucer and Deschamps' 'Natural Music'

Published
Rebecca A. Baltzer, Thomas Cable, and James I. Wimsatt, eds. The Union of Words and Music in Medieval Poetry. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991, pp. 132-50.

Description
Applies Deschamps' concept of natural music (i.e., words in verse, from L'Art de dictier) to Machaut's ballade "Tout ensement," to "The Fair Maid of Ribblesdale," and to Chaucer's Ros, demonstrating how the rhythms of Middle French and Middle English verse differ and how Chaucer emulates the French.

Alternative Title
Union of Words and Music in Medieval Poetry.

Chaucer Subjects
Style and Versification.