Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine
- Author / Editor
- Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine
- Published
- Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.
- Series
- Davis Medieval Texts and Studies, no. 5.
- Description
- By studying pre-Chaucerian and fourteenth-century traditions of Saint Valentine, springtime, hagiography, heortology, etc., Kelly tests the hypothesis that Chaucer invented the patron saint of matchmakers.
- He traces various relevant motifs through Anel, Astr, BD, Mars, Compl d'Am, GP, KnT, MilT, SqT, LGW, LGWP, TC, and PF,using the context of possible sources or contemporaries: Alan de Lille, "De planctu naturae"; Boccaccio, "Teseida"; Benoit de St.-Maure, "Roman de Troie"; Charles of Orleans; Christine de Pisan; Gower; Oton de Grandson; Guido of Colonne; Lydgate, Ovid, Petrarch, Pliny, "Secreta secretorum", Pardo, and others. Chaucer probably had in mind Saint Valentine of Genoa, who died on May 3.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Parliament of Fowls.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.