Chaucer's 'Ambages'

Author / Editor
Wallace, David.

Title
Chaucer's 'Ambages'

Published
American Notes and Queries 23 (1984): 1-4.

Description
In his adaptation of Boccaccio in TC, Chaucer Latinizes his source, pretending to follow the classical "Lollius." The same tendency may be observed in vocabulary, as Chaucer adds several words of Latin origin to the lexicon, glossing them with the "that is to seyn" formula. "Ambages" (TC 5.897), for example, though drawn from Boccaccio's Italian, recalls Virgil (Aeneid 6.99)

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde.
Language and Word Studies.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.