The 'Canterbury Tales' in the Context of Contemporary Vernacular Translations and Compilations

Author / Editor
Kendrick, Laura.

Title
The 'Canterbury Tales' in the Context of Contemporary Vernacular Translations and Compilations

Published
Martin Stevens and Daniel Woodward, eds. The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation (San Marino, Calif.: Huntingon Library; Tokyo: Yushodo, 1995), pp. 281-305.

Description
Surveys French compilations to argue that CT "appears to burlesque the uniformly high-minded French prose compilations ... actively encouraged by the Valois princes in the second half of the fourteenth century."
The narrator's apology for using the pilgrims' own words indicates that, in a time of French translations and compilations, English was a suspect innovation. Chaucer and his contemporaries "almost surely" saw Chaucer as a translator and compiler of others' works.

Alternative Title
The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General.
Language and Word Studies