Meanings and Uses of 'Raptus' in Chaucer's Time

Description: Examinies civil and criminal documentary evidence of the meanings of the term "rape," reconsidering their applicability to Cecily Champain's 1380 claim against Chaucer. The "inherent ambiguity" of the term and its "very wide range" of legal and literary uses encourage caution in trying to understand what the term means in Chaucer's life-records and his fiction.; The term may have meant sexual violation in Chaucer's case, but there is more evidence that it meant abduction. An appendix includes twelve documents from the Public Record Office.