'Chaucer's Chronicle,' John Shirley, and the Canon of Chaucer's Shorter Poems

Author / Editor
Boffey, Julia,and A. S. G. Edwards.

Title
'Chaucer's Chronicle,' John Shirley, and the Canon of Chaucer's Shorter Poems

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 20 (1998): 201-18.

Description
Assesses John Shirley's role in the construction of the canon of Chaucer's shorter poems, using as test cases three poems attributed to Chaucer by Shirley but not by modern tradition: "The Chronicle [of Nine Women] Made by Chaucer" (Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 59) and "The Balade of a Reeve" and "The Plowman's Song" (British Library MS Additional 16165).
Modern editors reject the three, seemingly because of muddled details or obscenity. However, Shirley's attributions and the relations of the poems to LGW and CT should encourage editors to recognize that the evidence for attributing most of the shorter poems is indeterminate.
Includes an edition of each of the three poems.

Contributor
Edwards, A. S. G.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucerian Apocrypha.
Facsimiles, Editions and Translations.