The Engaged Spectator : Langland and Chaucer on Civic Spectacle and the Theatrum
- Author / Editor
- Clopper, Lawrence M.
The Engaged Spectator : Langland and Chaucer on Civic Spectacle and the Theatrum
- Published
- Studies in the Age of Chaucer 22: 115-39, 2000.
- Description
- Surveys various kinds of spectacle in late-medieval English society, exploring backgrounds of and attitudes toward tournaments, royal processions and entries, civic celebration, and dramas. Assesses Langland's depiction in "Piers Plowman" of the London reception of Richard II and the procession of Lady Meed (modeled on Alice Perrers's involvement in a pageant in 1366). Also assesses the tournament of KnT as Chaucer's ambivalent representation of spectacle, a combination of courtly pomp and "fateful machinery."
- Chaucer Subjects
- Knight and His Tale.