Public Ambition, Private Desire, and the Last Tudor Chaucer

Author / Editor
Matthews, David.

Title
Public Ambition, Private Desire, and the Last Tudor Chaucer

Published
Gordon McMullan and David Matthews, eds. Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 74-88.

Description
Matthews focuses on Thomas Speght's 1598 and 1602 editions of Chaucer and their role in re-imagining Chaucer as an Early Modern rather than a medieval author. The prefatory poem, "The Reader to Geffrey Chaucer," suggests that early editions had approached Chaucer philologically, whereas Speght will treat him personally. Speght's editions build up seventeenth-century belief in Chaucer's connections to the Lancastrians, Wycliff, and Cambridge University.

Alternative Title
Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England.

Chaucer Subjects
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations.