The 'Ubi Sunt' Passages in Middle English Literature

Author / Editor
Matsuda, Takami.

Title
The 'Ubi Sunt' Passages in Middle English Literature

Published
Studies in English Literature, English number, 59 (1983): 101-25.

Description
Traces the "growing versatility" of the "ubi sunt" motif in Middle English literature--its emotional impact, its relations with the theme of mutability, and its potential for expressing nostalgia--concluding with a comparison of Chaucer's uses of the motif, especially in TC 5.218-24, and François Villon's uses in his ballades.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde