Shakespeare's Sonnets and Narrative Poems

Description: This collection of critical essays by Cousins includes a discussion of Shakespeare's "Lucrece," part of which is entitled "Versions of the Lucretia Story by Ovid, Livy, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Gower" (pp. 48-58), a survey of the various accounts which emphasizes what Shakespeare may have derived from his predecessors. The section on Chaucer focuses on the role and aggressiveness of Collatine in LGW and the mingling of pagan and Christian perspectives.

Chaucer Subjects: Legend of Good Women; Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations