Intoxicated with Words: The Colours of Rhetoric

Description: Chaucer is aware of poetic or aureate diction but seldom uses it. He is "essentially a poet of 'occupatio'." Language change rapidly made Chaucer's meter difficult to imitate, even for Lydgate. Like other writers, Chaucer introduces new Latinate vocabulary, especially in prose, even as he tries to write simply. This essay, edited from Frye's holograph, apparently notes toward a history of English literature, in the Victoria University Library, University of Toronto. Refers to Astr and Bo.

Chaucer Subjects: Style and Versification; Language and Word Studies; Treatise on the Astrolabe; Boece