Chaucer and the English Tradition

Description: Treats Chaucer as a "great" poet and the "father" of English literature, commenting on the "wonderful" range of tones in his poetry, its relations with French and Italian works, its similarities with other late-medieval English works, and the perspectives of twentieth-century criticism, especially historicist approaches. Views the "frivolous seriousness" of PF as a harbinger of the "great" and sometimes "perfect" poetry of CT. BD is too closely linked to French courtly love tradition, which Chaucer elsewhere submits to the "criticism of life," embodied in Pandarus in TC and in the various points of view of CT, where in his depictions of love Chaucer creates the "language of the English tradition." Comments at length on tone and style in GP, MilT, WBP, KnT, MerT, PrT, MLT, ClT, and FranT.

Chaucer Subjects: Book of the Duchess; Parliament of Fowls; Troilus and Criseyde; Canterbury Tales--General; General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; Miller and His Tale; Wife of Bath and Her Tale; Knight and His Tale; Merchant and His Tale; Prioress and Her Tale; Man of Law and His Tale; Clerk and His Tale; Franklin and His Tale; Style and Versification; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations