The Relationship of Chaucer to the English and European Traditions.
- Author / Editor
- Brewer, D. S.
The Relationship of Chaucer to the English and European Traditions.
- Published
- D. S. Brewer, ed. Chaucer and Chaucerians: Critical Studies in Middle English Literature (University: University of Alabama Press; London: Nelson, 1966), pp. 1-38.
- Description
- Describes the conditions under which Chaucer developed his verse and prose styles, focusing on the former. Argues that English verse romances are the foundation of Chaucer's poetic style to which he "grafted" the continental traditions of "fin amour," lexical variety, and rhetorical sophistication under the influence of the "Roman de la Rose," Latin rhetoricians and the School of Chartres, and Guillaume de Machaut. Explicates aspects of BD (lines 1-15 extensively), HF, and PF to exemplify these features. Chaucer's prose style reflects broad developments in English prose: the use of the vernacular for secular material, the writing of the religious prose by laymen, and imitation of the rhythms of Latin cursus.
- Alternative Title
- Chaucer and Chaucerians
- Chaucer Subjects
- Style and Versification
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Book of the Duchess
Parliament of Fowls
House of Fame