Chaucer and the Tradition of Fame: Symbolism in "the House of Fame."
- Author / Editor
- Koonce, B. G.
Chaucer and the Tradition of Fame: Symbolism in "the House of Fame."
- Published
- Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966.
See also Dissertation Abstracts International 20.09 (1960): 3729-30.
- Physical Description
- 293 pp.
- Description
- Confronts the "deliberate obscurity" of HF, seeking to resolve its apparent disjunctions and disunities by reading it as a "poetic allegory" on the "subject of fame," influenced by scriptural tradition, by the dual aspects of Venus (secular and sacred love), and by Dante's "Divine Comedy." The dream frame and the "symbolic date" of the poem invite attention to the "outer and inner modes" of allegory, the Dido and Aeneas account signals a dual concern with love and fame, and the eagle indicates a kind of rational pursuit of the dual ideals. Fame's hall is deeply symbolic and the narrator's quest is a pursuit for tidings of love both spiritual and earthly. Based on the author's 1959 Princeton University dissertation: "Chaucer and the Tradition of Fame: A Study of the Symbolism in the 'House of Fame'."
- Chaucer Subjects
- House of Fame
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations