How Many Chaucerians Does It Take to Count to Eleven? The Meter of Kynaston’s 1635 Translation of "Troilus and Criseyde."

Author / Editor
Dane, Joseph A.

Title
How Many Chaucerians Does It Take to Count to Eleven? The Meter of Kynaston’s 1635 Translation of "Troilus and Criseyde."

Published
Joseph A. Dane. Mythodologies: Methods in Medieval Studies, Chaucer, and Book History ([Santa Barbara, Calif.]: Punctum, 2018), pp. 29-52.

Description
Castigates modern studies that describe the verse form of Francis Kynaston’s Latin translation of TC as "pentameter" or as "rhymed accentual," explaining that it is, instead, in eleven-syllable lines with an accent on syllable ten. Then explores how this description more accurately describes Chaucer’s "metrical template" than does "iambic pentameter," arguing that Chaucer’s innovative verse form was influenced by French and Italian "isosyllabic" models.

Alternative Title
Mythodologies: Methods in Medieval Studies, Chaucer, and Book History.

Chaucer Subjects
Style and Versification
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations
Troilus and Criseyde