Encountering the Past II: Shakespearean Comedy, Chaucer, and Medievalism.

Author / Editor
Cooper, Helen.

Title
Encountering the Past II: Shakespearean Comedy, Chaucer, and Medievalism.

Published
Heather Hirschfeld, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Shakespearean Comedy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 55-68.

Description
Surveys theatrical genre labels ("comedy," "tragedy," "play," "drama") in early English, including Chaucer's uses of them. Then surveys the ways in which Chaucer's plots, motifs, and emphases influenced Shakespeare, with comments also on the influence of Gower, fabliaux, medieval mystery and morality plays, and other works. Argues in particular that Chaucer's influence on "A Midsummer Night's Dream has been underestimated, and documents the breadth of his role in shaping Shakespeare's "medievalism."

Contributor
Hirschfeld, Heather, ed.

Alternative Title
The Oxford Handbook of Shakespearean Comedy.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion