Imagined Romes: The Ancient City and Its Stories in Middle English Poetry.

Author / Editor
Benson, C. David.

Title
Imagined Romes: The Ancient City and Its Stories in Middle English Poetry.

Published
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019.

Physical Description
xi, 201 pp.

Description
Studies "ancient Rome as a major theme in the works of late medieval English poets": Chaucer, Gower, Langland, Lydgate, and the anonymous authors of "Stacions of Rome" and the interpolated "Metrical Mirabilia." Chapter 3, "Heroic (Women) in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and the Legend of Good Women,” treats MLT, PhyT, SNT, and the legend of Lucrece from LGW, discussing how Chaucer consistently “feminizes” traditional Roman heroism and--unlike Gower in particular--expresses "hostility to the ancient city" as a place where "men in power treat good women with . . . unrelenting nastiness."

Alternative Title
Heroic (Women) in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and the "Legend of Good Women"

Chaucer Subjects
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Legend of Good Women
Man of Law and His Tale
Physician and His Tale
Second Nun and Her Tale