Chaucer and Petrarch

by William Rossiter

Overview

First full study of Chaucer's readings and translations of Petrarch suggests a far greater influence than has hitherto been accepted.

Despite the fact that Chaucer introduced Petrarch's work into England in the late fourteenth century, Petrarch's influence has been very little studied. This book, the first full-length study of Chaucer's reading and translation of Petrarch, examines Chaucer's translations of Petrarch's Latin prose and Italian poetry against the backdrop of his experience of Italy, gained through his travels there in the 1370s, his interaction with Italians in London, andhis reading of the other two great Italian medieval poets, Boccaccio and Dante. The book also considers Chaucer's engagement with early Italian humanism and the nature of translation in the fourteenth century, including a preliminary examination of adaptations of Chaucer's pronouncements upon translation and literary production. Chaucer's adaptations of Petrarch's Latin tale of Griselda and the sonnet "S'amor non è", as the Clerk's Tale and the "Canticus Troili" from Troilus and Criseyde respectively, illustrate his various translative strategies. Furthermore, Chaucer's references to Petrarch in his prologue to the Clerk's Tale and in the Monk's Tale provide a means of gauging the intellectual relationship between two of the most important poets of the time.

WILLIAM T. ROSSITER is Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, University of East Anglia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843842156
Publisher:	BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date:	03/18/2010
Series:	ISSN , #41
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

WILLIAM ROSSITER Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, University of East Anglia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Note on Texts and Translations ix

Abbreviations xi

Introduction: Forms of translatio 1

1 Father of English Poetry, Father of Humanism: When Chaucer 'Met' Petrarch 35

2 'The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen': Petrarchan Inversions in Chaucer's Filostrato 69

3 'But if that I consente' : The First English Sonnet 109

4 'Mutata veste': Griselda between Boccaccio and Petrarch 132

5 'Of hire array what sholde I make a tale?': Griselda between Petrarch and Chaucer 161

Conclusion: 'translacions and enditynges' 191

Bibliography 203

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

[P]rovides a wealth of information and many intriguing readings.

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER

A careful consideration of the relationship between Chaucer and Petrarch, but its reach beyond that narrow focus also makes it a valuable addition to the wider field of work on Chaucer and the tre corone.

MEDIUM AEVUM

A careful consideration of the relationship between Chaucer and Petrarch, but its reach beyond that narrow focus also makes it a valuable addition to the wider field of work on Chaucer and the tre corone. MEDIUM AEVUM

[P]rovides a wealth of information and many intriguing readings. STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER

A thorough and scholarly consideration of the subject [and] a valuable addition to the wider field of work on Chaucer and the tre corone. MEDIUM AEVUM

From the Publisher