Writing After Chaucer: Essential Readings in Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century(Basic Readings in Chaucer and His Time)

This volume makes available to teachers, students, and scholars a convenient selection of the most provocative and influential articles from the past 20 years on Chaucer's afterlife in the 15th century, one of the most dynamic topics in Chaucer studies today. Much recent work in the field of Chaucer studies has shown how our understanding of Chaucer's poetry is mediated by his 15th-century readers and scribes. Increased scholarly interest in various 15th-century Chaucerian poets-notably Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Henryson-has prompted medievalists to read these sometimes neglected poems anew The classic essays in this volume, plus two written just for this collection, investigate the scribes, glossators, and poets whose reception and transmission of Chaucer's writings influence our own reading of them today, focusing chiefly on the Chaucerian influence in their poetry. Written by eminent Chaucer scholars, these essays cover not only a wide range of Chaucer's writings, but also touch on the history of the English language, the glosses to Chaucer's poetry, English and Scottish poets' appropriations of Chaucer, the implicit criticism and interpretations of Chaucer's writings in the 15th century, and the first printing of Chaucer's works by William Caxton Timely and unique, this collection will prove indispensable for research libraries, a convenient and valuable resource for scholars, and an essential introduction for students.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, Daniel Pinti * Quesitons of Evidence: Manuscripts and the Early History of Chaucer's Works, Stephen Partridge * Language Policy for Lancastrian England, John H. Fisher * Scribes as Chaucer's Early Critics, Barry Windeatt * New Reader and Female Textuality in Two Early Commentaries on Chaucer, Susan Schibanoff * Chaucer's Fifteenth-Century Audience and the Narrowing of the Chaucer Tradition, Paul Strohm * Reputation and Circulation of Chaucer's Lyrics in the 15th Century, Julia Boffey * Father Chaucer, A.C. Spearing * The Tale of Beryn and The Siege of Thebes: Alternative Ideas of The Canterbury Tales, John Bowers * Critic and Poet: What Lydgate and Henryson Did to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, C. David Benson * Textual Authority and the Works of Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Heryson, Tim william Machan * Scottish Chaucer, Louise Fradenburg * At Chaucer's Tomb: Laureation and Paternity in Caxton's Criticism, Seth Lerer