A collection of essays focusing on Chaucer's poetry. Opening essays address the issues of 'Chaucerian representation' and 'Chaucerian poetics', arguing for the multiplicity and complexity of what Chaucer 'represents' and for the importance of his dual Anglo-French background in enabling him to articulate that complexity.

This collection of essays makes available a wide range of new scholarship on Chaucer's poetry. Opening essays address the issues of 'Chaucerian representation' and 'Chaucerian poetics', arguing for the multiplicity and complexity of what Chaucer 'represents' and for the importance of his dual Anglo-French background in enabling him to articulate that complexity. Chaucer's use of Ovidian and Ciceronian sources and ideas is examined, and his pursuit of simplicity and suspicion of 'delicacy'; the potent issues of sexuality and spirituality, and money and death (with Chaucer's own ending and his thoughts on last things) complete the collection. Contributors: DEREK BREWER, HELEN COOPER, PAUL DOWER, JOHN V. FLEMING, JOHN HILL, TRAUGOTT LAWLER, CELIA LEWIS, R.BARTON PALMER, WILLIAM PROVOST, JOHN PLUMMER, WILLIAM ROGERS.

HELEN COOPER Chaucerian Representation
Chaucerian Poetics JOHN V.FLEMING The Best Line in Ovid and the Worst TRAUGOTT LAWLER Delicacy vs. Truth: Defining Moral Heroism in the Canterbury Tales WILLIAM PROVOST Chaucer's Endings JOHN PLUMMER 'Beth fructuous and that in litel space': The Engendering of Harry Bailly WILLIAM ROGERS and PAUL DOWER Thinking about Money in Chaucer's Shipman's Tale CELIA LEWIS Framing Fiction with Death: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and the Plague JOHN HILL Aristocratic Friendship in Troilus and Criseyde: Pandarus, Courtly Love and Ciceronian Brotherhood in Troy R. BARTON PALMER Chaucer's Legend of Good Women: The Narrator's Tale