LIFE AND CONTEXTS
m(a) CHAUCER’S BIOGRAPHY (i) Establishing dates When beginning a biographical sketch it would be pleasant to be able to start with the simple fact of the year of birth. AJas, establishing such a date in the case of Geoffrey Chaucer is no easy matter. Writing in 1803 William Godwin begins his ’dissertation upon the Period […]
INTRODUCTION
Described by Dryden in 1700 as ’the Father of English poetry’, Chaucer’s position as presiding genius of English literature has remained remarkably intact throughout the six hundred years since his death in 1400 To us he is primarily the author of The Canterbury Tales, praised for his variety of tone, his irony, his ability to […]
CONTENTS
Series editors’ preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations and referencing Introduction Parti LIFE AND CONTEXTS ” * (a) Chaucer’s biography … (i) Establishing dates (n) Family background and early years >v (m) Education l (iv) The Ulster household (v) Royal service and connections with John of Gaunt (vi) Travels to Italy »\ •> (vu) The case of Cecily […]
A complete guide to the works of Chaucer Malakand
Contents Introduction Life and Context Work Criticism Choronology Bibliography
INDEX
Abelard, Peter 78-81 Aden, John M. 165-6 Addison, Joseph 13-18, 39-40, 50, 76, 113-4, 141 Alexander, the Great 11 Allen, Ralph 39, 41-2, 44, 164, 168 Arnica’ 44, 171 Anne, Queen 9, 14, 15, 17, 19, 24, 32, 59-60, 62, 64, 126, 165-7 Arbuthnot, John 15-16, 19, 28, 37, 110-12, 116 Aristotle 12, 13, 52, […]
CHRONOLOGY
* 1692 1694 1696 1698 1700 1701 1702 1705 1706 1707 1709 1711 1712 1713 Xus.s; 1714 1715 1716 1717 Alexander Pope (AP) born in London (21 May); James II flees to France. William and Mary offered English crown; war declared on France. AP’s family move to Hammersmith. Death of Queen Mary. AP taught by […]
CRITICISM
(d) POPE IN PRINT AND MANUSCRIPT ’Books and the man’ Pope is the pre-eminent case of a poet who speaks through writing: never to occupy any public position which required oratory, Pope preferred to advise and cajole those of his acquaintance who had money and power through the form of ’Epistles’ which constructed dialogues for […]
CRITICISM
\ >* CRITICISM (a) POPE AND POETRY Pope was right enough to declare with studied casualness that ’The life of a Wit is a warfare upon earth’ (PWl: 292), for there was little in contemporary criticism of his poetry which was not motivated by opposition and envy. Nonetheless, Pope’s actual publishing career was immensely successful […]
2 WORKS
(a) AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM (1711) [TE I: 195-326] The Essay on Criticism was Pope’s first independent work, published anonymously through an obscure bookseller [12-13]. Its implicit claim to authority is not based on a lifetime’s creative work or a prestigious commission but, riskily, on the skill and argument of the poem alone. It offers […]
LIFE AND CONTEXTS
(a) A CATHOLIC CHILDHOOD Because Pope was not primarily a lyric poet like Donne, or an explorer of private mental experience like Wordsworth, we tend to think of him as essentially a public voice, the satirist of civil follies rather than the analyst of personal emotions. Many of the vices Pope attacked are forms of […]