Images of Kingship in Chaucer and His Ricardian Contemporaries

by Rayner, Samantha J.

• ISBN13: 9781843841746
• ISBN10: 1843841746
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-18
• Publisher: Ds Brewer

Summary

The idea of kingship forms a recurrent theme in the poems of the so-called 'Ricardians', John Gower, William Langland, the Gawain-poet and Chaucer - unsurprisingly, during a period of considerable turmoil. This book aims to widen understanding of these poets through an examination of the theme in Confessio Amantis, Piers Plowman and the works of the Gawain-poet and then setting these against the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, the most well-known and studied of the Ricardians. It brings the other poets' work into sharper focus, showing that despite a diversity in style and approach, common concerns and attitudes underpin all of the poets under consideration. SAMANTHA RAYNER gained her PhD from Bangor University; she is currently Senior Lecturer in Publishing, Anglia Ruskin University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Gower: The Confessio Amantis	p. 5
Langland: Piers Plowman	p. 35
The Visio	p. 36
The Vita	p. 52
The Gawain-poet	p. 61
Pearl	p. 62
Cleanness	p. 72
Patience	p. 75
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	p. 76
Chaucer	p. 83
The Dream Poems	p. 85
Troilus and Criseyde	p. 110
The Canterbury Tales	p. 122
Conclusion	p. 160
Prologues to The Legend of the Good Women	p. 163
Select Bibliography	p. 165
Index	p. 173
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