A Companion to fifteenth-century English poetry

volume onto a whole new level, essentially questioning ideas of wealth and its use in the late Roman world. The only other minor quibble is that a fuller summary of the contents of the Traprain hoard itself would have been welcome, given that the 1923 catalogue is not widely accessible. But these points are in themselves a reflection of how effective Late Roman Silver is in fulfilling its aims: it leaves the reader informed but also enthused with the prospects for future research. This book is a major landmark in the field of late Roman and early medieval economic history and archaeology, put together with appropriately high production values. Illustrations are plentiful, and all in full colour -no mean feat in a large-format volume of comparatively reasonable price. Graphs, maps and tables support the text at frequent intervals. In terms of design as well as content this is an extremely impressive production.

Speculum, 2004

The story of the poet laureate has not yet been fully told, and, until it is, fifteenthcentury English poetry will continue to appear a precursor to nothing. 1 Although recently much of this long-disparaged poetry has been ably recuperated, one largely retains the sense that, as complex and well crafted as it now sometimes appears to be, it has scarce, if any, relation to the tradition that succeeds it. With the notion of the poet laureate, however, one may trace a continuous line of influence from Chaucer to the present that not only includes the fifteenth century but also finds there-apart from Chaucer's brief prompting-its English point of origin. The ideals and problems attending this notion do not die out when the fifteenth-century Chaucerians are eclipsed by the courtly makers of the next century but rather persist more or less visibly in the latter's work and in that of succeeding generations of English poets. The notion of the laureate, of course, is not static but takes a distinct form and is associated with a specific set of practices for each poet who takes it up. In addition, it possesses a long history prior to its first explicit appearance in English verse, in the prologue to Chaucer's Clerk's Tale (1390s?). To tell its story-even just that part that includes the fifteenth century-would therefore be a formidable task, one beyond my ambitions in this essay. My aim instead is to demonstrate the critical utility of this story for the reassessment of the value and interest of George Ashby, one of the most neglected poets of the tradition. Under the lens of this story, the work of this mid-fifteenth-century poet-which for the most part has been dismissed in the manner Plato dismissed all poetry, as an imitation of an imitation-appears at once historically important, formally sophisticated, and thematically profound. Other lenses could be-and in a few instances have been-Among the many individuals whose help proved essential to the completion of this article, space permits me to thank by name only the first one-Lee Patterson-and the last several: my readers in the 2002 writing group at the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame (Deborah McGrady, Lezlie Knox, Valerie Garver, and Jimmy Mixson) and the anonymous Speculum reader. I owe thanks as well to the libraries of Cambridge University and Trinity College, Cambridge, for granting me access to Ashby's manuscripts and to the Paul Mellon Centre and Yale Center for British Art for the Traveling Fellowship that made the visit to Cambridge possible. Presentations of some of this material at Yale and Rhodes College garnered important early feedback, and a leave of absence from Rhodes College facilitated the article's composition. Also, here at the outset, I should acknowledge a general debt to the ground laid by

2012

Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600, 2008

My three contributions cover Piers Plowman (Passus 17), The Piers Plowman Tradition, and the “Maye Eclogue” in Spenser's Shepheardes Calender.

Parergon, 2011

Parergon publishes articles and book reviews on all aspects of medieval and early modern literature, history and culture. We are particularly interested in research which takes new approaches and crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.

2001

The Cambridge companion to eighteenth-century poetry / edited by John Sitter. p. cm.-(Cambridge companions to literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0 521 65090 9 (hardback) isbn 0 521 65885 3 (paperback) 1. English poetry-18th century-History and criticism. I. Sitter, John E. II. Series. pr551.c27 2001 821′.509-dc21 00-063059 isbn 0 521 65090 9 hardback isbn 0 521 65885 3 paperback CONTENTS List of illustrations page xi Notes on contributors xii Chronology xiv Introduction: the future of eighteenth-century poetry 1 john sitter Couplets and conversation 11 j. paul hunter Political passions 37 christine gerrard Publishing and reading poetry 63 barbara m. benedict The city in eighteenth-century poetry 83 brean hammond "Nature" poetry 109 tim fulford Questions in poetics: why and how poetry matters 133 john sitter Eighteenth-century women poets and readers 157 claudia thomas kairoff Creating a national poetry: the tradition of Spenser and Milton

Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 1996

Magnificat Cultura i Literatura Medievals, 2020

This article introduces the monograph "Translations, versions and commentaries on poetry in the 15th-and 16th centuries", which includes four studies dealing with translations from vernacular to vernacular, of works by Dante, Petrarch, Alain Chartier and Jan van der Noot.