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Chaucer and the Problem of “Recreative” Poetry in Renaissance England

Chaucer and the Problem of “Recreative” Poetry in Renaissance England CHRISTINE E. HUTCHINS When Caxton set up press in England, he promptly published Chaucer. Among his first imprints in 1477, Caxton included Chaucer’s Anelida and Arcite, The Canterbury Tales, and The Parlement of Foules. Today, Caxton’s choice seems obvious. What better way to showcase the art of printing than to showcase Chaucer? Chaucer’s reputation was well established by the late fifteenth century. As Seth Lerer has shown, fifteenth-century scribes touted Chaucer as a poet of “political advice and lyric virtuosity.”1 In the first half of the sixteenth century, Chaucer became the first English writer to appear in scholarly format in a collection of complete works. William Thynne’s folio edition of Chaucer’s Workes came out in 1532 with a preface praising the poet’s contributions to the English language. However, by the second half of the sixteenth century, Chaucer’s reputation as the obviously publishable father of English poetry seemed to become unfixed. In contrast to the nearly unanimous praise that had come before, the Elizabethan reception of Chaucer was a morass of controversy and contradiction. Instead of simply praising Chaucer, Elizabethan readers argued, alternately describing him as abstruse and plain, courtly and common, laureate and lightweight, moral and merry. Since http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Ben Jonson Journal Edinburgh University Press

Chaucer and the Problem of “Recreative” Poetry in Renaissance England

Ben Jonson Journal , Volume 15 (2): 248 – Nov 1, 2008

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References (3)

Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© the Editors, 2008
ISSN
1079-3453
eISSN
1755-165x
DOI
10.3366/E1079345308000308
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

CHRISTINE E. HUTCHINS When Caxton set up press in England, he promptly published Chaucer. Among his first imprints in 1477, Caxton included Chaucer’s Anelida and Arcite, The Canterbury Tales, and The Parlement of Foules. Today, Caxton’s choice seems obvious. What better way to showcase the art of printing than to showcase Chaucer? Chaucer’s reputation was well established by the late fifteenth century. As Seth Lerer has shown, fifteenth-century scribes touted Chaucer as a poet of “political advice and lyric virtuosity.”1 In the first half of the sixteenth century, Chaucer became the first English writer to appear in scholarly format in a collection of complete works. William Thynne’s folio edition of Chaucer’s Workes came out in 1532 with a preface praising the poet’s contributions to the English language. However, by the second half of the sixteenth century, Chaucer’s reputation as the obviously publishable father of English poetry seemed to become unfixed. In contrast to the nearly unanimous praise that had come before, the Elizabethan reception of Chaucer was a morass of controversy and contradiction. Instead of simply praising Chaucer, Elizabethan readers argued, alternately describing him as abstruse and plain, courtly and common, laureate and lightweight, moral and merry. Since

Journal

Ben Jonson JournalEdinburgh University Press

Published: Nov 1, 2008

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