The study of the work of Geoffrey Chaucer - still regarded as a literary genius more than 600
years after his death - centres on the problems of detailed readings of his poetry (including
in some cases the textual authority for these readings) and the historical context that gives
them meaning. In some ways the modern understanding of the shaping historical context was
undermined in the second half of the twentieth century by the dogmatism of Robertsonian
Augustinianism as a basis for the interpretation of medieval literature in general and of
Chaucer's poetry in particular and at the same time by the reactions of determined opposition
provoked by this approach. Undeniably medieval views often fail to coincide with modern ones
and they are frequently uncomfortable for modern readers. Nevertheless Chaucer's brilliance as
an observer of the human scene coexists with and irradiates these unfamiliar medieval ideas.
The essays in this volume explore in detail the historical context of Chaucer's poetry in
which orthodox Catholic ideas rather than revolutionary Wycliffite ones occupy the central
position. At the same time they offer detailed readings of his poetry and that of his famous
contemporaries in an attempt to do justice to the independent and original work of these poetic
masters writing in the great royal households of England in the period 1360-1400.
