The Court Poetry of Chaucer: A Facing-Page Translation in Modern English

This work offers facing-page translations of lesser-known poems by Geoffrey Chaucer. The modernization of Chaucer's verse to date has been restricted largely to the longer poems such as The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. While these works demonstrate Chaucer's mastery of the epic and narrative forms, it is in the court poems that we hear what is closer to the actual voice of Chaucer speaking to his contemporaries. The introduction discusses the "complaint," a popular medieval genre that Chaucer often used in his verse, sometimes with a straight face, sometimes not. Providing these poems in both their original Middle English and in Modern English, this work will be an attractive addition to the library of any scholar interested in Chaucer and the poetry of his time.James Dempsey is the author of 'The Court Poetry of Chaucer: A Facing-Page Translation in Modern English', published 2007 under ISBN 9780773454347 and ISBN 0773454349.