26. Geoffrey Chaucer: Love Visions
translation/introduction/notes: Brian Stone (1983)
OPD: ~1369-1387
format: 256-page Penguin Classics paperback (my copy is a 23rd printing of the 1983 edition)
acquired: January 2 read: Apr 5-16 time reading: 11:08, 2.7 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: Middle English poetic works theme: Chaucer
locations: well, this is a little tricky to answer. Where to begin?
about the author: Chaucer (~1342 – October 25, 1400) was an English poet and civil servant. Brian Stone (1919-1995), who lost a leg in WWII, was a founding member of the Open University and a Reader in English Literature.

Four poetic works:
- The Book of the Duchess (c1369)
- The House of Fame (c1380)
- The Parliament of Birds (c1382)
- The Legend of Good Women (c1387, mentions all previous works)

This modern translation felt a little over-cooked to me. It's easy to read, and rhymes almost perfectly. But I found it a little tricky to parse with the original text. It's all re-written. Brian Stone was a WWII hero who lost a leg and had his life saved by enemy German field doctors. At his best he conveys Chaucer's light-hearted charm (I'm not sure Chaucer was ever able to be fully serious, even writing something like a eulogy) while giving easy access to difficult-to-read works. But at his worse, Stone oversimplifies the language, and leaves things feeling a little Dr Suess-y. There is just too much Stone and not enough Chaucer.

Some comments by work (I'm hoping these come out brief):

The Book of the Duchess (c1369) - Presumably this was written for Chaucer's main sponsor, John of Gaunt, in condolences for the death of his still young wife, Blanche. But it's a little less moving than you might anticipate. Our unnamed narrator, involved in a hunt with a large group but a bit lost, stumbles across a garden with a morose knight all in black. The humble narrator is hesitant to interrupt this honored upperclassman, but he is welcomed warmly, and the black knights tells his story. He found the rare perfect woman, and she has died, causing his sadness. What's odd is, first, this woman is so unrealistic, idealistically perfect, without any identifiable feature, it's hard to see this as a memorial to a living person. But second is the nature of dialogue between this very serious morose knight and innocently goofy narrator, clearly out of sync with mourning, responding awkwardly, asking borderline-inappropriate questions.

The House of Fame (c1380) - Our narrator discusses dreams, then has one where an seriously intimidating eagle swoops down, carries him off in its talons, and takes him higher and higher in the sky, so far, in fact, that he reaches, unharmed but a bit shocked, an in-between place, the House of Fame. This is where _all_ sounds reach, no matter how quiet. The sounds, via of curious physical oddity, recreate the shapes of those who made them, making the speakers identifiable. A little sci-fy/fantasy like, toying with the idea of outer spheres. And lots of room to play with who said what. Unfortunately, I really didn't like how Stone did this. I felt he oversimplified the language.

The Parliament of Birds (c1382) - The original title has "Foules", playing on "fools" (Stone made a derogatory comment on this in his introduction, implying "Birds" was the only decent translation. It's a judgment I found odd, quirky, and maybe a little revealing.) This is a terrific little poem. Also the rhyme scheme is complex enough that it overcomes some of Stone's simplification. It does not, unfortunately, have a parliament of fools. Instead there is one very eligible female bird (a formel, which is a female eagle), and a crowd (parliament) of birds of different species each pleading their case for marriage. The formel's response is simple and somehow makes the whole more charming.

The Legend of Good Women (c1387) - A play on Ovid's [Heroides]. It has a terrific prologue where the god of Love and Alcestis berrate the author on his treatment of love and women in his written works. What comes out is a playful autobiography, one where Chaucer comes across as bookish, isolated, unpracticed in love, and chastened. Then he wakes up and decides to follow Alcestis's dream-command and write about good woman. What follows are nine extended pieces on mythically good woman variously injured by their lovers. Chaucer tries to hard to keep up the charm with authorial asides - expressing backhanded doubt by saying something like, "or so this author wrote" when something impossible or unlikely happens. And he constantly claims to want to wrap things up quick–which he sometimes does. But ultimately these nine pieces are pretty boring...(and I can't help but suspect, however unreasonably, that even Chaucer sensed that these weren't working).

So overall this was mixed. It gave me a sense of the contents and Chaucer playfulness. But it was a little boring in places, and I feel I didn't get a real feel of Chaucer's own use language.

2023
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