Includes bibliographical references (pages [205]-215) and index.
Contents:
1. Richard II and the Luxembourg Court -- 2. The Familiar Patron: Collaboration and Conflict in Chaucer and Late Medieval European Courtly Writing -- 3. Scandals at Court: Pride and Penitence in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Alliterative Morte Arthur -- 4. Pearl in its Setting: Piety and Politics at the Luxembourg and Ricardian Courts -- Conclusion: The end of the Ricardian court culture.
Summary:
"Bohemian culture exercised an important influence on the court of King Richard II, but it has been somewhat overlooked, with previous scholarship on its writers and artists generally confined to the role played by the French court of King Charles V and the Italian city states of Milan and Florence. This book aims to fill that gap. It argues that Richard's marriage to Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, one of the greatest rulers and patrons of the age, exposed England to the full extent of this international court culture. Ricardian writers, including Chaucer, Gower and the Gawain-poet, wrote in their native language not because they felt "English" in the modern national sense but because they aspired to be part of a burgeoning vernacular European culture stretching from Paris to Prague and from Brabant to Brandenburg; thus, one of the major periods of English literature can only be properly understood in relation to this larger European context." Page 4 of cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.