Italian Tales from the Age of Shakespeare by Pamela Joseph Benson

Italian Tales from the Age of Shakespeare by Pamela Joseph Benson

During the sixteenth century collections of translations of novelle by Boccaccio, Bandello and others were very popular in England and had a great influence on native English works ranging from the plays of Shakespeare and Spenser's Faerie Queene to the first English novels. These Elizabethan translations have hitherto been unavailable to modern readers, except in fragmentary form in some editions of Shakespeares plays. This edition provides a collection of novelle by a variety of authors and translators, offering an amusing and unusual short story anthology, and a context in which to read Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in around 1342, the son of a wine merchant, and his life was spent in royal government service, therefore his career is particularly extensively documented. By 1357, Chaucer had become a page to the bride of Prince Lionel, Edward III's second son, and it was while in the prince's service that Chaucer was ransomed when he was arrested in France in 1359-60. Philippa, Chaucer's wife, whom he married around. Katherine Swynford, the mistress (c. 1365), was her sister. 1370) and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster's third wife (1396), whose first wife Blanche (d.

The Book of the Duchess, Chaucer's ealrist great poem, is dedicated to her. From 1366 and 1378, Chaucer worked as a customs controller on wool in the port of London, although he also traveled overseas on official business, including two visits to Italy in 1372-3 and 1378. The effect of Chaucer's interaction with Italian literature may be felt in the late 1370s and early 1380s poetry he created, such as The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and a version of The Knight's Tale, and it reaches its pinnacle in Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer was a member of parliament for Kent in 1386, but he resigned his customs job the following year, while he was appointed Clerk of the King's Works in 1389 (resigning in 1391).

After finishing Troilus and translating Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae into English prose, Chaucer began his Legend of Good Ladies. He worked on his most ambitious effort, The Canterbury Tales, in the 1390s, but it remained unfinished when he died. Chaucer rented a residence in the Westminster Abbey grounds in 1399, but died in 1400 and was buried there.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780460875516
ISBN 10	0460875515
Title	Italian Tales from the Age of Shakespeare
Author	Pamela Joseph Benson
Series	Everyman Paperbacks
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Orion Publishing Co
Year published	1996-06-17
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.