Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Words and deeds in Chaucer; 2. Gower and the crying voice; 3. Hoccleve and the force of literature; 4. Lydgate and the surplus of history; 5. Copy, copia and imitation in skelton; 6. Wyatt's Grace.

Promotional Information

This is a new literary history of medieval and early modern English court poetry, featuring in-depth studies of Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, Lydgate, Skelton, and Wyatt.

About the Author

Taylor Cowdery is Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His work on late-medieval and early modern poetics has appeared in Studies in the Age of Chaucer and ELH.

Reviews

'This is an exceptionally perceptive and well-grounded investigation into the poetics and poetic practices of a period whose writers left these things implicit. Cowdery subjects six authors to a forensic and illuminating level of scrutiny that frequently challenges the ways in which they have previously been understood, and does so with impressive lucidity. This is seriously impressive, groundbreaking work.' Jane Griffiths, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford

'Cowdery deftly outlines the contours of late medieval poetry's engagement with both 'matere' - its themes, topics, preoccupations - and its habits of 'makying' - the characteristic ways that different writers treat both their subject matter and their own role as shaper of that matter. In doing so, he breaks new ground, arguing compellingly that to understand late medieval literary production fully, we must look at both diachronic and synchronic contexts for matter and making.' Kellie Robertson, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Maryland