pneumonic, 84
scapegoatism and, 86
sheep and, 87
spread of, 83
Plantagenet family, 132–133
Plato, 7, 88, 92, 132, 258
Platonism, 21
Pleasure, in Massey, 18
Plenary remissions, 315
Plot, in Massey, 17–18
Pneumonic plague, 84. See also plague
Poe, Edgar Allan, 85
Poetry
biography in, 265
Chaucer as audience of, 151
“complaint” form of, 253–254
“dream vision” form of, 254–255
history of, 6
as metaphysical, 166–167
panel-structure, 255
rhetoric and, 163
simplicity in, 153
techniques in, 152
Poitiers Campaign, 124–125, 129, 203
Pole, Michael de la, 314, 330, 332
Poll tax, 286
Pontefract Priory, 55–56
Pope Clement VII, 314–315
Pope Gregory XI, 219
Pope Urban V, 204, 209
Pope Urban VI, 314–315
Porphyry, 173
Positivism, 174
Poverty, in Chaucer, 285
Poyning, Richard, 300
Preston, Alicia de, 215
Prime Mover, 91
Prioress’s Tale (Chaucer). See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
as atrocity, 349
English manners in, 48
school in, 80–81
Prostitution, 208
Psychology, in Chaucer, 171
Puns, 141
Purgatorio (Dante), 229, 235
Purity (attrib. Massey), 17–18
Purveyor, Hugh, 336
Pyrenees mountains, 181
Pythagoras, 170, 258
Q
Quadrivium, 101–102
Queensborough castle, 308
R
Rabelais, François, 24
Raptus, 300–301
Rationalism, 97–98, 230
Ravenstone, William, 93
Reading aloud, 63–64
Realism, 173–175
Reeve’s Tale (Chaucer). See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
in order of writing, 345
sex in, 140–141
violence at Oxford in, 180
Relativism, 350
Remora fish, 79
Renaissance, 230
Retraction, in Canterbury Tales, 245, 371–372
Revolt
in Nun’s Priest’s Tale, 290–291
of peasants, 279–296, 302–308
Richard II, King of England, 9, 24, 49–50, 127
ascension of, 272–273
Chaucer in court of, 309
in Clerk’s Tale, 362
concept of kingship, 310–311
coronation of, 276–277
extravagance of, 314
first council of, 278
in Franklin’s Tale, 361–362
Gaunt and, 130
Henry IV and, 312
ideals surrounding, 275–276
John Newfield and, 294
justices under, 326–327
as melancholy, 312
mental health of, 360–361
Queen Philippa and, 135
restoration of, 335–336
during revolt, 292–293
in Shakespeare, 363
in Summoner’s Tale, 317
temper of, 312–313
Thomas of Woodstock and, 327–333
Wat Tyler and, 294–295
Richard II (Shakespeare), 61, 116, 141, 363
Richard of Bury, 164
Ring-game, 73–74
Riots, at Oxford, 177–180
Robbery, of Chaucer, 339–340
Robert of Bridlington, 179
Roet.Paon, 181
Roet, Philippa, 23, 181–184. See also Chaucer, Philippa
Roet seal, 189
Romance of the Rose (Lorris Sc Meun), 132, 150, 152
Rose, Edmund, 106
Russell, Bertrand, 91
S
St. Augustine, 11, 91
St. Cecilia, 113
St. Clair, Mary, 184
St. Edmund Rich, 77
St. George, 113, 243–244
St. George’s Chapel, 336–338
St. Guthlac, 77
Sainthood, in Second Nun’s Tale, 167–168
Saint-Inglevert tournament, 269
St. Lucy, 113
St. Paul’s Cathedral, 70
Sampson (Biblical figure), 266–267
San Michele church, 234
Santa Croce church, 233–234
Santa Maria del Fiore church, 234
Santa Maria Novella church, 233
Scalacronica (Gray), 146–147
Scalby, John, 318, 334
Scapegoatism, foreigners and, 284
Schism, Papal, 314–315
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 172–173
Scogan, Henry, 342–343, 367
Scrivener, Adam, 375
Scrope, Richard, 287, 314
Scrope-Grosvenor trial, 143, 328
Second Coming, The (Yeats), 291
Second Nun’s Tale (Chaucer). See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
ancient genre in, 351
metaphor in, 167–168
Self-determination, 280–281
Self-effacement, 7
Seneca, 164
Sex. See also eroticism; love
in Boccaccio, 238
in Reeve’s Tale, 140–141
in Troilus and Criseyde, 142–143
Shakespeare, William, 5, 61, 116, 141
Sheen palace, 319–320
Shipman’s Tale (Chaucer), 345. See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Sibthorp, Robert, 319
Siege of Calais, 115–116
Sir Duncan of the Isles, 78
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (attrib. Massey)
celebrations in, 109
Order of the Garter in, 243–244
philosophy in, 255
themes in, 17–18
travel in, 229–230
Sleeping arrangements, 65
Sliding tax, 287
Social order, 6–7
Society of Lincoln’s Inn, 157–158
Soles, John, 300
Soles, William, 300
Solider, Chaucer as, 143–149
Spain
Chaucer in, 180–181
war with, 200–204
Stace, Geoffrey, 32
Staplegate, Edmund, 300
Statute of Kilkenny, 127
Stevens, Wallace, 337
Storytelling, 76–78
Straw, Jack, 289
Strode, Ralph, 103, 161, 268
Stury, Richard, 207–208, 209, 224, 251–252, 320
Subforester, Chaucer as, 365–366
Suburbs, 26
Sudbury, Simon, 176
Summa Theologica (Aquinas), 21
Summoner’s Tale (Chaucer), 316, 317. See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Superstition, 79
Swayne, Hugh, 336
Swift, Jonathan, 11
Swynford, Katherine, 133, 183, 184, 186–187
Swynford, Thomas, . 184, 189
Swyving, 140
Symposium (Plato), 132
T
Tale of Melibeus (Chaucer), 326, 345, 348. See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Tale of Sir Thopas (Chaucer), 349, 351. See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Tavern-keepers, 29
Tax
“movables,” 287–288
poll, 286
sliding, 287
Temper, of Richard II, 312–313
Thames Street house, 27, 35–36
Thomas (cog), 120
Thomas of Shardelowe, 320
Thomas of Woodstock, 206, 278, 318, 327–333, 355, 358–359
Thomism, 89, 172
Thynne, Francis, 154
Tolleshunt, William, 94
Trastamara, Henry, 181, 182, 202, 204
Treatise on the Astrolabe (Chaucer), 161, 237–238, 324
Treaty of Northampton, 58
Tresilian, Robert, 332
Trivium, 94
Troilus and Criseyde (Chaucer)
Boccaccio’s influence in, 237
Dante’s influence in, 240–241
exegetical method in, 97–98
faith in, 312–313
fidelity in, 196
Gower and, 18
humanism in, 235
Italian architecture in, 232–233
jealousy in, 198–199
love in, 139, 141–142
philosophy in, 256–257
self-reference in, 21
sex in, 142–143
Truce of Paris, 355–356
Truth (Chaucer), 15, 224
Tyler, Wat, 6, 289, 292–295
Tyranny, in Clerk’s Tale, 303–304
U
Ugolino of Pisa, 265, 267–268
Undernourishment, 84
Urban V, Pope, 204, 209
Urban VI, Pope, 314–315
Usk, Adam, 179, 359, 361
Usk, Thomas, 98, 248, 268–269
V
Vache, Philip la, 224, 320, 364
Valence, Aymer de, 52–53
Venour, William, 334
Vintner, John Chaucer as, 33–34, 38
Violence, at Oxford, 177–180
Virgil, 221
Visconti, Bernabò, 297
Visconti, Galeazzo, 297
Visconti, Violante, 227
Visconti family, 127–128
Visconti Libraries, 298 Vox Clamantis (Gower), 19, 20
W
Walbrook, 35–36
Walworth, William, 246–247, 294
Wealth
of Chaucer, 299–300
in Parson’s Tale, 303
Weaning, 72
Wendover manor, 218
Wesenham, John, 31, 41
Westminster Abby, 336
Weston Turville manor, 219
Wet nurse, 72–73
Whitehead, Alfred North, 167
Whiting, B. J., 193
Wife of Bath’s Tale (Chaucer). See also Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Alice Perrers in, 226
changes in, 345–346
Irish in, 150
marriage in, 197
puns in, 141
tyranny in, 61
William, Champain, 300
William of Burgh, 127
William of Ockham, 172
William of Wykeham, 176, 338
Williams, George, 25, 246–247
Windsor, William, 215, 223
Wine-buyer, John Chaucer as, 33–34
Winner and Waster (unknown), 15, 243–244
Witchcraft, 79
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 168
Wordsworth, William, 98
World
as central subject, 12–14
of Chaucer at birth, 62–71
in Gower, 20
in Langland, 16
Worry, 13
Wyclif, John, 6, 130, 132, 164, 175–176, 273–274
Y
Yeats, William Butler, 291
Ypres family, 36
A Biography of John Gardner
John Gardner (1933–1982) was a bestselling and award-winning novelist and essayist, and one of the twentieth century’s most controversial literary authors. Gardner produced more than thirty works of fiction and nonfiction, consisting of novels, children’s stories, literary criticism, and a book of poetry. His books, which include the celebrated novels Grendel, The Sunlight Dialogues, and October Light, are noted for their intellectual depth and penetrating insight into human nature.
Gardner was born in Batavia, New York. His father, a preacher and dairy farmer, and mother, an English teacher, both possessed a love of literature and often recited Shakespeare during his childhood. When he was eleven years old, Gardner was involved in a tractor accident that resulted in the death of his younger brother, Gilbert. He carried the guilt from this accident with him for the rest of his life, and would incorporate this theme into a number of his works, among them the short story “Redemption” (1977). After graduating from high school, Gardner earned his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and he married his first wife, Joan Louise Patterson, in 1953. He earned his Master’s and Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa in 1958, after which he entered into a career in academia that would last for the remainder of his life, including a period at Chico State College, where he taught writing to a young Raymond Carver.
Following the births of his son, Joel, in 1959 and daughter, Lucy, in 1962, Gardner published his first novel, The Resurrection (1966), followed by The Wreckage of Agathon (1970). It wasn’t until the release of Grendel (1971), however, that Gardner’s work began attracting significant attention. Critical praise for Grendel was universal and the book won Gardner a devoted following. His reputation as a preeminent figure in modern American literature was cemented upon the release of his New York Times bestselling novel The Sunlight Dialogues (1972). Throughout the 1970s, Gardner completed about two books per year, including October Light (1976), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the controversial On Moral Fiction (1978), in which he argued that “true art is by its nature moral” and criticized such contemporaries as John Updike and John Barth. Backlash over On Moral Fiction continued for years after the book’s publication, though his subsequent books, including Freddy’s Book (1980) and Mickelsson’s Ghosts (1982), were largely praised by critics. He also wrote four successful children’s books, among them Dragon, Dragon and Other Tales (1975), which was named Outstanding Book of the Year by the New York Times.
In 1980, Gardner married his second wife, a former student of his named Liz Rosenberg. The couple divorced in 1982, and that same year he became engaged to Susan Thornton, another former student. One week before they were to be married, Gardner died in a motorcycle crash in Pennsylvania. He was forty-nine years old.
A two-year-old Gardner, shown here, in 1935. He went by the nickname “Buddy” throughout his childhood.
Gardner on a motorcycle in 1948, when he was about fifteen years old. He was a lifelong enthusiast of motorcycle and horseback riding, hobbies that resulted in multiple broken bones and other injuries throughout his life.
Gardner’s senior photo from Batavia High School, taken in 1950. Though he found most of his classes boring, he particularly enjoyed chemistry. One day in class, Gardner and some friends disbursed a malodorous concoction through the school’s ventilation system, causing the whole building to reek and classes to be dismissed early.
Gardner and Joan Patterson, his first wife, in the early 1950s. The couple were high school sweethearts and attended senior prom together in 1951.
John and Joan’s wedding photograph, taken on June 6, 1953.
A Gardner family photograph from 1957. From left to right: John Gardner, Priscilla (mother), John Sr. (father), Jim (brother), and Sandy (sister). John Sr. and Priscilla took in thirteen foster children after John and his siblings grew up and moved away.
Gardner at the University of Detroit in 1970. He was a distinguished visiting professor at the university.
Gardner’s children, Joel and Lucy, circa 1975. Joel is the founder of Camp Gardner Films, and Lucy works in publishing. Both currently live in Massachusetts.
Gardner playing the French horn around 1979. He began playing in high school and played in the Batavia Civic Orchestra.
Gardner and Liz Rosenberg at their wedding on Valentine’s Day, 1980. Liz’s dress was a wedding gift from John, who had it made in Kansas City by a woman he had met at a reading there. Liz later remembered that instead of following her specifications, the dressmaker made her “Cleopatra’s shroud.”
Gardner in the early 1980s. In the last
years before his death, he had become much more interested in politics than in literature, declaring at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in 1982 that “if you’re not writing politically, you’re not writing.”
Selected images from The John Gardner Papers, Department of Rare Books/Special Collections, University of Rochester.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
copyright © 1977 by John Gardner
cover design by Robin Bilardello
ISBN: 978-1-4532-0380-4
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