Writing a biography of Geoffrey Chaucer, England’s most famous poet, and his many accomplishments is a daunting and Herculean task--one that Chaucer’s Knight would surely wish to add to his list of noble achievements. In her excellent new book Geoffrey Chaucer: Unveiling the Merry Bard, however, Mary Flannery stands up to the challenge, and the results are masterfully done. In this chronicle, Flannery sets out to consider “Chaucer’s life and work in relation to his reputation for mirth and merriment, in order to explore how he became the poet he is for us today” (11). In doing so, she argues, “we can see more clearly how a combination of skill, diplomacy, and good fortune enabled Chaucer to navigate one of the most turbulent periods of medieval English history” (11). The first chapter sets the stage for establishing Flannery’s approach to Chaucer’s life, identifying his legacy as a subversive, challenging, and often contradictory poet, particularly with his views on women: “This is the poet who claims to be a friend to women, but whose works are filled with misogynistic stereotypes concerning what women are like and what they want” (12). Flannery also raises the issue of the “self-deprecating portrait” (21) that Chaucer created, arguing that it “emerges out of his acute awareness of the status of English literature as the cultural upstart of his day. His satire responds to the anxieties and troubles of later medieval England and Europe, even as it often slides away from direct critique” (29-30). Subsequent chapters respectively examine Chaucer’s early life, including writing The Book of the Duchess, his relationship with John of Gaunt, his employment under the Countess of Ulster, and living through the Black Death; his development as a poet, including his influence from Italian and French contemporaries and the emergence of his dream poem House of Fame; Chaucer’s rise to prominence as a controller of customs and being identified with the king’s chamber, as well as writing Anelida and Arcite and The Parliament of Fowles; his complicated views on women, which may or may not be influenced by his real-life relationships with his wife Philippa and John of Gaunt’s mistress (and Chaucer’s sister-in-law), Katherine Swynford; Chaucer’s time during the Peasants’ Revolt and the turbulence of the latter half of the fourteenth century; his final years and death as well as his contributions to the fabliau genre and the development of the Canterbury Tales; and a whirlwind tour covering Chaucer’s reception and afterlife in the over 600 years since his death. Flannery’s highly readable and accessible prose finds the rare balance between rigorous scholarship and mass market appeal. At times, some of the intriguing claims can be speculative, but generally the book is well-informed and elegantly draws together literature, history, and manuscript studies.
Chapters 2 and 3 cover Chaucer’s early life and rise to fame, linking his experiences to the development of The Book of the Duchess and later the dream poem The House of Fame. In Flannery’s view, The Book of the Duchess catapults Chaucer’s talents as a budding poet onto the literary map: “The Book of the Duchess announces Chaucer’s skill, not only as a young poet capable of mastering one of the most popular genres of the Middle Ages, but as a writer capable of deftly weaving play and consolation together in a single text” (51). In addition, she connects its writing to his social connections and activities: “The Book of the Duchess also invites us to reflect on what it was like for Chaucer to navigate the exalted social circles in which he moved during his twenties, and how his writing might even have aided him in this delicate task” (51). In Chapter 3, Flannery identifies how French and Italian sources were crucial to not only Chaucer’s development as a poet, but also to the emergence of Middle English poetry: “Chaucer developed a poetic style that rivalled the literary achievements of medieval France and Italy while remaining, at its heart, distinctively English” (56). During this time, Chaucer was sent on trips to continental Europe, where he experienced the cultural capitals of medieval Europe which in turn influenced his own writing style and perspectives. Flannery recognizes The House of the Fame as the exemplification of this intercultural exchange, demonstrating “not only the impact of travel and cultural exchange on his writing but the skills that brought him to the peak of his poetic career” (72).
The fourth chapter focuses on Chaucer’s upward trajectory and growing connections amongst the social circles of his time, including his identification with the king’s chamber and his role as a controller of customers, and how it coincided with his prolificity as a poet. Flannery’s analysis of Anelida and Arcite, Chaucer’s often overlooked poem, which he wrote during this time, will be especially useful to Chaucerian scholars and students that are keen to learn more about his lesser-known works. As Flannery puts it, “The poem’s experimentation with versification suggests that Chaucer’s interest in imitating Continental poets extended to form as well as subject-matter and style” (86). This period also marks the writing of The Parliament of Fowles, which shows his talent for being able to appeal to and poke fun of the royal household. Flannery further suggests that The Parliament of Fowles reveals Chaucer’s “self-deprecatory portrait” as a writer: “Chaucer is mocking the person he has become: a low-ranking peripheral member of these courtly circles, someone who can jokingly claim to participate unsuccessfully in the discourses of courtly love instead of simply commenting on the love of others” (95).
In Chapter 5, Flannery takes on Chaucer’s complicated views of women, including his portrait of the Wife of Bath and its connections to the antifeminist tradition, the real-life influence of Philippa, his wife, and possibly his sister-in-law, and the accusations of raptus that continue to affect how modern readers think about Chaucer the poet. While this chapter does not necessarily follow the same chronological format as the other chapters, it is perhaps the most rewarding in terms of considering the dissonance between modern readership of Chaucer compared to his contemporaries. Its readings of the Wife of Bath are particularly useful for teaching, especially given the modern tendency to read her character as overtly feminist: “while modern readers might laugh in appreciation of Alison’s outspoken nature, medieval audiences would more probably have laughed at what they viewed as the proof of her monstrous femininity” (99). Flannery convincingly links the Wife of Bath to depictions of antifeminism in late medieval writing, resulting in a more challenging portrait of Chaucer’s women than it initially appears. Flannery also investigates the claims of raptus (rape) against Chaucer, which has left long-lasting damage to his reputation. She brings new evidence to light, suggesting that raptus may have been connected to a labour dispute rather than rape or abduction, “though it remains to be seen whether the possible interpretation of raptus will be supported by surviving documents related to comparable cases” (111). Some claims in the chapter are compelling, such as the possibility of Chaucer mocking Swynford in his writings, but require more substantial evidence to make them concrete. Overall, however, Chapter 5 is captivating in its exploration of Chaucer and the women he writes about (and lived with) and is highly recommended for students to read, especially how it depicts the Wife of Bath. Flannery’s analysis of the Wife of Bath also serves as a fitting companion piece to Marion Turner’s (also excellent) recent book The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023).
Chapters 6 and 7 consider the final decades of Chaucer’s life in the late fourteenth century, which, as Flannery rightly comments, was “an interesting time to be alive” (119), to say the least. Chaucer lived through intense social conflicts such as the Peasants’ Revolt and the Hundred Years’ War, events which in turn contributed to the framework of the Canterbury Tales. In Chapter 6, Flannery traces the development of Chaucer’s estates satire during these later years, and notes how, due in part to these contributions, “Chaucer’s anticlerical satire encouraged some to view him as a sort of a proto-Protestant and chastiser of a corrupt clergy” (135) in later centuries. Despite his lofty connections and poetic appeal, it was also a period of instability for the realm and for Chaucer as poet. As Flannery comments, “Chaucer’s position may have been rather more precarious than it appeared” (124). Chapter 7 covers the bawdy humour that Chaucer produced in the final years of his life (1386-1400) within the context of his personal and private life. Flannery cites the Miller’s Tale as a notable example of this bawdy humour, since it plays an “important role in determining how readers have conceived of Chaucer over the centuries” (140). Flannery also links Chaucer to the origins of the fabliau, which she argues “may have seemed to Chaucer like a way to further ingratiate himself with his social superiors” (150).
The eighth and final chapter of the text provides a lightspeed epilogue of Chaucer’s comic legacy in the over 600 years after his death. This is a fascinating and comprehensive epilogue of Chaucer’s life and achievements, although given the range of detail and literature it could have been expanded into more than one chapter (but perhaps that is beyond the parameters of this book). Chaucer’s reputation transmutes and transforms in the centuries after his death. In the sixteenth century, “Chaucer’s name came to be closely associated with ribald humour” (165). The seventeenth century heralded Middle English versions of Chaucer’s bawdier texts. The eighteenth century brought its share of challenges to his reputation, increasing “the rift between those who celebrated that reputation and those who saw it as a complication with which more serious readers of Chaucer had to contend” (168). Nineteenth-century audiences decided to give Chaucer a makeover by making his works “‘decent’ for new groups of impressionable readers, including children” (171). The twentieth century saw more acceptance of Chaucer’s works, and as the chapter comes to a close in the twenty-first century, Flannery claims that “the bawdy humour of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales has come to the fore in the contemporary popular imagination” (173).
Flannery’s Geoffrey Chaucer: Unveiling the Merry Bard is bold, concise, cerebral, wildly entertaining, and a delight to read for newcomers to the English poet, seasoned scholars of his works, and everyone in between. Flannery also provides a detailed chronology at the end of the text, as well as numerous illustrations that serve as helpful visual aids as we dive into Chaucer’s works and world. The illustrations are particularly fitting, especially the full colour illustrations. One pedantic criticism is that it would be better to have all illustrations in full colour for consistency, but its retail price is a bargain and should be nevertheless commended. Flannery engages with state-of-the-art takes and investigations into Chaucerian scholarship while also providing a refreshing and humorous voice on what made Chaucer stand the test of time and how he was a true medieval Renaissance man. Flannery’s interdisciplinary approach to Chaucer’s life is well-researched, ambitious, and admirable. This new biography is sure to bring “mirth and merriment” to all those who happen to read it.