Jonty Claypole

He's collecting Italian literature.

And he's starting to think about what an English literature might be and what it might draw from the French and the Italians and what it might do that's new.

So let's touch in on his writing CV.

He limbers up by translating some of the major works from European literature.

He translates Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy.

This is a sixth century text.

We'll see in a moment how it informs his own work.

And he also translates this allegorical dream vision in French called The Romance of the Rose.

And both these forms really underpin his early works.

I think in his earlier years as a writer, he's much more tied to a continental tradition.

So quite early on, he's moved on from de Burgh's and Lionel of Antwerp, and he's come under the patronage of John of Gaunt.

This is a step up.

John of Gaunt is uncle of Richard II.

When Richard inherits the throne at age 10, it's John of Gaunt who's effectively ruling.

John of Gaunt, who many listeners will know for the Deceptodile speech in Richard II.

Not something John of Gaunt actually said, but, you know, he gets the great speech.

And one of Chaucer's earliest works is an elegy he writes for John of Gaunt's wife, Blanche, who dies young.

And Chaucer writes the Book of the Duchess.

which is very much in that Romance of the Rose, French courtly tradition.

It's a sort of dream vision.