Following Chaucer: Offices of the Active Life by Lynn Staley
Alfred Thomas
Reviewed by: Following Chaucer: Offices of the Active Life by Lynn Staley Alfred Thomas Staley. Life. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 2020. Pp. viii, 218. $75.00 cloth; $59.95 e-book. Staley’s densely argued and erudite new book Chaucer derives its subtitle from De officiis (On Obligations) Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 bce). was an enormously influential work moral philosophy for early Christian writers such as [End Page 352] Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine. The Carolingian Renaissance laid groundwork even greater popularity in High Middle Ages. For twelfth-century thinkers, study ethics became a central concern society that witnessed growing divergence between ideals Christianity increasingly corrupt reality. Ethical texts Cicero’s were incorporated into curriculum seven liberal arts cathedral schools. But high point influence is Italian fourteenth century. humanists, most notably Petrarch (1304–74), attempted to synthesize Stoic with teaching, exemplified his Secretum (1342–43), dialogue Augustine himself. Professor seeks delineate similar synthesis Chaucer’s which Ciceronian concept “office” or public obligations (officium) linked not health republic, ironically about collapse writing, but active life late medieval Christian. own tripartite structure officiis, identifies explores three categories—the royal woman, poet, merchant—all can be explained terms complex self-fashioning wealthy merchant’s son official devoted writing poetry, who also looked patronage highly educated queen at cosmopolitan court Richard II. first chapter, then, II’s wife, Anne Bohemia, daughter Holy Emperor king Charles IV Luxembourg. choice leading exponent makes sense simply because therefore figure related duties obligations, she embodied humanism her father’s Prague. had Anne’s father, Charles, potential savior unifier hopelessly fragmented warring Italy, corresponded him familial common during Renaissance. Poet emperor met Mantua Prague, where received feted hero. penned encomium Charles’s third Schweidnitz, he praised glowing language future mother (Wenceslas IV). fascination Queen Anne, multiple compliments allusions work, understood English poet’s self-identity humanist writer mold Boccaccio. Insofar 353] judicious, balanced, temperate, acting restraining on wayward husband, exemplar ideal obligation. second chapter (“Chaucer Trinity”) addresses poet society. Involving intricate richly interpretation doctrine Trinity “a social document, means establishing boundary lines community faithful” (57), sees Second Nun’s Prologue “as defining himself writer” (59). Setting up Tale Langland’s Piers Plowman well other shows use becomes understand individual office within life. Staley, this integration poetic self framework good no longer possible Tudor courts, “whose poets’ expression...
Studies in the Age of Chaucer