A Legal Reading of Chaucer's Hous of Fame

Abstract

One of Chaucer's early works, The Hous of Fame, generally dated about 1375–9 during Chaucer's years as controller of the customs, is in the words of a recent literary historian "a badly proportioned, incomplete, and utterly delightful poem." Most scholars, not knowing the occasion and intention of the poem, have felt much of this dissatisfaction with the form of the poem, yet nearly all have felt the utter delight of Chaucer's playfulness.