Friday (10 May) Peter Brown used his inaugural lecture at Kent on ‘Reading Chaucer’ to inaugurate two other Chaucer-related items. First, the School of English and the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) have collaborated to sponsor an annual Chaucer lecture, to be held in the Spring Term. Second, medievalists in MEMS, English and History are undertaking a collaborative and interdisciplinary project with colleagues in Prague on ‘Chaucer in Bohemia’, marked by a workshop at Charles University on 14–17 June.
Chaucer never went to Bohemia, but it came to him in 1382 when Anne, daughter of Charles IV of Bohemia married Richard II. The marriage negotiations, and Anne’s life as queen until her death in 1394, opened up a significant channel of cultural exchange. Bohemian courtiers, clerics and others had a marked impact on the English court and its sphere of influence. Geoffrey Chaucer was at that time closely involved in court activities, both as a poet and as a client of the king’s patronage. Anne herself may have become his patron and he includes tributes to her in his Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. The lecture went on to describe approaches to Troilus that might lead to a ‘Bohemian’ reading of the poem, especially in the areas of literacy, piety, and genre.