Book Description

Excerpt from The Indebtedness of Chaucer's Works to the Italian Works of Boccaccio (a Review and Summary): A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Princeton University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy And the work was pursued only in the hope that an approximate form of truth might be obtained, which might prove of value to stud ents of Chaucer problems. Were the riddle in the relations existing between Chaucer and Boccaccio capable of one unquestioned solution, that solution would have been determined long ago, for scholars have long employed their wits upon it; and certainly, if the riddle had been only once and for always propounded and then answered imme diately and dogmatically, the solution, however interesting it might have been, would have thrown little light upon the genius of Chau cer. In a word, an immediate solution would have precluded, and still would preclude, its own value. It would aver one of two facts, either that the relations, - whatever they might have been, personal, literary, of friendship or of discipleship - existing between the two poets were of no real value to Chaucer, or that Chaucer's work, having become too dependent upon those relations, would have no value for us to-day, five centuries after the poet's death. Neither of these facts is admissible. The relations existing between the two poets were of great, although not necessarily of supreme, value to Chaucer; and Chaucer, even themost arrant of Philis tines would admit, is of very considerable value to us! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.