Through the Grapevine: Classical Fame in Geoffrey Chaucer and Gavin Douglas

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to give an account of the classical authorities used in Geoffrey Chaucer’s House of Fame (1378-80) and Gavin Douglas’s contemporary Palice of Honour (1501). In particular, this thesis will compare the use of authorities as regards of Fame, since fame is a very important concept in both the Classical mythology and medieval texts. Moreover, fame can be closely linked to the use of authorities as it can be argued that by using authorities, the authors’ fame and their texts are preserved.