Chaucer Name Dictionary: A Guide to Astrological, Biblical, Historical, Literary, and Mythological Names in the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by Jacqueline de Weever (review)

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER explanation of Cook's preference for the translations of Brault, Merwin, Goldin, and Owen, and more attention to the inexpensive version by Harrison. Cook's copious and fair discussion ofthe critics shows that the contradic­ tions between the common view of the poem and the fruits of close attention to the text have made a paradigmshift inevitable, and even where one might disagree with his conclusions or wish for more analysis, he has done much to further the process. He tends to treat "feudal society" as a unified and unproblematic concept, but his treatment of the poem in historical context will lead to more detailed studies of its relation to various stands and tensions in the period, and perhaps even to greater chronologi­ cal precision. He tends to regard the poem's audience as similarly single­ minded, but his decision to consider audience reception will surely inspire consideration of its possible effects on different strata and interest groups. Some readers will be upset that, having removed one set of "universals" from consideration, he offers another: "Duty, trust, lies and truth, sacrifice, fear, fatigue, frustration, and the courage that serves as touchstone and makes all things clear: of such is the Song made. They yield to no other theme in universality simply because their expression is specifically early feudal" (p. 243). Yet his book will change the direction of Roland schol­ arship, and it will change the way the poem is taught to future generations: teachers who ignore it will run the risk of appearing great fools before students who do not. Ross G. ARTHUR York University JACQUELINE DE WEEVER. Chaucer Name Dictionary: A Guide to Astro­ logical, Biblical, Historical, Literary, andMythological Names in the Works ofGeoffrey Chaucer. Garland Reference Library of the Human­ ities, vol. 709. New York and London: Garland, 1987. Pp. xx, 402. $52.00. The goals of the Chaucer Name Dictionary are admirable: to provide "biographical, historical, or mythological information" for each name in Chaucer's works and to discuss "any particular connection, implication, or meaning ofthe name in the context in which it appears... with allegorical 204 REVIEWS interpretation where appropriate" (p. xi). Although it does not accomplish all this, the CND assembles more information about Chaucer's names than is available in any other single work, and Chaucerians may find it useful. Unfortunately, it excludes place-names and names of allegorical figures (like Fame) for insufficient reasons (p. xi) and omits important information on the names it does treat. It is cluttered by unnecessary repetition and corrupted by hundreds oferrors. Citing Greek authors as though they were available to Chaucer, the CND provides a misleading picture of Chaucer's classical sources. Usually the CND allows the reader to infer that Chaucer had at hand such writers as Diogenes Laertius, Euripides, Herodotus, Hesiod, Plutarch, and Homer, but one entry clearly implies that Homer was among Chaucer's sources (p. 279), and another implies that Platonic dialogues other than the Timaeus were also available to him (p. 270). At the same time the CND omits important medieval traditions. The entry on Esther says nothing about the etymology of her name, and the entries on herand other biblical women say nothing about their widespread appearance as types of the Virgin. Aside from a reference to the burning bush in PrT468 andABC 89-94, the entry on theVirgin Mary says nothing about the Old Testament prefigurations ofher. The CND offers no explana­ tion forPertelote'sname, asidefrom noting that the name is "formedby the reduplication ofsounds" (p. 256), even though the author would have had to go no further than theRiverside Chaucer to find one. The CND identifies appropriate passages in the Ovide moralise by book and line numbers but does not provide the OM moralizations. In general, the CND does not expect much ofChaucer's names. That a name appears in a "rhyming tag" is often enough to account for Chaucer's use of it. Occasional typographical errors seem inevitable, but the typos here are more numerous than I have ever seen. A small sample: Encylopaedia and Enclopaedia (p. xviii), epomynous and misfotrune (p. 57), Heiki (Ober­ man) (p. 63), hemisohere (p. 74...