Petrarch and Chaucer on Fame
5
in Petrarch’s Coronation Oration; for example, both consider
poetry the best, if not the perfect, vehicle for preserving memory
and, in Glenn A. Steinberg’s words, “the very basis of all renown”
(2000: 182). Put simply, for both Petrarch and Chaucer, the
importance of poetry and poet, to a great extent, consists in that
poetry opens up the possibility of immortality. Equally importantly,
by virtue of their mulling over the immortality offered by literature,
Petrarch and Chaucer, to differing degrees, sanctify literature by
raising its status over those of other arts. Accordingly, this paper
will firstly survey how classical writers
－
Homer, Hesiod, Virgil,
Cicero, and Statius
－
looked at the issue of literary fame. After
examining how Dante immensely raises the status of “author,” this
study will focus on Petrarch and Chaucer. Through a close reading
of Petrarch’s
Metrica
,
My Secret Book,
the
Africa,
and his
Coronation Oration, as well as Chaucer’s
House of Fame
, this
paper concludes that while both Petrarch and Chaucer are eager
for literary fame, Petrarch is much more forthright about his
yearning and Chaucer’s attitude toward literary fame is more
subtle.
I. Authors before Petrarch and Chaucer
A. Classical Writers
This section aims to offer a broad outline of how authors in
antiquity regarded literary fame.
2
In Greek epics, literary
immortality seems not a central issue to these minstrels. The reason
is quite understandable: the earliest bard’s name was not
mentioned as he was thought to be a passive conveyer of “what the
Muses have told him concerning ancient things” (W. Kroll; as cited
in Curtius, 1967: 515). This helps explain why to this day scholars
2
It however should be made clear that due to the great number of classical authors,
the ensuing discussion is not intended to be exhaustive, but to provide an
informative overview.
