Petrarch and Chaucer on Fame
31
deeds must be compelling enough to trigger the interest of men of
letters and of scribes; if their exploits were not “illuminated in the
light of letters,” even the most memorable feats would be
“enveloped in perpetual darkness” (3).
This preference for literary art is evidenced by the different
locations of the statues of performers and those of writers in the
palace. Around the castle the narrator spots statues of musicians
and storytellers who are charged with spreading fame (Chaucer,
1997: 1196-1200),
37
while the statues of prominent writers stand
imposingly on the metal pillars inside Fame’s palace, signifying the
superiority of writing over other forms of art in preserving
memory. Despite different ethnic and religious backgrounds, the
writers enumerated by Chaucer have at least one thing in common:
they are all propagators of the fame of a people, or of specific
heroic figures. In this sense, the writers listed by Chaucer are not
unlike Phemius, the poet-singer in the
Odyssey
whose name
literally means “one who spreads fame” in that all of them devote
their writings to trumpeting the reputation of the heroes in their
minds. The first writer mentioned by the narrator is Josephus, the
Hebrew historian who chronicles the history of the Jewish people
and assumes the responsibility of preserving the fame of the Jews
(1433-1436).
38
Similarly, Statius is mentioned since it is he who
immortalizes Thebes and, to a lesser degree, Achilles.
39
Other
37
Including Orpheus, Arion, Chiron, Glascurion, Atiteris, Pseustis, Marsyas,
Misenus, Joab, Theodomas, and many other unidentified ones.
38
The Jewish provenance of Christianity might explain why Josephus tops the list.
39
(Publius Papinius) Statius, author of the
Thebaid
, also wrote an unfinished epic
on Achilles (the
Achilleid
). However, here Chaucer, like Dante, mixes the above
Statius (born in Naples) up with a namesake born in Toulouse regarding their
birthplaces (Chaucer, 1997: 185). In
The Divine Comedy
, Dante, when
mentioning Statius, writes:
So sweet was the music of my words
That, from Toulouse, Rome took me to herself,
And there I [Publius Papinius Statius] merited a crown of myrtles.
Statius is what people still call me there:
I sang of Thebes, then of the great Achilles; (Dante
,
2003: 351)
