Abstract

Chaucer represents large woodland areas in his narratives in ways that reflect contemporary English practice in managing forests, parks, and groves. His firsthand knowledge of John of Gaunt's holdings and King Edward III's pleasure grounds and parks, among others, correlates to poetic depictions in the Parlement of Fowls, and in tales told by the Knight, Nun's Priest, Pardoner, Wife of Bath, and Friar. Without discounting literary antecedents and poetic topoi in the creation of Chaucer's woodlands, this essay seeks to highlight Chaucer's lived experience of land use as a significant factor in his poetic representations of late medieval landscapes.

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