Index


Abbot of Abingdon, 36, 50, 66–7

Aquinas. See Thomas Aquinas, Saint

“Adam Davy’s Dreams,” 40

Adam of Usk, 5, 71–2, 85, 97, 147n4

Aeneas, 24, 110–13, 117, 119–20, 125–7

Aeneid, the, 18, 24, 26, 127

Ahab (Old Testament king), 98–100

Alan de Lille, 90, 120

Alice Perrers, 30, 46

Amalec (Old Testament king), 44–5

anagrams, 61

angelic pope, 37, 51

Anne of Bohemia, 12

Anonimalle chronicle, 43

anxiety of influence, 107

Apollo, 115

Arion, 94

Aristotle, 37, 95, 120

Antichrist, the, 36, 50, 81, 118–19, 123, 127–8

apocalypse: beasts of, 123, 127–8; Last Judgment, 38, 49–50, 55, 58, 118, 122–7; national, 27, 60, 80–1; preparation for, 7, 55–8, 68, 93–5, 105; Second Coming, 15, 27, 46, 49–50; theological interpretations of 37–42

Armes Prydein (Myrddin), 23

Arthur (king of England), 9, 23, 25–9

Arundel, Thomas (archbishop of Canterbury), 71, 80, 96, 99, 102

auctor/auctoritas, 33, 112, 122–8

audience of posterity, 116

Augustine, Saint, 6, 14, 37, 117, 120

Babylon, 41, 63

Bale, John, 64, 67, 69

Bathsheba, 46

bestiary, 119, 121

Becket, St. Thomas, 31, 40, 85, 140

Bede, 16–17, 19, 22, 137

Berchorius, 119, 121

Boccaccio, 129

Boethius, 120, 122

Bridlington (town), 29–31

Brut. See Roman de Brut

Calchas, 129

Callimachus, 106–7

Carolingian rulers, 40

Carthusian monks, 60

Cassandra, 129

Catullus, 108

“Catulus lincieus” (prophecy), 31, 42

Caxton, William, 106, 130–5, 140

cerf volant, 17–18, 21

Charles V (king of France), 6–7, 16

Charles VI (king of France), 6–7, 16, 17–8, 31

Charles VII (king of France), 19–22

Chaucer, Geoffrey: biography, 12, 104, 116; narrative persona, 4, 32–4, 104–5, 109–31, 141, 145; retrospective reputation, 101–2, 105–6, 114–6, 131–42

Chaucer, Geoffrey, works of: Anelida and Arcite, 132–4; apocryphal works, 105–6, 131–41; The Book of the Duchess, 109; The Canterbury Tales, 113, 120, 129, 131, 137, 139–40; “Complaint of Chaucer…,” 132–4; The House of Fame, 32, 104–6, 110–31, 145; The Legend of Good Women, 11, 126; Parliament of Fowls, 109; Troilus and Criseyde, 113, 126, 129, 131, 145

“Chaucer’s Prophecy,” 8, 106, 131–42

Childeric (king of the Franks), 40

Christine de Pizan: narrative persona, 6–7, 12, 16, 18–22, 31; Le Chemin de long estude, 18; La Cité des dames, 18; Le Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc, 19–22; Le Duc des vrais amans, 18

Cicero (Somnium Scipionis), 107, 109

Clement of Alexandra, 14

collections of prophecies, 58, 68, 133, 136

Constantine, Emperor, 6, 52–3

Crécy, Battle of, 39

Criseyde, 113, 126, 145

Cromwell, Thomas, 66

Crowley, Robert, 60, 61–5, 69

Crusade, 31, 42, 47

Cumaean Sibyl, 6, 13, 15, 18

Daniel (Old Testament prophet): influence on Galfridian prophecies, 22; influence on Sibyllic prophecies, 14–15; Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, 14–15, 81, 94–5, 100; proxy for the Gawain-poet, 9, 105; proxy for Gower, 8, 33, 80–1, 90, 93–5, 105

Dante Alighieri: narrative persona, 8, 106, 128–30; Commedia, 33, 106, 109, 110, 114–19, 125

David (Old Testament prophet and king), 33, 37, 38–40, 44–50, 100, 105

Dawe þe Dykere, 56–9

Deschamps, Eustache, 6–7, 12, 16–17, 19, 22, 25, 31

Despenser family, 28, 31, 41–2, 47

Dido, 110–13, 119–20, 125–6, 128–9

Dominican monks, 36, 53

Doomsday. See under apocalypse

Dream of Scipio, 107, 109

dream visions, 7, 8, 32–4, 104, 106–10, 128–9, 131

Dudley’s conspiracy, 58

eagle in The House of Fame, 32, 110, 117–22, 128–9

Edward I (king of England), 27

Edward II (king of England): deposition, 27–8, 82, 97–8; prophecies about, 27–8, 30, 40, 47; reign, 7

Edward III (king of England): patronage of Gower, 94; in Piers Plowman 38–47, 67; prophecies about, 27–8, 29–30; reign, 7, 82

Edward VI (king of England), 58–9

Edward, the Black Prince, 30

Edward the Confessor, 85

ekphrasis, 109–11

Eleanor of Aquitaine, 24

English Reformation. See Protestant Reformation

Ennius, 107–8

Enoch and Eli (Old Testament prophets), 8, 33, 105, 116–19, 127–9

Erceldoune, Thomas of, 56, 58, 132

Ergome, John, 29–30, 39, 48

Erythraean Sibyl, 13, 14, 18

Estoire des Engleis (Geffrei Gaiman), 28

Eulogium Historiarum chronicle, 40, 50–1

Eusebius, 6

explanatio somnii, 15

“Eyght goodly questions…,” 135

Ezekiel, book of, 45

false prophets, 99

Fame, Lady, 112–13, 120, 123–8

Famine, 55–60

flyleaf prophecies, 133–4, 137, 139

Fortune, Dame, 75, 83–4, 124

Fourth Lateran Counsel, 36

Franciscan monks, 36, 51, 53

Frederick I (Holy Roman Emperor), 16

friars, 52–3, 137–8, 145, 153n67

Froissart, Jean, 45, 70–1

fürstenspiegel, 95–100

Gaiman, Geffrei, 28

Gallus, 108

Ganymede, 117, 119

Gawain-poet, 9, 12, 105

Genette, Gérard, 37, 134

Geoffrey of Monmouth: citation of, 124; Historia regum Brianniae, 5, 17, 22–4, 27–30, 85; political affiliations, 23; Prophtiae Merlinii, 5, 22–3, 27

Giles of Rome (De regimine principum), 96

Glossa Ordinaria, 46

Godfrey of Viterbo, 16

gossip, 113, 119, 128–9

Gower, John: narrative persona 33, 81–6, 90, 93–5; retrospective reputation 3–4, 34, 72–5, 86–91, 102–3, 139, 143–5

Gower, John, works of: colophon, 75–76; Carmen Super Multiplici Victorum Pestilencia, 77; Cinquante ballades, 90; Confessio amantis, 70, 77–79, 87–100, 105, 113, 125; Cronica Tripertita, 75–81, 90, 101; “H. aquile pullus,” 85–6; In Praise of Peace 90; Mirour de l’Omme, 90, 143–4; Visio Anglie, 80–1; Vox clamantis, 33, 70, 72–87, 90, 94, 97, 105

Gregorian Reform, 51, 82

Grosseteste, Robert, 95

Guido delle Colonne, 124, 129

Guillaume de Lorris (Romance of the Rose), 32, 109

Hearne, Thomas, 101

Henry I (king of England), 23

Henry II (king of England), 24

Henry III (king of Castille), 93

Henry III (king of England), 27, 28

Henry IV (king of England): Chaucer and, 101–2, 133, 139; Gower and, 3–4, 33, 70, 72–104, 143; Lancastrian political prophecies, 7, 31, 70, 79–83, 90–3, 100–2; political prophecies about, 29, 31, 40, 71

Henry VIII (king of England), 36, 60, 63, 67, 135, 142

Hesiod, 107

Hickes, George, 65

“Hit cometh by kynde of gentil blode…,” 133–4

“Hit falleth foevery gentilman…,” 133–4

Hoccleve, Thomas, 138; Regiment of Princes, 96; “To the kynges most noble grace…,” 135

Holy Land, the, 15, 19, 21, 31, 40, 42, 48–50

“Holy Oil of St. Thomas, The,” 31, 42, 85

Holy Roman Emperor, 5, 15–16, 22

Homer, 107–8, 110–11, 124

Hortus conclusus, 109

Humanism, 4, 66, 68, 106, 131, 141

Humphrey de Bohun, 30, 39

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 93

Hundred Years War, 18, 29–30, 39–45, 47

Hypnose, 115

Icarus, 120

“Invective Against France, An” (prophecy), 39, 47

Isaiah, book of, 63

Jack Upland, 138

Jean de Meun, 32, 108

Jerome, Saint, 37

Jerusalem, 41

Jews, conversion of, 38, 47–8, 118

Joachim of Fiore/Joachimism, 36–7, 49, 51, 53

Joan of Arc, 19–21

Joaō (king of Portugal), 93

John II (king of France), 42, 45

John the Baptist, 108

John, Duke of Bedford, 93

John of Gaunt, 71, 79, 83, 85

John the Evangelist, 85, 122

John of Patmos, Saint, 33, 80–1, 123, 128

John of Salisbury, 6

Jonah (Old Testament prophet), 9, 105

Judgment Day. See under apocalypse

Jupiter, 13, 117, 119

Kempe, Margery, 83

Kett’s Rebellion, 62

Knighton, Henry, 82–3

Lactantius, 13, 14

Lancaster, Henry (duke), 45

Lancaster, Thomas (earl), 28

Langland, William: biography, 42; narrative persona, 4, 33–8, 105; retrospective reputation, 3–4, 34–6, 38, 61–70, 91, 142–3; The Vision of Piers Plowman, 35–69, 105, 137, 142; — Clergy’s prophecy, 7, 35–8, 49–55, 58–69, 142; — Conscience’s prophecy, 35–52, 55, 67–8; — Lady Mede, 38–49, 52; — published versions of, 34, 60–7; — Will’s prophecy, 35, 55–60, 62–3, 67–8, 132

Last Emperor prophecy: in English prophecies, 27, 31, 35, 37, 40; in French prophecies, 6–7, 16–23, 25; in Piers Plowman, 41, 47, 49–53; of the Sibyl, 15. See also Second Charlemagne

Last Judgment. See apocalypse

libri Sibyllini, 13

“Lilium regnans” (prophecy), 31, 41, 42

Livy, 98

Lollards, 64, 69, 138–9

London, 57, 91, 132

Longman Anthology, 36

Louis, Duke of Orleans, 16

Laȝamon, 26–8

Lucrece, 98

Luke the Evangelist, 123

Macaulay, G.C.: on the Confessio Amantis, 77–8, 88–9, 91, 101; on the Mirour de l’Omme, 144; on the Vox clamantis, 74, 76–80, 86

Magna Carta, 95

Mark the Evangelist, 123

Mary Tudor, 58–60

Matthew the Evangelist, 123

Merciless Parliament, 96

Merlin: citations of, 16, 19, 132, 140, 173n73; Galfridian prophetic style, 5, 7, 13, 27, 33, 57; in Historia regum Britanniae, 5, 17, 22–4, 27–30, 55–6, 85; literary persona, 65; in prose Brut, 5, 23, 26–8, 29, 56, 71; in Wace’s Roman de Brut, 24–6

Merovingian kings, 40

Michael de la Pole, 31, 96

Michaiah (Old Testament prophet), 94, 98–9

millenarian beliefs, 49

models for princes, 95–100

Mohammad (prophet of Islam), 18, 47

monastic reform, 50–2

monastic dissolution, 3, 36, 59, 61–70, 142

Moses (Old Testament prophet), 40, 48

Muses, 107, 129

Muslims/”Saracens,” 18, 21, 38, 47–8

Myrddin, 23

nominalism, 114, 125

Norham, Hermit William, 71

Nottage, Lynn, 10–11

Odysseus, 110–11

Oracle of Baalbek, 15, 16

Oracula Sibyllina, 14, 16

Ordericus Vitalis, 23

Otto I (Holy Roman Emperor), 5, 22

Otto II (Holy Roman Emperor), 22

Otto III (Holy Roman Emperor), 15, 22

Otto of Freising, 16

Ovid, 108, 112–13, 120, 123–7

Ovide Moralisé, 125–6

Papal Schism, 42, 47

paratext, 134

Parker, Matthew (archbishop of Canterbury), 137–8

parody: in House of Fame, 104, 106, 113–16; in Legend of Good Women, 126–7; in Piers Plowman, 37, 56–8, 62, 64, 67–9

patronage, literary, 12

Paul, Saint, 33, 117, 122

Pauli, Reinhold, 87–9, 101

Pepin (king of the Franks), 40

Petrarch, 107–9

Philip VI (king of France), 39

Phillipa (queen of England), 93

Pierce the Ploughman’s Creede, 137, 139

Piers Plowman, prophecies attributed to, 60–1

plague, 30

Plowman’s Crede, The, 64

Plowman’s Tale, The, 105, 138

postmodernism, 114, 141

precious language, 30

Pricke of Conscience, The, 118

Prophecy of the Six Kings of England, 26–31, 47, 56, 58

prophetic citation, 8, 104, 106–114, 141, 145

prophetic disguise, 5–6

Protestant Reformation: association with Chaucer, 106, 131, 137–42, 145; association with the Gawain-poet, 148n15; association with Langland, 3, 7, 35–6, 60–70; historic perspective of, 9, 11. See also monastic dissolution

proverbial sayings, 113

Psalms, 33, 46, 48, 50–2, 69, 86, 105

pseudo-Aquinas, 98

public poetry, 82

Puttenham, George, 3, 65

Pynson, Richard, 131

(quin) decemuiri, 13

Record and Process of the Renunciation and Deposition of Richard II, The, 79, 93, 97

Rehoboam (Old Testament king), 96–7

Revelation, book of, 9, 118

rhetoric, 120

Ricardian Poetry, 12, 104

Richard II (king of England): deposition, 7–8, 70–2, 74–102, 143; patronage of literature/prophecies, 12–13, 29, 31, 38; political prophecies about, 7, 18, 29, 31, 42; regnal years, 49; relationship with Chaucer, 101–2; in the Vox clamantis, 72–87, 97, 101

Richard the Redeless, 97

riddles, 47–8, 55–6, 58, 132

Rising of 1381, 61, 72, 75, 81, 144

Robinson, Marilynne, 69

Rogers, Owen, 64–5

Rokele family, 41–2

rolling revision, 77

Roman de Brut: Laȝamon’s Brut, 26, 27–8; prose Brut, 5, 23, 28–9, 41, 71, 133; Wace’s Brut, 24, 27–8

Romance of the Rose, 32, 108–9, 126

Romulus, 117, 119

rumor, 113, 119, 122, 128–9

sacral kingship, 12, 39–41

Samuel (Old Testament prophet), 22, 38–9, 44, 94, 100

Saracens. See Muslims/Saracens

Satan, 119

Saul (Old Testament king), 38–9, 44–5, 47, 100

scribes: of the Confessio Amantis 91–2; of the Tiburtine Sibyl 17; of the Vox clamantis 76–9, 84, 86

Scipio Africanis, 107

Second Baron’s War, 95

Second Charlemagne, 16, 18, 20–1, 27

Second Coming. See under apocalypse

Secretum philosophorum, 48

secularity, 66, 141

Sibyl, the: authorial persona, 17–22, 31, 65; citations of, 16, 19, 22; literary character, 18, 26; pseudonym, 14–16. See also Cumaean Sibyl, Erythraean Sibyl, and Tiburtine Sibyl

Sibyllic prophecies, 5, 12–13, 23, 27, 31, 33, 86

Sibyllinorum Verborum Iterpretatio, 16

Simon Magus, 127

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. See Gawain-poet

Six Kings prophecy. See Prophecy of the Six Kings of England

Skeat, Walter William, 61, 67, 114, 140

Solomon (Old Testament king), 96, 97

Stratford, John, Archbishop, 97

Sweat (Nottage), 10–11

Tarquinius, 13, 19

Taylor, Rupert, 5, 56, 67–8

Testament of Love (Usk), 101, 140

Theophilus, 14

Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 77–8, 117

Thomas, Duke of Clarence, 93

Thomas of Erceldoune, 56, 58

threshold works, 8, 106, 134–5

Thweng, John, 30

Thynne, William, 105–6, 135–8, 141

Tibullus, 108

Tiburtine Sibyl, 15, 16–17, 22

Treaty of Brétigny, 30, 42–5

Troy, 109, 110–11, 124, 126

Tuke, Sir Brian, 105, 135–6

tyranny, 89, 95–9, 102

Urry, John, 101, 138, 141

Usk, Adam of, 5, 71–2, 85, 97, 147n4

Usk, Thomas, 101, 140

Valois court of France, 12, 16, 29. See also Charles V and Charles VI

Varro, 13

vates, 26, 115, 117, 127, 131

vaticinium ex eventu, 15, 18, 21, 27–8, 30, 33

Vaticinium Roberti Bridlington, 29–31, 39, 47, 48, 71

Venus, 110, 115

Virgil: Aeneid, the 24–6, 110–13, 117, 119, 123; in Chaucer’s House of Fame, 110–13, 115–6, 124; in Dante’s Commedia, 109, 110; fourth Eclogue, 6, 14, 26; sixth Eclogue, 107

Virgin Mary, 40, 85, 140

viri spirituales, 36, 53

Vortigern, 23, 28, 29

vox populi, 8, 33, 70, 81–4, 90, 94, 98

Wace, 24–6, 27

Walsingham, Thomas, 5, 82, 97

“When feythe failleth…” See “Chaucer’s Prophecy”

Whore of Babylon, 127

Wickert, Maria, 75–6, 79

Wonderful Parliament, 96

Wyatt’s rebellion, 58

Wycliffe, John: Chaucer as follower, 105, 138–9; Gower as detractor, 139; Langland as follower, 7, 61–2, 64, 69, 142