Boece (Chaucer)

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Boece is Geoffrey Chaucer's translation into Middle English of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius.[1] The original work, written in Latin, stresses the importance of philosophy to everyday life and was one of the major works of philosophy in the Middle Ages. As well as using philosophy to understand and deal with hardship, it is also an attempt by Boethius to improve the minds of the people in 6th century Rome by introducing them to Greek philosophy.

## The translation

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Chaucer's own motive for his translation may have been that the Consolation was not fulfilling its purpose of educating the common people. The Romance of the Rose, another literary work Chaucer translated, actively encourages translation of the Consolation:

Where lewid men might lere wit,
Whoso that woulde translaten it.

Chaucer worked, in part, from a translation of the Consolation into French by Jean de Meun but is clear he also worked from a Latin version, correcting some of the liberties de Meun takes with the text. The Latin source was probably a corrupt version of Boethius' original, which explains some of Chaucer's own misinterpretations of the work. Chaucer also on occasion dispenses with direct translation and uses his own interpretation, with the help of commentaries by Nicholas Trivet and Guillaume de Conches.

## Influence on Chaucer

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The philosophical ideas of Boethius were important to many thinkers and writers of the Middle Ages, and Chaucer himself was not simply a translator but was also greatly influenced by his work. It adds a philosophical dimension to The Knight's Tale missing from the original source of the story (Boccaccio's Teseida), The Tale of Melibee uses Boethius' doctrine of "patience sufferance", and many of Chaucer's other works show a familiarity with Boethius' conception of love as expressed in the Consolation. Works by later writers, such as Thomas Usk and John Walton, made use of Chaucer's translation.

## References

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1. ^ Rosalyn Rossignol (1 January 2006). Critical Companion to Chaucer: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Infobase Publishing. p. 31\. ISBN 978-1-4381-0840-7. Retrieved 4 August 2012.

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Works|

| The
Canterbury
Tales|

* General Prologue
* The Knight's Tale
* The Miller's Tale
* The Reeve's Tale
* The Cook's Tale
* The Man of Law's Tale
* The Wife of Bath's Tale
* The Friar's Tale
* The Summoner's Tale
* The Clerk's Tale
* The Merchant's Tale
* The Squire's Tale
* The Franklin's Tale
* The Physician's Tale
* The Pardoner's Tale
* The Shipman's Tale
* The Prioress's Tale
* Sir Thopas
* The Tale of Melibee
* The Monk's Tale
* The Nun's Priest's Tale
* The Second Nun's Tale
* The Canon's Yeoman's Tale
* The Manciple's Tale
* The Parson's Tale
* Chaucer's Retraction

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Other works|

* The Romaunt of the Rose
* The Book of the Duchess
* The House of Fame
* Anelida and Arcite
* The Parliament of Fowls
* Boece
* Troilus and Criseyde
* The Legend of Good Women
* A Treatise on the Astrolabe
* The Complaint of Mars

Spurious|

* The Cuckoo and the Nightingale
* The Complaint of the Black Knight
* The equatorie of the planetis
* The Floure and the Leafe
* Pierce the Ploughman's Crede
* Jack Upland

Tales

* The Tale of Gamelyn
* Prologue and Tale of Beryn
* The Plowman's Tale
* The Pilgrim's Tale

Language
and texts|

* Rhyme royal
* Heroic couplet

Manuscript tradition

* Order of The Canterbury Tales
* Hengwrt Chaucer
* Ellesmere Chaucer
* Harley MS. 7334
* Adam Pinkhurst
* Scribe D
* John Shirley
* Geoffrey Spirleng

Related|

* Chaucer's influence on fifteenth-century Scottish literature
* Influence of Italian humanism on Chaucer
* Philippa Roet (wife)
* Katherine Swynford (wife's sister)
* Thomas Chaucer (son)
* Alice de la Pole (granddaughter)
* A Knight's Tale (2001 film)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF
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National|

* United States

Other|

* IdRef

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