New exhibition tracks the influence of Geoffrey Chaucer across the centuries

The Bodleian Libraries present Chaucer Here and Now, a new exhibition exploring the lasting influence of Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, that charts how this unconventional poet came to be known as the ‘Father of English Literature’ – but has recently been reclaimed by diverse voices and creative reimaginings.

Opening at the Weston Library on 8 December 2023, the exhibition will display items illustrating Chaucer’s broad and often unexpected influence, from the earliest known manuscript of his work right up to present-day interpretations of his work by authors such as Patience Agbabi and Zadie Smith. Curated by Professor Marion Turner, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, Chaucer Here and Now looks at the ways in which different generations create Chaucer anew, according to prevailing moral attitudes and aesthetic sensibilities. Visitors can explore manuscripts, early printed books, multilingual translations, rewritings, and visual adaptations of Chaucer’s work, which will provide a complex portrait of how one man’s work has stayed relevant across six centuries. It demonstrates that, from 1400 to 2023, readers have responded creatively, irreverently, and partially to Chaucer’s work, often imagining him in their own image.

The exhibition will open with a presentation of medieval manuscripts which represent some of the earliest versions of Chaucer’s work, revealing how early scribes and editors finished off tales, added comments, and shaped the reader’s experience. The oldest existing manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, the Hengwrt Chaucer, which was written around the time of Chaucer’s death, is on loan from the National Library of Wales. Also, on display will be beautiful 15th-century illuminated manuscripts of the poet’s work: including a manuscript of Troilus and Criseyde on loan from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (featuring the famous ‘Troilus frontispiece’), and the Bodleian’s Fairfax manuscript, featuring a gorgeous illustration of Mars and Venus.

This exhibition interrogates Chaucer’s position in the literary canon, investigating how the poet achieved canonical status in English literary culture. His texts were among the earliest poems to be printed by Caxton, and the exhibition includes both Caxton’s first and second editions of the Tales. One early printed edition (1598) features an illustration entitled ‘The Progenie of Geffrey Chaucer’, which shows a central figure of Geoffrey Chaucer, flanked by his own family tree on one side and on the other that of his sister-in-law Katherine Swynford, wife of John Gaunt and ancestor of the Tudor dynasty. By this sleight of hand, the illustrator was able to connect Chaucer with the monarchy and by extension the ancestry of the nation itself. This experimental, versatile, multilingual poet had become the ‘Father of English Literature'.

In the centuries after their initial publication, The Canterbury Tales were translated and interpreted in various ways and adapted into contemporary literary styles by popular poets and writers such as John Dryden and Alexander Pope, but they were also heavily censored – eighteenth-century poets often removed the more risqué parts, finding medieval humour too rude. This exhibition will also feature multiple copies of The Wanton Wife of Bath, an anonymous 16th-century ballad based on Chaucer’s famous character, which was frequently banned for its anti-authority stance but appeared in numerous printings over the centuries. 

Moving to the Victorian era, through an array of items the exhibition will show how Chaucer’s work was adapted for a changing Britain. One of the most stunning objects is the Pre-Raphaelite Kelmscott Chaucer, by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. This part of the exhibition will highlight how Chaucer’s work was printed and disseminated across the globe in an attempt to assert British culture and values across the expanding Empire. At the same time, in Britain, Chaucer’s work was adapted for children, in dozens of new versions, many by women, which censored the more salacious lines and tales in favour of a version that focused on the aspects of his work that were seen as morally beneficial for the development of children’s characters.

Part of the exhibition focuses particularly on the engagement that women have had with Chaucer’s texts over the years. While they were always involved in reading and listening to Chaucer’s texts, in recent centuries women have had much more creative involvement in illustrating Chaucer, writing novels and poems based on his texts, and producing scholarship about Chaucer. The exhibition showcases items including contemporary Chaucerian cartoons drawn by women, Maria Edgeworth’s Chaucerian novel The Modern Griselda, the first illustration of Chaucer’s work by a woman (Lady Diana Beauclerk), and artistic lettrines by Lucia Joyce (daughter of James Joyce).

Whilst many early editions and scholarship sought to portray Chaucer as a quintessentially ‘English’ figure, his multilingual background and multicultural experience as a diplomat challenge this preconception of his work’s ‘Englishness’. Chaucer’s access to Bocaccio and Italian literature, for example, not only significantly informs his writing, but reinforces the idea that Chaucer’s work emerged from a European rather than ‘English’ heritage. This exhibition displays multilingual medieval manuscripts, and examples of Chaucer drawing on other languages and cultures – for instance a manuscript of his scientific Treatise on the Astrolabe, based on a text originally written by a Persian Jewish author. This exhibition will also contain later translations of Chaucer’s work into Latin, Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese, French, Esperanto, Korean, and other languages, which further show how the poet’s influence has transcended national boundaries as he has become a global figure.

The exhibition concludes with contemporary responses to Chaucer’s work. This case will demonstrate a wide variety of interpretations including Zadie Smith’s play The Wife of Willesden, which updates the challenging Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale to a contemporary diasporic setting; and Paul Johnson’s riotous popup book Serenade to Chaucer, which features richly detailed three-dimensional scenes of the rooms and spaces of 'The Miller’s Tale'.

Professor Marion Turner, curator of Chaucer Here and Now, said:

Chaucer’s poetry remains extraordinarily influential today, both here and around the world. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer emphasises the importance of listening to diverse voices, views, and perspectives. It seems appropriate, then, to see just how varied responses to his own work have been! This exhibition brings together a fabulous range of manuscripts, books, and other things – it is a unique celebration not only of one of the best poets ever to have written, but also of the power of readers to create new, vibrant things of wonder, inspired by the past.

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, said:

Chaucer is known as the father of the English language and one of the great English poets. As an acute observer of his time, his influence continues to extend across the contemporary arts. From modern literature to script writing, artistic social commentary of any form that looks at the real lives and experiences of people of any time or culture, are often inspired by Chaucer’s enduring presence. Through this unique exhibition we hope that visitors will come to understand that his work is just as relevant now as it was in the 14th century.

The Weston Library will also be hosting a series of events focusing on Chaucer and his legacy. As part of this programme, in February poet Patience Agbabi will give a reading of poems based on Chaucer’s work; and theatre group Creation Theatre Company, known for site-specific theatre adaptations, will be staging excerpts from Zadie Smith’s play The Wife of Willesden within the library.

To accompany the exhibition Bodleian Library Publishing will be releasing Chaucer Here and Now, edited by Marion Turner, in December 2023. Featuring beautiful illustrations of early manuscripts and rare editions, the book gives a picture of how varied adaptations of and responses to his work have been, in a fascinating and authoritative collection of essays.

For further information or to speak to Professor Marion Turner, please contact Matt Jerome via matt.jerome@flint-culture.com