Poems of Cupid, god of love : Christine de Pizan's "Epistre au dieu d'amours" and "Dit de la rose", Thomas Hoccleve's "The letter of Cupid", editions and translations, with George Sewell's "The proclamation of Cupid

The lightheartedness of these works both masks and enhances their engagement with provocative issues of continuing interest today: conduct in society, literary practice and moral praxis, relations between men and women, the value of received wisdom. This volume offers texts of two medieval French poems by Christine de Pizan: the "Epistre au dieu d'amours" and "Dit de la Rose," together with the first translation of these poems into modern English. The medieval English adaptation of Christine's "Epistre," Thomas Hoccleve's "The Letter of Cupid," is likewise presented here, and provided with a modern English translation. Finally, an eighteenth-century version of Hoccleve's poem, George Sewell's "The Proclamation of Cupid," is edited here for the first time. The editions of these poems by Christine, last edited a century ago, are based on the most recent scholarly findings. The edition of Hoccleve's poem reproduces its authorial punctuation from manuscript for the first time, and thus sheds light on the vexed question of fifteenth- century English metrics. The lively modern English translations of both can be used by students, scholars, and the general reader. Epistre Au Dieu D'amours / Christine De Pizan -- Letter Of The God Of Love / Christine De Pizan -- Dit De La Rose / Christine De Pizan -- Tale Of The Rose / Christine De Pizan -- Lepistre De Cupide / Thomas Hoccleve -- The Letter Of Cupid / Thomas Hoccleve -- The Proclamation Of Cupid / George Sewell. Edited By Thelma S. Fenster And Mary Carpenter Erler. Includes Bibliography And Glossaries. Poems In Old French And Middle English With English Translation On Opposite Pages.