Anonymous, The Assembly of Ladies

Simone Celine Marshall (University of Otago)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1475

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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The Assembly of Ladies

is an anonymous Middle English poem that is largely derivative in content and form, combining courtly love themes and the debate genre popular in English secular poetry of the late medieval period. The poem is likely to have been composed in the early part of the fifteenth century, judging by the influence on its author of the works of Chaucer, Lydgate, and the English poems of Charles d’Orleans (Boffey, 2003, 158-94). The earliest surviving witnesses of the poem are three manuscripts, London, British Library, Additional MS 34360, Warminster, Longleat House, MS 258, and Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.19, dating from around the third quarter of the fifteenth century, but none of these appear to be in the author’s hand.

The poem was first printed in William

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2692 words

Citation: Marshall, Simone Celine. "The Assembly of Ladies". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 December 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=29775, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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