The present work is addressed both to students--who may turn to it to find out where and in what context a given name occurs and to find out, at a glance, Chaucer's use of a given author, e.g., Lucan--and to those readers who are interested in etymological sources, e.g., the origin, formation, and development of Chaucer's names. The Name Dictionary thus supplements the notes of modern editions and goes beyond older indices, such as Corson's Index of Proper Names and Subjects to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (London: 1911) and, more recently, Dillon's Dictionary of Proper Names in the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Scott's Who's Who in Chaucer, both published in 1974.

The listings are in Chaucerian spellings, e.g., Ladomya instead of Laodomia, the classical spelling, to make it easier for the reader to find. In addition to using French, Italian, and modified Latin spellings, Chaucer modified names, without radically changing them, to suit the needs of rhyme and meter and to fit stress patterns.¹ Thus May occurs in medial and final rhyming positions, but Mayus occurs four times in various positions with initial syllabic stress in The Merchant's Tale²; Griselde becomes Grisildis as stress and rhyme demand in The Clerk's Tale. Latin Colatinus is contracted to Middle English Colatyn for the same reasons. Sometimes Chaucer uses several variants of the same name, e.g., Eneas or Enee. Eneas is Middle English, French, and Italian; Enee appears for the sake of the rhyme. Position in the line, determined by the necessities of meter, in turn determines the form of the name; syllabic stress is shifted to meet the needs of metrical stress, and the shifted emphases are noted where they occur. Since i/y, ch/th, c/k are generally interchangeable in medieval manuscripts, no explanations are given for such variation.

Each entry has four sections. Biographical, historical, or mythological information is presented in the first paragraph, and names are given in classical spelling, e.g., Laodomia. Chaucer's use of the name appears in the second paragraph. Any particular connection, implication, or meaning of the name in the context in which it appears is discussed, with allegorical interpretation where appropriate, and names are given in Chaucerian spelling, e.g., Ladomya, Laodomya, and Laudomia. The third paragraph considers the etymology of the name, gives concordance occurrences for each form of the name, lists variant spellings, and takes note of the final -e where it occurs. Some names, like Criseyde, have final syllabic -e at the end of the line but elided final -e in the middle of a line before a word beginning with a vowel or unaspirated -h.³ Since the form of the name generally bears some relation to its place in the line, these are discussed where appropriate. The fourth paragraph is a bibliography of all sources used in the entry as well as important articles on the person or the Tale. The exception is Migne's Patrologia Latina, whose designation, e.g., PL 23: 175, appears immediately next to the work identified in the text. Sources are listed in alphabetical order. Those most frequently used are listed by their abbreviated titles, e.g., The Riverside Chaucer, ed. L. Benson; RR, ed. E. Langlois. Articles are given full bibliographical treatment, e.g., G. Dempster, "Chaucer at Work on the Complaint in The Franklin's Tale." MLN 52 (1937): 6-16. Periods after Roman numerals in the entry indicate books within a book, or parts, followed by line numbers, e.g., Iliad II.695-699. In the sources that follow the entry, Roman numerals indicate volume numbers, followed by a colon and page numbers, e.g., Homer, Iliad, ed. and trans. A.T. Murray, I: 102-103.

Cross-references appear in bold face and square brackets, e.g., [Dorigen]. Index numbers distinguish several persons with the same name, e.g., Robin¹, Robin², Robin³, each a different person. The following is a sample entry:

The Man of Law lists a story of Ladomya among Chaucer's works, MLI 71, but no story exists. Dorigen thinks Laodomya is exemplary of wifely virtue, FranklT 1445; Laudomia appears in the catalogue of love's martyrs, LGW F 263, LGW G 217. [Dorigen: Protheselaus]

A key to abbreviations precedes the dictionary itself. It is divided as follows:

I. Chaucer's Works

II. Editions of Chaucer

III. Journals, Periodicals, and Reference Books

IV. Books and Other Abbreviations

An appendix at the end contains a short glossary of medieval astronomical and astrological terms, a Ptolemaic map of the universe, and diagrams of the zodiacal signs. There is a full bibliography, divided into primary and secondary sources.

I have used the Loeb editions of Greek and Latin authors wherever possible and medieval commentaries on mythological works for interpretation of figures and etymologies of names. The most important of these are Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiarum sive Originum Libri XX (ed. W.M. Lindsay, Oxford: 1911, 1972); Fulgentius, Mitologiarum libri tres in Mythographi Latini (ed. T. Munckerus, Amsterdam: 1681); Petrus Berchorius, Reductorium morale, Liber XV: Ovidius moralizatus, Cap.i, De formis figurisque deorum, Brux. Bibl. Reg. 863-869 (Utrecht: 1966); Ovide Moralisé (ed. C. de Boer, Amsterdam: 1915-1938), and John Gower, Confessio Amantis (ed. G.C. Macaulay, Oxford: 1911). For astronomical and astrological names I have used Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos. J.D. North has shown that this work was Chaucer's principal source for knowledge about the heavens and that the work was very well known during the period.⁴ For Chaucerian variants of Biblical names, the Latin Vulgate is the source.

The modern texts used for this work are The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. W.W. Skeat (Oxford: 1894-1897); The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry Benson (Boston: 1987); The Text of the Canterbury Tales, ed. J.M. Manly and E. Rickert (Chicago: 1940); The Tales of Canterbury, ed. Robert A. Pratt (Boston: 1974); A Parallel Text Print of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, put forth by F.J. Furnivall (Chaucer Society Publications, nos. 63, 64, 87, 88, London: 1881-1882), and The Book of Troilus and Criseyde, ed. R.K. Root (Princeton: 1926). I use mainly those spellings found in The Riverside Chaucer, but compare them with Manly-Rickert. Chaucer refers to the diversity of English dialects in the fourteenth century in Troilus V.1793-1798, and the variations found in the eighty-four manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales underscore his warning. In his discussion of the spelling of those manuscripts, J.M. Manly points out that there is no means of reconstructing the spelling systems of the ancestral scribe. Yet "conspicuous words, such as dialect forms, unusual words, proper names, and rhyme spellings are likely to be retained, and these only irregularly."⁵ He cautions, therefore: "It is not wise, then, to conclude, as has sometimes been assumed or suggested,...that because the spellings of the MSS having the best texts agree in general, these MSS reproduce the spelling of the original." The term "Chaucerian spelling" used throughout this Name Dictionary refers to the forms as scribes have rendered them. The line numbers follow the fragment divisions of The Riverside Chaucer.