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STACE. Publius Paninius Statius, c. A.D. 45-96, was born in Naples and won prizes for poetry as a young man. His chief works, Thebaid and Achilleid, were much admired during the medieval period, and a romance based on his Thebaid, the Roman de Thèbes, by an anonymous writer, appeared in the twelfth century. Two Anglo-Norman romances of Hue de Rotelande owe inspiration to the Roman de Thèbes: Ipomedon (c. 1186) and its sequel, Prothesilaus (c. 1190). Lydgate follows with the Siege of Thebes (1420-1422). Dante presents Statius as a Christian, drawn to Christianity through reading Virgil's Eclogue IV.55-57, and baptized before be wrote the Thebaid, Purg XXI-XXII. Dante makes Statius a native of Toulouse, Tolosano, Purg XXI.89, a possible confusion with Lucius Statius, a rhetorician of Toulouse. Boccaccio perpetuates the error in Amorosa Visione, V.34: Stazio di Toloza.

The Knight directs his audience to Stace of Thebes for details of Emelye's ceremonies in Diane's temple, KnT 2294-2295. Skeat (V:87) contends that the passage is influenced by Tes VII.72-76, for nothing of the kind appears in Statius. Anel 22-42 is a paraphrase of Thebaid XII.519-521. "The Tholosan that highte Stace" stands on a pillar of iron painted with tigers' blood, HF III.1456-1463. In Thebaid VII.564-628 Tisiphone arouses the tigers of Bacchus, and the tigers kill three Greeks. Aconteus kills the tigers near the walls of Thebes, and the infuriated Thebans renew the war with greater force. Iron is Mars's metal, and Mars has an iron temple, Thebaid XII.519-521. Paul Clogan suggests that Chaucer may have known the glosses of Lactantius Placidus on the lines about iron in the Thebaid. Chaucer directs his little book to kiss the steps of the great epic poets, including Stace, Tr V.1791-1792.

Stace, the French variant, occurs twice in medial positions, KnT 2294, Anel 21; twice in final rhyming position, HF III.1460; Tr V.1792.


P.M. Clogan, "Chaucer and the Thebaid Scholia." SP 61 (1964): 599-615; ibid., "Chaucer's Use of the Thebaid." EM 18 (1967): 9-31; S. Haller, "The Knight's Tale and the Epic Tradition." ChauR 1 (1966): 67-84; Statius, Thebaid and Achilleid, ed. and trans. J.H. Mozley; ibid., The Medieval Achilleid of Statius, ed. P. Clogan; B.A. Wise, The Influence of Statius upon Chaucer.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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