Arthur Hugh Clough, Francis James Child, and Mid-Victorian Chaucer

Abstract:Taking as its starting point the correspondence between Arthur Hugh Clough and his American friend Francis James Child, this article examines the significance of Chaucer’s work for Anglo-American literary culture during the period. Child’s scholarship contributes to the reconstruction of a shared Anglo-American cultural identity in the years around the Civil War, while Clough’s Mari Magno uses Chaucerian motifs and techniques to examine the continuities and tensions between old and New England. Both writers emphasize Chaucer’s ability to absorb and transmute foreign influences, and thereby serve as a template for an emerging supranational English literature.