Acknowledgements
My first debts of gratitude are to my mother and my stepfather, my earliest intellectual inspirations. Both sacrificed much for my education and instilled in me through their own examples a love of language, literature, and life-long learning.
I also owe a great debt to The Hudson School, where I was first introduced to French and Latin.
For my love of Boethius, I am indebted to Ignatius J. Reilly, the protagonist of John Kennedy Tooleâs A Confederacy of Dunces. For my love of Chaucer, many thanks go to my dear friend and one-time mentor, Brad Busbee, who guided my initial explorations into Chaucerâs works; and to John Fyler for deepening my understanding of them.
This translation takes as its principle Middle English source Bensonâs The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edition, so my greatest debt is to that text and the editors of Boece, Ralph Hannah III and Traugott Lawler. Invaluable translations from the Latin were Stewart, Rand, and Testerâs 1918 edition for the Loeb Classical Library as well as Georgetown Universityâs online edition of W.V. Cooperâs 1902 translation. OâDonnellâs insights in the 1984 Bryn Mawr Latin Commentaries series helped contextualize references and sources. As for Modern English translations, Greenâs 1963 edition provided a model for readability. Additionally, the University of Michiganâs Middle English Dictionary as well as Davis, Gray, Ingham, and Wallace-Hadrillâs 1979 A Chaucer Glossary were invaluable for understanding the myriad possible translations of specific words.
For feedback on my rendering of Boece, I owe much again to Traugott Lawler for looking at a very early draft of Book I, Meter 1; John Fyler again and David Crystal for looking over some early sections; the late Fiona Tolhurst for helping me navigate some of the many textual cruxes; and to my wife, Julianna Griffin, for helping me make the final version less stilted and more readable than it would have otherwise been.
I am also indebted to Florida Gulf Coast University for awarding me a professional development leave, without which this present volume would still be many more years in the making.