Marriage Contracts from Chaucer to the Renaissance Stage

''A fine historic exploration of why marriage treatments in literary texts are transformed between the 14th and 16th centuries. . . . This volume has the power and evidence--both historic and textual--to revamp our understanding of crucial texts. . . . I will never read Chaucerian texts of wives and widows the same again!''--Jean E. Jost, Bradley University ''An extremely readable study of literary responses to changing marriage law, including an in-depth study of Chaucer and a wide-ranging exam