Chaucer was perceived as the father of English poetry, and his works gave rise to a diversity of traditions of both creative response and critical commentary, to subsequent 'Chaucerian' authors and to a body of comment about his writings. This book is the first to describe Chaucer's literary influence across a wide range of writers and periods. It takes as its theme the variety of responses to Chaucer or 'Chaucer Traditions', and addresses topics of special interest arising from the effects Chaucer's work had on subsequent writers in the three centuries leading up to Dryden. Each essay focuses on a certain writer or literary tradition discussing these in the context of Chaucer's work and its influence. The result is an important collection of essays which will be of interest to all teachers and students of Chaucer, as well as to scholars of poetry in later periods.