ABSTRACT
Chaucer’s An ABC, a short lyric entreating the Virgin Mary’s intercession, is shrouded in legend. The scholarly and critical tradition that Chaucer wrote this plea to the Virgin for Duchess Blanche of Lancaster’s personal devotions still survives,1 although little evidence exists for this contention and some danger lies in sequestering any of Chaucer’s compositions at one reader’s private altar. Chiefly, the belief that An ABC was intended for a single audience limits our inquiry into the possibility of the poem’s public uses and various interpretations during Chaucer’s own time.2 Although overlooked, one significant use of An ABC, as its title suggests, is as a language-teaching tool. The poem’s alphabetical structure provides a mnemonic for Marian words and phrases, rendering An ABC both a prayer to the Virgin Mary and a tutorial in basic English. This essay demonstrates how Chaucer compares alphabetical letters to rosary beads and thereby prompts his readers-probably adult foreigners at court-to remember their ABCs.
