Acknowledgments

As an undergraduate many years ago, I was inspired by Charles T. Wood, Daniel Webster Professor of History Emeritus at Dartmouth College, to study the history and literature of the late Middle Ages. Professor Wood also furthered this present project through careful and judicious readings of my initial attempts at translating a different kind of French from that with which my previous work on Machaut and Froissart had given me some familiarity. A huge debt is also owed to the interlibrary loan departments at both Georgia State University and Clemson University, who struggled valiantly to provide the rare and often arcane materials needed to elucidate the historical context of Machaut's poem. The Calhoun Lemon endowment contributed substantially to research costs and supported the released time necessary to complete the writing of the book. Barbara Ramirez contributed many hours of data entry. William Calin supplied invaluable assistance with difficult passages, and I have profited during the last decade from my close association with Machaut scholars too numerous to name here. If this work has merit, it is in no small measure because of the enthusiasm I share with them for an author whose genius and many accomplishments, both musical and literary, are just beginning to be properly appreciated. Camden and Carla Palmer patiently tolerated my preoccupation with a project that took more than five years to complete.