External links
- Traugott Lawler Papers (MS 2023). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
- Page at Yale
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Traugott Lawler | |
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| Born | March 8, 1937 Nyack, New York, U.S. |
| Education | College of the Holy Cross (BA) University of Wisconsin (MA) Harvard University (PhD) |
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| Spouse | Margaret Lawler (m. 1958) |
| Relatives | Mike Lawler (great nephew) |
Traugott Francis Lawler (born March 8, 1937) [1] is an American medievalist. [2] He is an authority on English poet William Langland and Medieval English. Lawler is a professor emeritus of English at Yale University, where he served as the master of Ezra Stiles College and also as a lecturer in religion and literature. [3] [4]
Lawler was born and raised in Nyack, New York. He was descended from an Irish family, and his parents were Irish New Yorkers. He attended the Jesuit Regis High School, where his father and some of his brothers also attended, graduating in 1954 as the vice president of his senior class. [5] During high school, Lawler discovered an affinity with English literature due to two teachers. [6] He later recalled that at age 16 he read Pride and Prejudice , which inspired him to read nineteenth-century English fiction. [7]
After high school, Lawler matriculated at the College of the Holy Cross on a Naval ROTC scholarship. [8] He entered college as a basketball student athlete but decided to quit the team in freshman year. His first two years in college were spent receiving a classical education of Greek, Latin, English, French, and history. In his sophomore year, Lawler sought to major in English to prepare for law school and was elected as the president of his class. [9] He later resolved to be a "college English teacher" with a specialty in Middle English and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in 1958. [8] [10]
After three years as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, Lawler spent a year studying at the University of Wisconsin on a Danforth Fellowship, obtaining a Master of Arts (M.A.) in 1962. At the recommendation of a professor, he transferred to Harvard University that same year for further graduate study. There, Lawler came under the influence of medievalist Morton W. Bloomfield, who would also supervise his dissertation on John of Garland. [11] [12] He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in 1966. [10]
After obtaining his doctorate, Lawler became an instructor at Yale University and was made a fellow of Davenport College. [13] He taught from 1966 to 1972, during which period he taught Old English and served as the assistant director of graduate studies in English. He left untenured to become a professor at Northwestern University, where he would teach until 1981. At Northwestern, Lawler taught topics including Geoffrey Chaucer and English literature. [14] In 1977, Lawler was named a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, and worked on a project titled "The one and the many in the Canterbury Tales." [15]
Lawler returned to Yale in 1981 as a professor of English. [12] In 1983, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow. [16] [17] From 1986 to 1995, he served as the master of Ezra Stiles College and was its acting master from 2002 to 2003 before Stuart B. Schwartz assumed the role. [18] [19] [12] Under Lawler's leadership, Ezra Stiles College at Yale University experienced intramural success. During his first tenure as Master, Stiles won the Tyng Cup [20] in six out of eight years. During his second term of service as Master, Ezra Stiles again won the Tyng Cup and continued to win in two subsequent years under the guidance of Schwartz. [21] In addition to his role as master, Lawler also served as the college's librarian. [22]
Lawler retired from teaching in June 2005 to prepare a commentary on the known versions of Piers Plowman with other scholars. [16] The book was released by the University of Pennsylvania Press. [23] He continued to teach Yale alumni in weekly sessions, including those on The Canterbury Tales . [24]
Traugott is the younger brother of environmental engineer John P. Lawler, founder of Lawler, Matusky, & Skelly Engineers, which was later acquired by HDR, Inc. [25] Traugott is the great-uncle of Mike Lawler, a Republican Member of Congress.
Lawler married his wife, Margaret (Peggy) Lawler, shortly after graduating from Holy Cross. [8] He has four children—Peter, Dan, Kate, and Greg—and eight grandchildren. [26] He and his wife live in Hamden, Connecticut. [6] Lawler is Catholic. [1]
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Angelo Bartlett “Bart” Giamatti was an American professor of English Renaissance literature, the president of Yale University, and the seventh Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Ezra Stiles was an American educator, academic, Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He is noted as the seventh president of Yale College (1778–1795) and one of the founders of Brown University. According to religious historian Timothy L. Hall, Stiles' tenure at Yale distinguishes him as "one of the first great American college presidents."
Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative verse divided into sections called passus.
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, when its schools were confederated and the institution was renamed Yale University.
Ezra Stiles College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. The college is named after Ezra Stiles, the seventh President of Yale. Architecturally, it is known for its lack of right angles between walls in the living areas. It sits next to Morse College.
Morse College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is adjacent to Ezra Stiles College and the two colleges share many facilities. The current Head of College is Catherine Panter-Brick. The Associate Head of College is Mark Eggerman. Blake Trimble is the Dean of Morse College.
Akhil Reed Amar is an American legal scholar known for his expertise in constitutional law. He holds the position of Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he is a leading scholar of originalism, the U.S. Bill of Rights, and criminal procedure.
Pierce the Ploughman's Crede is a medieval alliterative poem of 855 lines, lampooning the four orders of friars.
Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer Coghill was an Anglo-Irish literary scholar, known especially for his modern-English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
The Piers Plowman tradition is made up of about 14 different poetic and prose works from about the time of John Ball and the Peasants Revolt of 1381 through the reign of Elizabeth I and beyond. All the works feature one or more characters, typically Piers, from William Langland's poem Piers Plowman. Because the Plowman appears in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer but does not have his own tale, plowman tales are sometimes used as additions to The Canterbury Tales, or otherwise conflated or associated with Chaucer.
Johannes de Garlandia or John of Garland was a medieval grammarian and university teacher. His dates of birth and death are unknown, but he probably lived from about 1190 to about 1270.
A chop-church, or church-chopper, was a parson who made a practice of exchanging ecclesiastical benefices. The term is used in an ancient statute as a lawful trade, or occupation.
Parisiana poetria is a work by the medieval English grammarian Johannes de Garlandia or John of Garland. Written about 1240, it is a textbook of the writing of Latin prose, classical verse and medieval (rhythmical) verse, aimed at his students at the University of Paris.
Stephen H. A. Shepherd is a Canadian professor of English literature in Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. The primary focus of Shepherd's research is on the critical, codicological, and historical contexts of medieval English literature, especially romance and the work of William Langland. He has published essays on these topics in collections and in Archive and Medium Ævum. To support himself during his early college years, Shepherd worked as a zoo keeper in Canada. After completing his PhD, Shepherd began a teaching career while furthering his research on Middle English texts and Arthurian works.
Yale University has a system of fourteen residential colleges with which all Yale undergraduate students and many faculty are affiliated. Inaugurated in 1933, the college system is considered the defining feature of undergraduate life at Yale College, and the residential colleges serve as the residence halls and social hubs for most undergraduates. Construction and programming for eight of the original ten colleges were funded by educational philanthropist Edward S. Harkness. Yale was, along with Harvard, one of the first universities in the United States to establish a residential college system.
Traugott is both a surname and a male given name of German origin. The name first appeared in the 17th century and is hardly used today. Its meaning is 'trust in god'. Notable people with the name include:
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton is a Canadian historian and Professor Emerita of English at the University of Notre Dame.
Thorlac Francis Samuel Turville-Petre is an English philologist who is Professor Emeritus and former head of the School of English at the University of Nottingham. He specializes in the study of Middle English literature.
George Joseph Kane, FBA, FKC was a Canadian literary scholar whose career was spent in England and the United States. A co-editor of the three-volume critical edition of William Langland's 14th-century poem Piers Plowman, he held professorships at Royal Holloway College, King's College London and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mary Clemente Davlin was a Sinsinawa Dominican Sister, an advocate for diversity in higher education, and a noted scholar of medieval studies, particularly the allegorical poem Piers Plowman. The Sister Mary Clemente Davlin Diversity Leadership Award at Dominican University is given annually in her honor, as is a Waters, Davlin, Crapo “sisters” scholarship specifically for African American students.
