This collection grows out of the Spring 1987 issue of "Studies in the Literary Imagination". Along with the original 6 essays, now revised for book publication, this volume adds 8 new examinations of the connections between the authors of medieval France and England. The volume editor is a translator of Machaut and intimately involved in scholarly investigations that provide connections between culture and texts. Framed by diverse studies that investigate the "genius of the patron" and the shaping role of the editor, those articles serve as models both of how to study particular authors or texts, and as paradigms for other researchers to follow.