The word ‘fame’ appears in English as early as the thirteenth century. Derived from Latin (fama), its etymological roots are closely tied to the act of speech, but fame encompasses a range of concepts. In Middle English, as today, the word could carry a positive connotation (the good report of one's character), but it was also used to denote reputation in general, as well as evil repute or infamy. At the same time, the significations of fame extend beyond different kinds of circulating speech to the body of knowledge produced and shaped by that speech; thus from about 1300, the Middle English word ‘fame’ might also refer more broadly to tidings or common knowledge.

The range of concepts related to fame accounts in part for its near-omnipresence in medieval English life, law, and literature – it determined legal disputes, social and political standing, and reputation. This was particularly the case in the first half of the fifteenth century, when religious and political upheavals made rumour and reputation matters of great urgency. Despite the key roles that fame played in late-medieval English politics and culture, however, literary treatments of the concept define and approach it in widely differing ways. Denoting both ‘rumour’ and ‘reputation’, fame seems to hold in tension two opposing ideas. Rumour is by nature unreliable, constantly in motion, and frequently false (or at least inaccurate and prone to exaggeration).