Obsession rising

I was downtrailed. Not a single answer solved. The grid immaculate apart from a few feeble, misguided scribbles in miniscule letters. The Mephisto crossword humbled me three weeks ago, restricting me to three answers, but had given me an ounce of hope yielding 19 (of the 32) answers the following week. But this past week's left me confounded and grasping.

Studying the clues I didn't get revealed a glaring problem. The clues were designed for an educated, older British solver. A decent knowledge of Middle English (as you'd expect in Chaucer), Scottish vernacular and the history and people of note for Greater Britain are all required.

So guess who's reading Chaucer now...