Browse Items (16376 total)

Discredits the idea that the Eagle's disquisition on sound in HF is conventional Aristotelianism, mediated by Robert Grosseteste or Walter Burley, arguing that the details of the multiplying ripples and the combination of science and myth were…

Describes and illustrates the "visual arts as a whole" in late medieval England. The index records some twenty references to Chaucer, including a section on HF (pp. 345–48) that shows that "the two largest passages of writing about architecture at…

Presents new evidence that "shows that the author [of Equat] was not Chaucer," connecting the unique manuscript of the treatise (Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 75.I) with the work and life of John Westwyk, a monk of Tynemouth. Includes paleographical…

Considers "the trope of the female body entowered" in selected romances and lyrics, BD, and the Paston letters.

Seeks to understand BD as an exploration of (male) grief beyond its presumed historical occasion and to relate the subject and structure of the poem by explicating the recurring references to literal and metaphorical nakedness--especially that of…

Adapts the "gift theory" of Jacques Derrida; considers the historical context of the marriage of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster; and focuses on the scene of White's ring-giving (as reported by the Black Knight), considering the poem itself as…

Considers names in BD as part of a larger examination of nomenclature's role in defining Englishness within the context of other linguistic traditions.

Explores the "ideological work" of children in Chaucer's literature, commenting on Sophie in Mel, Virginia in PhyT, Maurice in MLT, and Lewis in Astr. Treats the latter as a metonym for vernacular readers and for the potential of technological…

Describes the variety of cultural uses to which the astrolabe was put historically, and argues that the "complex back-histories of multicultural compilation," the "multifocal transmission," and the "imaginative pedagogy" of Astr assert a "reluctance…

Considers Ret in the context of texts rendered physically inscrutable, forbidden, or recanted as literary/rhetorical strategies.

Analyzes the absence of Ret from editions of CT published between 1532 and 1721, along with the publication of Adam in 1561, arguing that the combination affected views on textual accuracy and authorial control in Chaucer reception.

Argues that both the structure and the content of ManT explore the relativity of truth and lie. Regarding the structure, the dependence on literature of practical wisdom raises a doubt as to the tale's authority as an exemplum. As for the content,…

Shows that the "blered" eye image in CYT (7.730) and "Piers Plowman" indicates covetousness, associated with "unkynde" or unnatural separation from community and knowledge.

Considers the shift in "social and rhetorical roles" of Cecilia in SNT--from sweet wife to ardent polemical martyr--and argues that both are consistent with views of female speech in pastoral literature, particularly confessional manuals and…

Explores the contrast between the Marian womb imagery of SNP (7.43-49) and the deflated bladder of Almachius's power in SNT (7.437-41), finding in the contrast "a vision of the Church that attests freedom and obedience, as well as Chaucer's embracing…

Considers the historicity of St. Cecilia, her association with music, and various accounts of her life and legend, including the "Passio Caeciliae," SNT, an opera by Licinio Refice and Emidio Mucci, John Dryden's "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day,"…

Examines "how the non-human (the natural, not the other-worldly) world and its creatures were voiced in several late medieval English texts," including NPT and ManT.

Urges clarification and deployment of queer pedagogy in teaching medieval literature, citing examples of its usefulness in a classroom discussion of production and reproduction in NPT, nuances of "deviance" in Middle English, and the tangibility of…

Argues that when Chauntecleer "purposely mistranslates" the proverb about women being man's "confusio" (NPT, 7.3163-65), he puns on "the two possible connotations of the word . . . and mischievously discard[s] the negative one."

Maintains that the referent for "my lord" at the end of NPT (7.3445) is Thomas Bradwardine, and identifies parallels between the ending and Bradwardine's "De causa Dei."

Observes that Chaucer's treatment of Alexander in MkT is largely consistent with how Alexander is depicted in fourteenth-century romances and monastic allusions. Suggests that Chaucer declines to condemn Alexander as an unworthy pagan, despite being…

Reprints Nevill Coghill's modern translation of Mk 7.2727-66 (Croesus), included here among a variety of literary samples and commentaries on the theme of luck.

Treats as "neighboring texts" Chaucer's account of Pedro I of Castile and Leon (MkT 7..2375-90) and that of Pere Lopez de Ayala in "Cronica del rey don Pedro," theorizing the notion of "neighbor"; exploring the inclusions, omissions, and enigmas of…

Argues that as a mirror for princes Mel offers an "implicit critical view of Richard II," especially when read in the context of CT, which elsewhere provides a "complex analysis of advisers, advice, and the handling of counsel." Comments on the…

Contends that Th is an entertaining, nonpedagogical story written for children, the earliest example in English literature. Explores how details of the tale might appeal to a young audience and posits that its manuscript layout was "calculated to…