Surveys the "editions and translations of Chaucer currently in print" (in 1965) and designed for college courses, commenting on their strengths and weaknesses.
Explores the characterization of the Canon in CYP and the first part of CYT, arguing that he is embarrassed at being a "simple puffer" and not an illuminati of the alchemical arts--"a pathetic if not a tragic figure, broken through following a…
Pace, George B.
Studies in Bibliography 18 (1965): 41-48.
Offers "a detailed textual analysis" of Prov, furnishing "a text based on four authorities," and, while not affirming or denying attribution to Chaucer, setting "the record straight, perhaps, on certain matters connected with authenticity."
Mogan, Joseph J., Jr.
Papers on Language and Literature 1 (1965): 72-77.
Identifies two examples of the "memento mori" motif and two of "ubi sunt" in TC, three of these added by Chaucer to his material, and all of them contributing to the poem's dominant theme of the transitory nature of human love and life.
Describes the "functional similarity" between medieval exempla of obedience and WBT and Gower's Tale of Florent, illustrating the similarity by discussing fair/foul transformation and inversion motifs in various exempla, and arguing that the…
Midonick, Henrietta O., ed.
New York: Philosophical Library, 1965.
Anthologizes 54 selections and excerpts from the history of mathematics and related sciences from around the world, ranging widely in date from classics to the nineteenth century. Includes a selection (pp. 220-42) of a modernization of Astr, from R.…
Explicates Chaucer's reference to John of Legnano ("Lynyan" at ClT 4.34), clarifying the international reputation of the canon lawyer and his role in justifying the papal schism, suggesting how Chaucer may have learned of him during his 1378 mission…
Loomis, Roger Sherman.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965.
Reproduces b&w photographs of medieval manuscript pages and details, maps, sites, and objects, using them to illustrate Chaucer's life, works, and social contexts, and intended to enable readers to imagine what Chaucer's audience "saw with the mind's…
Konagaya, Yataka.
Studies in English Literature 42 (1965): 13-18.
Distinguishes between Chaucer the poet and Chaucer the pilgrim, and considers the "singularities" of Mel as clues to the "author's intention," reading the Tale as a self-aware "travesty" of Chaucer's relation with his wife, Philippa.
Knight, Stephen.
Balcony: The Sidney Review 2.2 (1965): 37-43.
Argues that Chaucer's sensory detail in his GP descriptions "rings a bell in our mind": we recognize these descriptions as modern for their emphasis on individuation rather than typicality. Attributes this technique to the rise of late-medieval…
Klinefelter, Ralph A.
Explicator 24.1 (1965): item no. 5.
Argues that the "allegory of the Four Daughters of God" (also known as "The Reconciliation of the Heavenly Virtues" and "The Parliament of Heaven") influenced several details of ABC.
Rejects "unsupported biographical inference" about the lives and personalities of Chaucer and William Langland, arguing that it is illogical to assume that the personae they project in their poetry are autobiographical. Conflation or confusion of the…
Josipovici, G. D.
Critical Quarterly 7 (1965): 185-97.
Explores the strategies and effects of Chaucer's self-aware affirmations in CT of the work's "status as fiction," commenting on the first-person narrator's functions (in contrast with those in Dante) and tracing the ironies generated by tensions…
Hussey, Maurice, A. C. Spearing, and James Winny.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Designed as a "not too bulky" introduction to Chaucer and his life for the Cambridge University Press series "Selected Tales of Chaucer," providing fundamental information about Chaucer's life, language, social contexts, and intellectual background,…
Hussey, Maurice, ed.
Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Presents NPPT and NPE in Middle English (following Robinson's 1957 edition) with end-of-text notes and glossary. The Introduction (pp. 1-44) considers the tale-teller relations of NPPT, the "digressions" (dreams, sermons, and rhetoric) of NPT, and…
Hussey, Maurice, ed.
Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Presents CYPT in Middle English (following Robinson's 1957 edition) with end-of-text notes and glossary and a one-page appendix of the spurious link between CYT and PhyT. The Introduction (pp. 1-22) considers the "surprise" of the presence of CY…
Argues that changes Chaucer made to his source, Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," in TC 4.957-1078 "emphasize Troilus' eagerness to shun responsibility by denying the very possibility of human freedom," saving "him from the need to act."…
Traces Chaucer's attention to his own authorial fame, putting it in the context of medieval anonymity, book production, and the "idea of authorship." Compares and contrasts the narrators and attendant "fictive illusion" in his works, especially HF.…
Rylands, George, dir.
London: Argo, 1966. (RG 466)
A reading of NPT in Middle English by John Burrow, Nevill Coghill, Lena Davis, and Norman Davis, recorded in association with The British Council. The insert comprises the text, with notes and glosses.
Pratt, Robert A., ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
Edits CT (excluding Mel, MkT, SNT, CYT, and Pars), along with Ros, Form Age, Adam, Buk, Purse, and Truth, following the Robinson's edition of 1957, with modification from Manly and Rickert's collations. Marginal glosses and bottom-of-page notes…
