Collects examples of criticism of CT in two sections: 1) five "Early Appreciations" (Caxton, Dryden, Blake, Hazlitt, and Arnold), and 2) eleven selections from twentieth-century criticism (1912 to 1957), the latter focusing on the themes and…
Diekstra, F. N. M.
Nijmegen: Dekker & Van de Vegt, 1974.
Comments on disparities between the narratives and the morals applied to them in SumT, ManT, FranT, ClT, and MLT, exploring the Chaucer's incongruities and indirections. There are no "monolithic" morals to be found in BD, HF, or PF, which tend toward…
Brockman, Bennett A.
Children's Literature 2 (1973): 40-49.
Discusses the "sentimental reverence for the child's innocence" in a variety of medieval texts, including the account of Hugolino in MkT, compared with the version in Dante's "Inferno" 33, In both versions, the children have "precocious knowledge"…
Defines "exemplum" and describes the history of the genre before Chaucer; then focuses on Chaucer's innovative uses of the device to produce comedy in MilT, SqT, and SumT, also commenting at length on exempla clusters in HF and FranT.
Compares several of Chaucer's works (ABC, Bukton, and sections from LGW, TC, and CT) with their sources and analogues to clarify Chaucer's dependence upon the English literary tradition.
Suggests that Chaucer "creates a literary imitation of a real pilgrimage" in CT, exploring the extent to which this enables him to accommodate the sacred and social, a version of the medieval "earnest and game" topos. Focuses on WBPT and PardPT.
Considers Chaucer's dream poems in the context of "epithalamic conventions" found in medieval French dream poems and their sources, exploring similarities of "structure, imagery, and theme."
Nicholson, Peter Charles.
DAI 34.08 (1974): 3114A.
Argues that the source of ShT is Boccaccio's "Decameron," and that their several differences were "made necessary by Chaucer's alteration of the ending." Chaucer gave his tale the "superficial appearance of a French fabliau" in order to critique the…
Studies how the movement from divine to mundane love is bridged by figural allegory in CT (especially PardPT) and in the Arcipreste's "Libro de Buen Amor."
Explores the skeptical uncertainly about dreams that is expressed in the opening of HF as it relates to classical and medieval notions of "mythopoesis" and the validity and interpretation of poetry. Reads HF as a parody of mythopoesis.
Summarizes John Dryden's theory of translation in his "Fables Ancient and Modern," and explores the discrepancy between this theory and his practice in his translations of KnT, NPT, and WBT, all of which "violate the spirit of their originals."
Leana, Joyce Fitzpatrick.
DAI 35.02 (1974): 1049-50A.
Argues that HF is unified and that in its concern with the power of language it anticipates the theme of language as magic or illusion in CT. Also explores the sources of HF.
Tallies Chaucer's varieties of word-play and explores their thematic value in relation to his concern with the interconnectedness of pilgrimage and play. Focuses on rhetorical tradition, play on "child" in PrT, the unity of SqT and FranT, and the…
Holloway, Julia Bolton.
DAI 35.04 (1974): 2225-26A.
Compares and contrasts CT, Dante's "Divine Comedy," and Langland's "Piers Plowman" as pilgrimage narratives, particularly their emphasis on the poet as pilgrim and movement toward salvation as structure.
Discusses Chaucer's accomplishments in the development of lyric poetry, with commentary on Machaut, Deschamps, Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Villon. Chaucer is the "high point" of the English tradition inspired by the French.
Describes how Arabic writing "bridged" Hellenic tradition and medieval philosophy, how Arabic science influenced Western civilization, how Arabic literature influenced portion of CT, and how courtly love in TC may reflect the influence of Ibn Hazan's…
Argues that the use of similar techniques by Chaucer, Spenser, and Dryden constitutes a "distinctive English fabular tradition," discussing ManT, PF, and NPT, as well as Spenser's "Shepheardes Calendar," "Mother Hubberds Tale," and "Muipotmos," and…
De Nerville, Catherine Jenelle Maness.
DAI 35.03 (1974): 1619A.
Discusses critical approaches to Chaucer's poetry using M. H. Abrams' categories of literary theory (mimetic, objective, pragmatic, and expressive) and commenting on the criticism of D. W. Robertson Jr., Robert M. Jordan, Robert O. Payne, and Charles…
Cannon, Thomas F., Jr.
DAI 34.07 (1974): 4190-91A.
Gauges the performances of the Canterbury pilgrims by their relative balance between self-will and common will, basing the distinction on patristic notions of pilgrimage and successful progress toward God, as well as Horace's aesthetic criteria of…
