Considers Chaucer's (and others') treatment of envy as a Deadly Sin as background to the Renaissance understanding of the vice, which was influenced by classical tradition as well.
Studies the narrators of BD, HF, PF, and LGW for the ways that Chaucer uses them to examine "the task of revivifying the past" and explore the truth value of poetry and poetic traditions.
Describes the models of verbal portraiture in the "Rhetorica ad Herennium" and works by Geoffrey of Vinsauf and Matthew of Vendôme and their impact on Chaucer, arguing that the portraits of Fortune and Blanche in BD reflect the Black Knight's state…
Considers the uses of gestures in Chaucer's poetry: "simplistic" uses in HF and PF, broad variety in CT, and the complex characterization of Pandarus in TC. Focuses on expressive movements and postures of body and face, along with laughing, moaning,…
Surveys the importance of classical and medieval rhetorical theories that underlie late medieval poetry, and discusses the "flowering of rhetorico-poetic technique in Chaucer's verse," analyzing samples of his poetry in light of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's…
Utley, Francis Lee.
North Carolina Folklore Journal 21 (1973): 98-104.
Connects the lament in WBP 3.614 with the more familiar proverb "Lechery is no sin," recurrently used by traditional "demonic" figures in early literature. The Wife's use is richer with "complex ironies."
Wright, Constance S.
Philological Quarterly 52 (1973): 739-46.
Treats Chaucer's use of the humility topos in FranP as an example of "mannerist style," focusing on his uses of the terms "crude" and "excused" and his reference to Mount Parnassus. Exemplifies the rich classical background of these features, and…
Considers Troilus' allusion to Oedipus at 4.300, and rejects the suggestion that it reflects psychological understanding; Troilus refers to Oedipus as an exemplar of someone victimized by Fortune.
Frost, William
Western Humanities Review 27 (1973): 39-59.
Seeks to define the phrase "Canterbury tale," by exploring the relative usefulness of various critical approaches to Chaucer's tales. Comments on how the tales engage their respective genres in "unpredictable" ways, how they characterize their…
Donner, Morton.
Western Humanities Review 27 (1973): 189-95.
Argues that Chaucer adapts his first-person narrators throughout his career in order to explore aspects of the relationship between objectivity and subjectivity. Chaucer achieves a greatest sense of objectivity when his subjective narrator is most…
Brennan, John P.
Studies in Philology 70 (1973): 243-51.
Surveys critical discussions of Chaucer's authorship of the "substantive" glosses that appear in his manuscripts, shows that the glosses to PrT 7.579-85 derive from Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum" rather than from the liturgy of the Holy Innocents,…
Critiques Morton W. Bloomfield's "The Man of Law's Tale: A Tragedy of Victimization and a Christian Comedy," commenting on the artistic quality of MLT and the Man of Law as narrator.
Singh, Catherine.
Leeds Studies in English 7 (1973): 22-54.
Claims that William Dunbar's debt to Chaucer (WBPT) in his "Tua Meriit Wemen and the Wedo, "although "important and considerable, is often exaggerated beyond helpfulness." The poem owes a great deal to earlier alliterative poetry, in particular…
Rowland, Beryl.
English: The Journal of the English Association 22 (1973): 3-10.
Surveys major works of Chaucer criticism, focusing on works published between ca.1960-1970 and identifying trends. The bibliography lists some 40 works.
Rothman, Irving N.
Papers on Language and Literature 9 (1973): 115-27.
Observes structural and thematic parallels between ClT and its Envoy, arguing that both refute the Wife of Bath's attitudes, one through alternative perspective and the other through mockery.
Fry, Donald K.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 71 (1972): 355-68.
Considers manuscript variants of MkT and NPP, historical contexts of various details, and the dramatic effectiveness of the interruption that bridges the two. Argues that the so-called "Modern Instances" should conclude the Monk's sequence of…
DeNeef, A. Leigh.
Journal of Narrative Technique 3 (1973): 85-96.
Shows that confusion of literal and metaphoric understanding characterizes the Pardoner, the rioters of PardT, and the pilgrim audience (including the Host), who fail to "separate the immorality" of the Pardoner from the morality of his exemplum. The…
Brewer, D[erek]. S.
Essays and Studies 26 (1973): 1-19.
Defines the private and social aspects of "honor" in Chaucer's works, exploring its relations with related concepts such as "worth," "worship," shame, gentility, heritability, and, for women, chastity. Focuses on TC and FranT, but comments on these…
Blake, Kathleen A.
Modern Language Quarterly 34 (1973): 3-19.
Examines in KnT the rhetorical and thematic concerns with order, choice, and the difficulties of achieving resolution. Reads Palamon and Arcite as a balanced pair, and Theseus as a figure of the limited human ability to avert fortune and determine…
Colmer, Dorothy.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 72 (1973): 329-39.
Argues that the WBT is appropriate to the "Marcien" Wife, who represents a rising social class that challenges the "old courtly privilege." This class challenge parallels the Wife's sexual challenge, and her speech on "gentilesse"--a "complaint…
