Kahrl, Stanley J.
Chaucer Review 7.3 (1973): 194-209.
Argues that SqT "presents the growing impulse toward exoticism and disorder at work in the courts of late medieval Europe," the antithesis of classical order depicted in KnT. Also comments on notions of "gentilesse" and the uses of rhetorical colors…
Haskell, Ann S.
Chaucer Review 7.3 (1973): 221-26.
Explicates features of the reference to St. Giles in CYT (8.1185), drawing on the various traditions of Giles as patron saint of "'those struck by some sudden misery, and driven into solitude.'"
Garbáty, Thomas Jay.
Chaucer Review 8.1 (1973): 1-8.
Identifies the "compound humor" of the "geographic dialect" material in RvT and the GP description of the Reeve, where he is depicted as an "immigrant" from Norfolk to London and thereby the butt of humor for indigenous Londoners.
Friedman, John Block.
Chaucer Review 7.3 (1973): 250-66.
Surveys approaches to NPT, and discusses its appropriateness as a homiletic exemplum to the Priest as narrator, discussing its rhetoric, its misogynistic depictions of females, and its allusions to mermaid song and Physiologus (7.3270-72)
Examines the tension in ClT between human pathos and clerkly training and intelligence, reading the combination as a depiction of late-medieval "clerkishness." Additions to his sources and the use of "specialized vocabulary" make Chaucer's tale…
Fisher, John H.
Chaucer Review 8.2 (1973): 119-27.
Shows how the first three tales in CT can be seen to align with the discussion of three rhetorical styles in John of Garland's "Poetria"--courtly, civic, and rustic. Particularly applicable is Garland's commentary on his rectangular chart of…
Finnel, Andrew J.
Chaucer Review 8.2 (1973): 147-58.
Argues that Purse was written soon after the accession of Henry IV, addressed to the new monarch and composed as Chaucer's plea for funds while he was residing in the close of Westminster Abbey in order to avoid debts.
Dilligan, Robert J., and Karen Lynn.
College English 34 (1973): 1103-4 and 1113-23.
Describes an eight-step "algorithm" for enabling computers to aid in the recognition and cataloging of prosodic traits, and explores the utility of such practice by discussing the data from a computer-assisted scansion of a 1000-line sample of…
Summarizes critics' attention to the Eucharistic references in PardT and explores how the Eucharist and the Mass as a reenactment of sacrifice underpin a number of details and images in the tale.
Middle English version of GP [Skeat edition], accompanied by numerous b&w reproductions of woodcuts from editions of CT by William Caxton (1484), Wynkyn de Worde (1494), and Richard Pynson (1526). Includes a seven-inch phonograph recording (33 1/3…
Argues that Boccaccio's "Decameron" influenced MerT deeply, even though it may not be the primary source of the plot. The characterizations of MerT (especially the "mental blindness" of January) are more like those in "Decameron" 7.9 than those in…
Adkins, Lieuen, trans.
San Francisco: Bellerophon, 1973.
Parallel-column version of MilPT in Middle English [Skeat edition] and modern rhymed couplets, accompanied by numerous b&w illustrations in comic-book style by Gilbert Shelton.
Wass, Rosemary Thérèse Ann.
DAI 35.08 (1974): 5124A.
Counters "Robertsonian" or exegetical criticism of Chaucer's works, particularly its neglect of "later scholastic philosophy," focusing on views of individuality and experience found in writers such as Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.…
Argues that "in Chaucer's poetry women are consistently portrayed as seeking out a niche in the social (or religious) hierarchy which will permit them to serve in the subordinate position St. Paul insists they were intended to fill." Discusses all of…
Uses Morris Halle and Seymour Jay Keyser's metrical theory to describe "English decasyllabic verse of the later Middle Ages" and explore why Chaucer's iambic pentameter was not followed more closely by poets such as Hoccleve, Lydgate, Dunbar, and…
Reads CT as a unified, encyclopedic "symposium on what men should seek, and what they should avoid," focusing on variety in the GP, the pilgrimage motif, and the "three longest tales": KnT, Mel, and ParsT.
Considers the narrative structures of various narrative poems in Old and Middle English, especially as these relate to an "apocalyptic sense of history" and the dislocations it produces. Includes a chapter on TC.
Clarifies medieval understanding of the romance genre by exploring medieval catalogs of romances and applying George Lakoff's theory of "radial" categories. Includes comments on several of Chaucer's works and on several medieval lists that do not…
Explores historicity and fictionality in medieval narratives of early. mythic Thebes. Includes brief commentary on the sources of Chaucer's knowledge of Oedipus and his conflation of Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes in KnT 1.1470ff.
Examines shame as a force in identity construction and a constraint on female agency, focusing on Criseyde in TC and Dido in HF, and briefly mentioning LGW. As an historical force, shame also determines narrative possibilities in these poems.
