Browse Items (16443 total)

Includes Chaucerian apocrypha, "The Plowman's Tale" and "Jack Upland," in an examination of the figure of the plowman in English early modern imagination, from "Piers Plowman" to the 1590s. Argues that there was a "highly politicized tradition of…

Reads Chaucer's lyric poetry as an important bridge or "hinge" between the medieval lyric poem and its modern successors.

Surveys representations of male and female fainting in medieval romances and "chansons de geste," and describes the medieval medical status of fainting ("syncope"). Considers Troilus' swoon in TC 3, observing that the "precision of Chaucer's medical…

Examines the narration and the interpretations of Troilus's dream in Book V of TC, the questions of sources and authority, and the function of the Latin argument to Cassandra's speech in manuscripts.

Comments on Chaucer's reputation as a Wycliffite reformer or Lollard that resulted from his depictions of clergymen (especially the Parson) and from apocryphal tales attributed to him. Edits and assesses a 1641 pamphlet that includes two poetic…

The author addresses the question whether Chaucer had Adam Pynkhurst in mind when berating his scribe Adam for his sloppy work and, on the basis of palaeographical evidence, seeks to determine whether Pynkhurst's performance improved afterwards. To…

The ludic responses depicted in these two lines bear out Barry Windeatt's assertion that Chaucer's "displacement of tragedy by comedy" at the end of TC took its inspiration from Dante's "Commedia."

More critical attention to the codicological contexts, Latin sources, rhetorical devices, and clerical "authorial milieu" of Middle English lyrics would release them from the categories of the "practical or boring," and give their refinement and…

In Purse, For, and Scog, Chaucer employs the basic elements of an official 'supplicacio' "with great freedom, voicing them in a variety of unexpected ways."

An examination of Skeat's Rime-Index to Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" shows that "vowel length is an unneeded hypothesis" and Chaucer's vowels may be classified solely on the basis of "quality, not quantity."

Chaucer draws upon the festive tradition of mock saints early in TC to poke fun at "the pretensions of 'fin amor'"; as the poem progresses, the inversions of carnival come to represent "a necessary part of being a lover." By the time Troilus laughs…

Expressions of hatred of Criseyde belie a persistent love for her and thus motivate new attempts at telling her story. In this way, hatred serves as "a sign of dispossession" of Criseyde "that invites repossession by the next author."

Discusses the "political implications" of Rom as it reflects Chaucer's attitudes towards French during the Hundred Years' War, suggesting that Chaucer may be "resisting French literary culture." Also assesses Eustace Deschamps' praise of Chaucer as a…

In referring to St. Margaret of Antioch in this poem, Hoccleve draws out her "implied presence" in the form of the marguerite in the prologue to Chaucer's LGW.

Asserts that Chaucer's dream visions dramatize the act of reading and illustrate the author's interest in the reciprocity of author, text, and reader in making and renewing of meaning. Argues that Chaucer represents the failure of all kinds of…

In the chapter "Becoming Woman in Chaucer: 'On ne naît pas femme, on le devient en mourant'," Gilbert reads BD and LGW through the lenses of Robert Hertz's and Jacques Lacan's theories, respectively. BD represents a response to death that follows a…

Discusses General Ethan Allen Hitchcock's 1865 published explication of Chaucer's BD. Argues that this study of Chaucer's dream visions offers new insights into "Chaucer's reception in the nineteenth-century United States."

This comparative study of the two texts, based on the same motif of the gathering of birds, aims at exposing the spiritual and moral differences of the works. The theological and philosophical intention in Attar has disappeared in Chaucer's treatment…

Explores the type, use, and functions of formulas in Th, in relation to parody; in Mel, in dramatic form reinforcing allegory.

Provides historical, literary, and religious backgrounds to PrT, intended for classroom teaching of the tale and focusing on ethical values. In Hungarian.

Uses ABC, Hoccleve's "Complaint of the Virgin Before the Cross," and other sources to outline a mutually reinforcing relationship between the Lancastrians (orthodox supporters of the Church) and the Church (which allied with the Lancastrians).

As part of a larger consideration of John Shirley's role in English literary culture and canon formation, mentions the presence of several unique Chaucer poems in Shirley's library.

As part of a larger discussion of changing paradigms of friendship, considers TC, along with Shakespeare, Milton, Lanyer, and others.

In the context of spheres of male and female acts of treason, suggests that women's disloyalty (e.g., Criseyde) was typically seen as simultaneously political and romantic, whereas a male traitor's action could be more easily compartmentalized, as in…

Places HF in the intellectual and philosophical contexts of its era, particularly the tradition of Boethius and Wyclif, arguing that Chaucer supports the existence of universals.