McGrath, Alister E., ed.
Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2001.
An anthology of selections and excerpts, arranged chronologically, from Clement of Rome to Garrison Keillor, each example accompanied by a brief biographical introduction and study questions. Includes a translation of PardP (6.329-462).
This anthology of drama, poetry, fiction, and essays that pertain to Medea ranges from Euripides to the late twentieth century, including a facing-page selection (pp. 114-23) from the story of Hypsipyle and Medea in LGW, presented in Middle English…
Readings and musical performances of 36 pieces that pertain to cats, including a reading of a brief selection from ManT (9.175-80) in normalized English by Edward Crafts, accompanied by Noel Lester on piano.
Audio recording of David Butler reading a modernized version of selections from CT (GP, KnT, MilPT, RvPT, CkPT, WBPT, FrPT, MerPT, FranPT, PardPT, PrPT, NPPTE, ClPT, and Ret.
An international ranking which summarizes the lives and works of 100 writers. Chaucer is listed as number five (behind Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, and Tolstoy), and credited with a "fundamental redefinition of the possibility of poetic expression."
Thomson, Peter.
Peter Thomson. On Actors and Acting (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000), pp. 16-25.
Includes commentary (pp. 16-18) on the "entrances" of Chanticleer and Russell into NPT, suggesting parallels between features of the Tale and the staging of a play.
Pinsky, Robert, and Maggie Dietz, eds.
New York: Norton, 2000.
Anthologizes a large number of selections from responses to Robert Pinsky's request that Americans submit an example of their favorite poetry and "comment on the poem's personal significance." The volume includes GP, lines 1-18, and brief comments by…
Levine, Gloria.
San Antonio, Tex.: Novel Units. 2000.
Pedagogical activities and assessment tools designed for the high school classroom, focusing on GP, KnT, MilT, WBPT, MerT, FranT, PardPT, PrT, and NPT. Targeted skills include vocabulary-building, critical thinking, reading comprehension, and…
Lambdin, Robert Thomas, and Laura Cooner Lambdin,eds.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.
An alphabetical one-volume encyclopedia of medieval "literary works, authors, historical figures, events, themes, and genres," with a general emphasis on "early British literature" and individual entries for Continental literatures. Many entries are…
This collection of critical essays by Cousins includes a discussion of Shakespeare's "Lucrece," part of which is entitled "Versions of the Lucretia Story by Ovid, Livy, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Gower" (pp. 48-58), a survey of the various accounts which…
Ahl, Frederick.
George W. M. Harrison, ed. Seneca in Performance (London: Duckworth, 2000), pp. 151-71.
Laments the difficulties of translating wordplay, drawing examples from Chaucer to clarify examples from Seneca and other classical drama. Shows where modern translations of Chaucer's works lose puns, audio echoes, "syllabic play," and anagrams
De Roo, Harvey, dir.
Provo, Ut. : Chaucer Studio,1999 and 2005. Also available as a Download.
Dramatic recitation of TC, with a cast of eight: Jane Camfield (Antigone and Ladies), Harvey De Roo (Calkas and Troilus), Melanie Yeats (Cassandra, Eleyne, and Ladies), Mary-Ann Stouck (Criseyde), Eric Ball (Deiphebus), Tom Burton (Diomede), Ken…
McDonald, Richard.
In-Between: Essays and Studies in Literary Criticism 7 (1998): 31-48.
Shows that throughout his career Chaucer "attempts to stike a balance between apologizing for the instability of his meaning and open acceptance of the capricious nature of language." Comments on Chaucer's attitudes toward language, interpretation,…
Adaptation of selections from CT, intended for young adolescents. Selections include GP, KnT, MLT, portions of MkT, NPT, WBPT, FrT, SumT, ClT, FranT, PardPT, CYT, and Ret, each accompanied by prompts for discussion. The volume also includes a brief…
Gallagher, Joseph E.
Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities, 1999.
On location in England, Gallagher recites passages from Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, comparing and contrasting their phonologies, morphologies, and vocabularies. The emphasis is on "Beowulf," but includes a passage from FranT…
Cosman, Madeleine Pelner.
New York: George Braziller, 1976.
Describes medieval food preparation and presentation, providing over 100 recipes as an appendix. Chapter three, "A Chicken for Chaucer's Kitchen: Medieval London's Market Laws and Larcenies" (pp. 67-91) details the conditions of medieval London…
Newman, Barbara.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
Considers PF (pp. 111-15) as part of an expansive discussion of medieval depictions of Nature as a goddess, observing Chaucer's modifications of Jean de Meun's Natura and commenting on the political implications of the later poem. Also comments on…
Explores "the ways in which the Medusa figure informs" TC and how "petrification" through astonishment is a recurrent concern in FranT. Neither poem refers directly to Medusa or a gorgon, although each capitalizes on the connotations of "astoned" and…
Reprints Clouston's two-volume work (1887), with its original Introduction and Index, commentary on the brass steed of SqT, and chapter entitled "Chaucer's 'Pardoner's Tale'" (pp. 490-511) that traces the sources and analogues of the Tale. Adds an…
Davis Todd F., and Kenneth Womack.
Todd F. Davis and Kenneth Womack. Formalist Criticism and Reader-Response Theory (New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 123-35.
In in order to demonstrate the utility of reader-response criticism, Davis and Womack analyze ClT in light of Gérard Genette's theory of narratology and TC, Linda Hutcheon's theory of parody. In ClT, Chaucer controls tempo and reaction through…
Brosamer, Matthew.
Joyce Moss and Lorraine Valestuk, British and Irish Literature and Its Times; Celtic Migrations to the Reform Bill (Beginnings-1830s). World Literatures and Its Times, no. 3 (Detroit: Gale, 2001), pp. 43-53.
Introductory description of CT, discussed in light of Chaucer's life and several literary concerns: estates satire, the role of the Church and pilgrimage, the "battle of the sexes," and sources. Includes plot summaries of MilT, WBPT, FranT, and NPT.
Wolpers, Theodor.
Theodor Wolpers, ed. Der Sturz des Mächtigen: Zu Struktur, Funktion, and Geschichte eines Literarischen Motivs (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000), pp. 105-47.
Traces the "fall of the mighty" (or "fall of princes") motif in "de casibus" narratives and its intersections with tragedy in works by Boccaccio and Chaucer and in the sixteenth-century "Mirror for Magistrates," with particular attention to Adam and…
Reviews and revises Eleanor Hammond's discussions of the relations among the fifteen known manuscripts of PF, focusing on the five manuscripts of Group B and providing the evidence for relocating Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 346 in a new…
Fleming, John V.
Susan J. Ridyard, ed. Death, Sickness, and Health in Medieval Society (Sewanee, Tenn.: University of the South, 2000), pp. 123-32.
Describes Chaucer's fusion of sources--Boccaccio, Boethius, the Bible, and Horace--in his presentation of Troilus' love as sickness and as analogous to the art of writing, focusing on Troilus' complaints and Pandarus' advice about letter-writing.
