Thundy, Zacharias P.
Edward Vasta and Zacharias P. Thundy, ed. Chaucerian Problems and Perspectives: Essays Presented to Paul E. Beichner, C. S. C. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979), pp. 24-56.
An important immediate source of Chaucer's work is in the Latin "Lamentations of Matheolus," a thirteenth-century French cleric, whose work Jean le Fevre translated into French and expanded in the fourteenth century. In excess of one hundred…
Da Rold, Orietta.
Alexandra Gillespie and Daniel Wakelin, eds. The Production of Books in England, 1350-1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 12-33.
Da Rold's study of Cambridge University Library MS Dd.4.24 (a manuscript of CT) suggests that variations in shades of ink helps to disclose scribal habits of copying and emendation as well as the continuity of the exemplars used. Argues for further…
Robertson, Kellie.
In Holly A. Crocker and D. Vance Smith, eds. Medieval Literature: Criticism and Debates (New York; Routledge, 2014), pp. 367-75.
Explores the "cultural connotation of physical matter" expressed in gendered hylomorphic metaphors (matter/form) in the Medea accounts of LGW and John Lydgate's "Troy Book," arguing that Chaucer's representation raises questions about "the human as a…
Jacobs, Kathryn.
Cindy L. Vitto and Marcia Smith Marzec, eds. New Perspectives on Criseyde (Fairview, N.C.: Pegasus Press, 2004), pp. 59-74.
Chaucer resists the prevailing "lusty widow" stereotype in his depictions of the Wife of Bath and Criseyde, paving the way for more positive images of widows on the Renaissance stage.
Questions the concept of a "standard edition" in the postmodern world of textual editing and uses the controversy about Adam Pinkhurst (Was he Chaucer's scribe cited in Adam?) as evidence that "medievalists really seek editorial closure," despite…
Includes (vol. 2, pp. 1030-31) a summary of the plot and main characters of TC, categorizing it as a "Chivalric romance," and praising it as an "almost perfectly constructed narrative poem" with "effective depiction of character" that "forecast[s]…
Wheatley, Edward.
Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2000.
Surveys the use of Latin beast fables in medieval schools and the legacy of this material in the works of late-medieval authors who were educated in the tradition and who wrote in English. Focuses on fables associated with the legendary Roman emperor…
Crocker, Holly A., and Tison Pugh.
Tison Pugh and Marcia Smith Marzec,eds. Men and Masculinities in Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008), pp. 82-96.
Troilus's suffering in TC is informed by a "Christian economy" of pain that valorizes a new kind of manhood, one that activates others through its passivity and converts weakness to strength "through a managed display." Troilus's identity "emerges…
Reader-response analysis of various dramatic monologues. Shaw focuses on the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning and other Victorians but clarifies the functions of deception, self-deception, casuistry, irony, double irony, and Sartre's concept of…
Paxson, James J.
Tison Pugh and Marcia Smith Marzec, eds. Men and Masculinities in Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008), pp. 73-81.
Troilus's secret entry into Criseyde's bedroom in Pandarus's house alludes to King David's surprise of the Jebusites when conquering their city (2 Samuel 5); it attests to Troilus's masculine heroism and derives in part from Chaucer's experiences…
Beidler, Peter G., ed.
Cambridge; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1998.
An introduction by the editor, plus seventeen essays by various authors. The collection includes one essay on the Host, thirteen on CT, and three on TC. For the individual essays, search for Masculinities in Chaucer: Approaches to Maleness under…
Aers, David.
Chapter 3 in David Aers, Community, Gender, and Individual Identity (London and New York: Routledge, 1988), pp. 117-52.
Examines the social psychology and structure of male power--aggression in gazing, rape imagery and fantasy, objectification of women, competitive assertiveness among males--as aspects of "love" and the social expectations for masculine identity in…
Explores the contrast between the Marian womb imagery of SNP (7.43-49) and the deflated bladder of Almachius's power in SNT (7.437-41), finding in the contrast "a vision of the Church that attests freedom and obedience, as well as Chaucer's embracing…
Reames, Sherry.
Helen Phillips, ed. Chaucer and Religion (Cambridge: Brewer, 2010), pp. 81-96.
Explores religious content of Marian prayers found in ABC, PrP, SNP, Ret and MLT. Argues that Chaucer does not attempt to "simplify moral issues and theological questions" in his tales of saints.
Czarnowus, Anna.
Jane Tolmie and M. J. Toswell, eds. Laments for the Lost in Medieval Literature (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010), pp. 129-47.
Compares the "theatricality of imagery" in MLT, particularly in Constance's prayer to the Virgin (2.841-54), with the Polish Marian crucifixion lament "Listen, Dear Brothers." Includes an English translation of the Polish lyric.
Remley, Paul G.
Peter C. Herman, ed. Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994), pp. 40-77.
Remley describes the Devonshire manuscript (British Library Additional 17492) and assesses the role and purposes of Shelton's writing it-e.g., protesting the incarceration of Margaret Douglas and Thomas Howard, reflecting Tudor practices of "making"…
Ganim, John.
Donka Minkova and Theresa Tinkle, eds. Chaucer and the Challenges of Medievalism: Studies in Honor of H. A. Kelly (Frankfurt and New York: Lang, 2003), pp. 175-89.
Ganim argues that Mary Shelley was influenced by her father, William Godwin, who wrote "Life of Chaucer" and from whom she learned a dual attitude toward the Middle Ages: people are shaped by historical circumstances, and they must seek to rise above…
Findon, Joanne.
English Studies in Canada 32.4 (2006): 25-50.
Explores relations between medieval romance and medieval religious drama, focusing on the "woman cast adrift" motif in the Digby Mary Magdalene play. Assesses how contrasts between the protagonists' agency in the play and in versions of the Constance…
Jones, Timothy S., and David A. Sprunger, eds.
Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 2002.
Fourteen essays by various authors in honor of John Block Friedman, covering topics that include Anglo-Saxon, Mandeville's Travels, Cleanness, Gesta Herwardi, Froissart's "Debate of the Horse and the Greyhound," apocrypha, insanity, nude Cyclops, and…
Bushnell, Rebecca, ed.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021.
Anthologizes a wide variety of selections from classical, biblical, medieval, and early modern literatures in a "companion to literary or cultural study of premodern ecological concerns." Includes two samples from Chaucer: a conflation of portions of…
Observes points of similarity and difference between WBP and Martha Moulsworth's poetic autobiography, "Memorandum" (1632). The Wife serves as Moulsworth's "stylistic and rhetorical precursor."
Dean, James M.
Comparative Literature 41 (1989): 128-40.
Compares Chaucer's treatment of the Mars and Venus fables with Ovid's and with other medieval versions to demonstrate that Chaucer created Mars as a misguided commentator on his own story. Chaucer's audience, familiar with Jean de Meun's "Roman de…
Mouron Figuera, Cristina.
Ana María Hornero and María Pilar Navarro, eds. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of S.E.L.I.M. (Zaragoza: Institucion Fernando el Catolico (CSIC), 2000), pp. 147-57.
Compares views about married women reflected in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale with late-fourteenth-century social reality.
Moritz, Theresa Anne.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1982): 4445A.
Certain twelfth-century mystics, especially Bernard of Clairvaux, interpreted the Song of Songs as figuring the love of God and man not only through heterosexual love but specifically as an ideal of marriage. In Chaucer's works both the concept of…
