Cheney, Patrick.
Curtis Perry and John Watkins, eds. Shakespeare and the Middle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 103-25.
Cheney examines how Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and Turtle" echoes PF, particularly as "a poem about the politics of authorship." As a "great poet of self-crowning," Spenser responds to Chaucer's self-effacing pursuit of fame. Shakespeare sets these…
Thaisen, Jacob.
Journal of the Early Book Society 11 (2008): 121-43.
Thaisen illustrates how a distribution of orthographical variants can be an "internal standard of reference," using as an example the Ad3 manuscript of CT. He comments on the order of tales in the manuscript and on various features of the…
Using available electronic transcriptions of manuscripts of WBP and MilT tests the reliability of a statistical model ("interpolated, modified Kneser-Ney smoothed 3-gram backoff model") for determining various linguistic and scribal features of the…
The intended audience of the Naples manuscript was secular females, evidenced by its internal style and content of four romances and inclusion of medical recipes. The advice to wives in ClT points to the instruction of women--and thus to the intended…
Albritton, Benjamin L.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.04 (2009): n.p.
Considers Machaut's allusions to earlier works in his lays (e.g., "Roman de Fauvel" and "Remede de Fortune") and gauges Machaut's impact on English court poetry, using Chaucer and Froissart as examples.
Breeze, Andrew.
National Library of Wales Journal 34 (2008): 311-21.
Like Chaucer, the fourteenth-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym borrowed from Jean de Meun, using "Le Roman de la Rose" as the source for "Y Gwynt" ('The Wind'). Breeze notes sixteen motifs common to both poems and contrasts the Welsh poet's method…
Gutiérrez Arranz, José M.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.
Commenting on medieval literary renditions of the story of Troy, Gutiérrez Arranz identifies places where Chaucer refers or alludes to this material, focusing on Chaucer's references to specific characters.
Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2009.
Exploring the question "When is Chaucer known in Italy?" Heffernan surveys other scholars who have examined Chaucer's writings within the Italian tradition and focuses on shared comedic themes in the works of Boccaccio and Chaucer. She reviews…
Ingham, Patricia Clare.
Elizabeth Scala and Sylvia Federico, eds. The Post-Historical Middle Ages ((New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 13-35.
Ingham considers evidence from the exhumation of Petrarch's skull and from Chaucer studies to demonstrate the role of "amorous dispossessions" in historicist pursuits. Lacan's comments on courtly love theorize such dispossessions and complicate…
Connolly, Margaret.
Philologie im Netz Supplement 4 (2009): 5-20.
Describes how Mary Haweis's 1877 publication of "Chaucer for Children: A Golden Key" brought Chaucer's stories to the domestic realm of women and children as a tool for organization and education. Connolly suggests that Haweis authored later books…
Klitgård, Ebbe.
Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 16.3-4 (2009): 133-41.
Klitgård assesses the translation practices of two Danish translations of Chaucer: T. C. Bruun's 1823 translation "The Wife of Slagelse; After Pope's The Wife in Bath," which follows the modernizations of Dryden and Pope; and Charlotte Louise…
Verse modernization of most of CT (except CkT, Mel, and ParsT), based on the 1963 edition of A. C. Baugh; meter and verse forms parallel Chaucer's. Additional material includes brief notes (pp. 484-502), a summary of Chaucer's life, and comments on…
Snell, William.
Philologie im Netz, Supplement 4 (2009): 41-54.
Clarifies Edith Rickert's role in her collaborative work with John Matthews Manly--i.e., "Chaucer Life-Records" and "Text of the 'Canterbury Tales'"--arguing that people need to study the background of Rickert to see her as an important female…
Horobin, Simon.
Review of English Studies 60 (2009): 371-81.
Reconsideration of Alan J. Fletcher's evidence (RES 58 [2007]: 597-632) does not support the claim that Adam Pynkhurst is the scribe of Dublin, Trinity College MS 244.
Merrill, Darin A.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.05 (2009): n.p.
Analysis of the two fundamental CT manuscripts indicates "that the organization and theme of the individual tales affected" copy quality; for example, scribes copied moral tales more conscientiously than they copied bawdy ones, and prose tales were…
Pearsall, Derek.
Marlene Villalobos Hennessy, ed. Tributes to Kathleen L. Scott. English Medieval Manuscripts: Readers, Makers and Illuminators (London: Harvey Miller, 2009), pp. 197-220.
Distinguishes between the modern "expressive" function of book illustration and various medieval practices. Modern practice is evident in W. Russell Flint's 1928 illustrations to CT, while the Ellesmere illustrations evince efforts to "restore social…
Ackroyd, Peter, trans.
London: Penguin; New York: Viking, 2009.
Primarily a prose modernization of CT (Th in verse; Mel and ParsT excluded) that emulates Chaucer's shifts in register and idiom. Includes a translator's note and an introduction on Chaucer's life and works. Illustratrd by Nick Bantock.
Boenig, Robert, and Andrew Taylor, eds.
Buffalo, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 2009.
Selections from Boenig and Taylor's 2008 edition of CT (SAC 32 [2010], no. 16), including GP, KnT, MilPT, RvPT, WBPT, SumPT, ClPT, SqE, FranPT, PardPT, PrPT, NPPT, and Ret. Also contains an introduction (pp. ix-lviii), brief bibliography, and fifteen…
Allen, Mark, and Bege K. Bowers.
SAC 31 (2009): 399-497.
Continuation of SAC annual annotated bibliography (since 1975); based on contributions from an international bibliographic team, independent research, and MLA Bibliography listings. 302 items, plus listing of reviews for 90 books. Includes an author…
Goodall, Peter, ed.
Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
A comprehensive annotated bibliography of scholarly and critical discussion of MkT and NPT, subdivided into the following categories: editions and translations; bibliographies, handbooks, and indices; manuscripts and textual studies; prosody,…
Edmondson, George.
Elizabeth Scala and Sylvia Federico, eds. The Post-Historical Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 139-60
The appearance of naked "Geoff" Chaucer in Brian Helgeland's film, "A Knight's Tale," "challenges the logic of the present . . . assumed by presentism," even while reminding us that historical periods exist, "each one haunted by the moment of its…
Prendergast, Thomas, and Stephanie Trigg.
Elizabeth Scala and Sylvia Federico, eds. The Post-Historical Middle Ages ((New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 117-37.
The authors contemplate the relationship of medievalism to medieval studies, considering several (re)constructions of the Middle Ages, including Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale and various critics' efforts to gloss "queynte." Such considerations…
