Allen, Robert J.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 55 (1956): 393-405.
Argues that themes of the "nature of literary art" and "the material with which the literary artist deals" unify the HF: the opening of the poem focuses on how "literary artist's imagination finds expression"; the eagle articulates an intellectual…
Alderson, William L.
Modern Language Notes 71.3 (1956): 166-67.
Comments on two 1954 publications (by John Owen and Philip Williams respectively) that pertain to Chaucer allusions, observing that both had been previously noticed and that the latter failed to identify a so-called "saying of Chaucer" as a refrain…
Aiken, Pauline
Studies in Philology 53 (1956): 22-24.
Adduces Vincent of Beauvais' "Speculum Doctrinale" to support reading "houres" in Chaucer's description of the Physician (GP 1.416) as a plural of "the technical Latin term for each stage of the development of a disease."
Smith, Jeremy J.
London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
Introduces Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English, describing developments in syntax, morphology, pronunciation, lexicon, and dialects. The selection of samples for discussion and assessment includes excerpts from GP, PardT, and ParsT,…
Popescu, Dan Nicolae.
Messages, Sages, and Ages: The Bukovinian Journal of Cultural Studies 3.2 (2016): 31-35.
Maintains that Chaucer uses parody to critique discrepancies between Christian ideals and human realities, exploring ways that sexual activities and descriptions in MilT, an earthy fabliau, parody the courtly ideals of KnT, an idealized romance.…
Duffy, Carol Ann.
The Guardian, February 14, 2013, p. 1.
A thirteen-line love-lyric that opens with quotation of the first line of PF and refers to a "wood, all thrilled with birds" and "early English words."
Redresses neglect of medieval views in recent materialism studies, arguing that "that medieval definitions of matter, both hylomorphic and humoral, constitute their own versions of 'materialism,' versions that can help us to historicize later…
Wright, Herbert G.
London: University of London, Athlone, 1957.
Surveys the influence of Boccaccio's Italian and Latin works on English writers and literary tradition through the nineteenth century, with extensive analyses of Chaucer's uses of the "Teseida" in KnT, "Filostrato" in TC, and "Decameron" in ClT.…
Williams, George G.
Rice Institute Pamphlet 44, no. 1 (1957): 126-46.
Argues that the "chief characters" of TC "were probably modeled from real people" and, exploring alterations from Boccaccio's "Filostrato," speculates that Troilus is based on John of Gaunt, Criseyde on Katherine Swynford, and Pandarus on Chaucer…
Williams, George G.
Modern Language Notes 72.1 (1957): 6-9.
Proposes that the facade of the thirteenth-century "Maison des Musiciens" in Reims may have inspired Chaucer's description of the exterior of Fame's palace in HF 1189-1266, hypothesizing how and when Chaucer may have seen the historical building.
Provides detailed background for Petrarch's ekphrastic descriptions of pagan gods in his "Africa" (iii.138-264), and argues that Chaucer's related descriptions in HF (131-39) and in KnT (1.1955-66) derive from the "Libellus de deorum imaginibus"…
Re-arranges the sequence of the descriptions in GP to align with the order in which the pilgrims tell their tales. Includes descriptions of pilgrims who tell no tales at the end, along with the colloquies or speeches of the pilgrims in the links…
Stavrou, C. N.
South Atlantic Quarterly 55 (1957): 454-61.
Rejects Matthew Arnold's claim that Chaucer lacked "high seriousness," commenting on the "close interrelationship between the ironist and moralist" in the older poet's works, and suggesting that, though genial in his acceptance of human variety and…
Slaughter, Eugene Edward.
New York: Bookman, 1957.
Classifies various kinds of love in Chaucer's works--religio-philosophical, courtly, heroic, and syncretistic--with sub-categories of virtues, vices, and sins in each. Describes the sources, characteristics, and overlapping of the classifications,…
Suggests that "spiced conscience" in GP (1.526) means "peppery" moral indignation; "sweet, spiced conscience" in WBP (3.435), a "bland, gentle disposition."
Robinson, F. N., ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Edits the complete works of Chaucer from various manuscripts, with end-of-volume explanatory notes, textual notes, and glossary. A general Introduction summarizes Chaucer's life, the canon and chronology of his works, his language and meter, and the…
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Modern Philology 55.1 (1957): 1-5.
Explores how several of Chaucer's putative additions to or revisions of TC (posited by R. K. Root) strengthen the poem's structural and thematic symmetry.
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Modern Language Notes 72.3 (1957): 164-65.
Accepts that the manuscript of Equat is Chaucer's own draft, with revisions, and suggests that evidence from TC indicates that "Chaucer did not wait till he had finished his work to have parts of it copied out fair by his scribe."
Focuses on Chaucer's uses of "this" to "create narrative tone and dramatic meaning" in CT, discussing a variety of examples and exploring metrical, rhetorical, and syntactic features as they help in characterization. Includes comments on the six uses…
Muscatine, Charles.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957.
Describes aspects of medieval French poetry that influenced Chaucer's style, high and low, tracing the idealizing, nonrepresentational conventions of courtly romances from the early twelfth century to their epitome in Guillaume's de Lorris's portion…
Considers Chaucer's uses of bird imagery in TC, contrasting them at many points with other, more anthropocentric literary birds, and generally commending his bird (and animal) imagery for its rhetorical range and evocation of precise emotion.
