Hughes, Geoffrey.
Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2006.
Several hundred entries cover a wide range of historical and conceptual topics, individual words, important landmarks in the history of swearing, etc. Very few entries are given over to individual writers, although the entry on Chaucer is lengthy…
Reevaluation and continuation of the studies by John Burrow and by Richard Firth Green on the meaning of the word "elvish" in CT. "Elvish" in CYT carries the meaning "delusory," whereas elvish in the prologue to Th means "abstracted."
Diller, Hans-Jürgen.
Nikolaus Ritt and Herbert Schendl, eds. Rethinking Middle English: Linguistic and Literary Approaches (New York and Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2005), pp. 110-24.
While six Middle English terms of emotion are in some measure coterminous - "onde," "affect," "mood," "spirit," "passioun," and "affeccioun" - only the latter two closely approximate modern usage. "Passioun" connotes a state of being acted upon;…
Caon, Luisella.
C. C. Barfoot, ed. "And Never Know the Joy": Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2006), pp. 33-47.
Chaucer's uses of thou and ye pronouns "systematically" indicate the "degree of closeness or distance" between lovers in CT, indicating not only formality and informality but also intensity of emotion and shifts in attitudes. Caon surveys previous…
Schaefer, Ursula.
Andrew James Johnston, Ferdinand von Mengden, and Stefan Thim, eds. Language and Text: Current Perspectives on English and Germanic Historical Linguistics and Philology (Heidelberg: Winter, 2006), pp. 269-90.
Schaefer considers the process of vernacularization in late medieval English in comparison with other European languages, suggesting that quotations from the period about English are commonplaces rather than reflections of contemporary attitudes and…
Fuller, David.
Corinne Saunders, ed. A Concise Companion to Chaucer (Malden, Mass.; Oxford; and Victoria: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 263-84.
Fuller insists that sound is "intrinsic to meaning" in reading Chaucer, commenting on the importance of metrical patterns and syntactic structures, appropriate intonation and pace, and pronunciation of final -e. Although it is difficult to…
Copeland, Rita.
Seth Lerer, ed. The Yale Companion to Chaucer (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 122-43.
Copeland outlines the classical-medieval tradition of rhetoric and its relationships with history, philosophy, and literary style. Considers the Pardoner as an embodiment of rhetoric and its potential for abuse; the Wife of Bath as rhetorical excess…
Williamson, Anne.
Henry Williamson Society Journal 39 (2003): 30-60.
Explores the possibility that Henry Williamson's novel "The Dream of Fair Women" was influenced by Tennyson's poem "A Dream of Fair Women" and, in turn, by Chaucer's LGW.
Trigg, Stephanie.
Seth Lerer, ed. The Yale Companion to Chaucer (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 297-323.
Trigg considers recurrent issues in the reception of Chaucer: responses to his self-shaped "poetic signature," admiration for his rhetoric and sentiment, and mourning for the loss of his genius by poets who seek to emulate him. Surveys rewritings and…
Trevisan identifies in Eliot's "Prufrock" possible echoes of the Monk's description from GP. "Prufrock" may also have been influenced by Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
Steinberg examines differences between depictions of Nature in Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos and in Chaucer's PF. For Spenser, disorder inheres in nature, while in Chaucer it results from human "pettiness and passion." Such differences remind us of…
Scanlon, Larry, and James Simpson, eds.
Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.
An introduction by the editors and eleven essays by various authors seek to vitalize Lydgate studies, exploring the status of poet laureate, Lydgate's poetic style, his political poetry, and a number of literary poems and forms (e.g., mumming,…
The influence of KnT on Conrad's "The Lagoon" is evident in several details, in narrative method, and, more distantly, in the fact that each is written in English that is "unfixed and de-centered."
Petrina considers the citation of Gower and Chaucer at the end of "The Kingis Quair" and the poem's context in Bodley MS Arch. Selden. B.24, a manuscript with a high number of misattributions to Chaucer; also speculates about intellectual exchange at…
Miralles Pérez, Antonio J.
Juan Camilo Conde Silvestre and M. Nila Vázquez González, eds. Medieval English Literary and Cultural Studies (Murcia: Universidad de Muscia, 2004), pp. 205-22.
Conan Doyle's portrayals of knights from the Hundred Years' War in "The White Company" (1891) and "Sir Nigel" (1906) embody the same contradictions and ambiguities found in Chaucer's depiction of a fourteenth-century knight in CT.
Lines argues that the idealized chivalric homosocial bonding in Surrey's poem was influenced by KnT. Eulogizing the Duke of Richmond in this way critiques the debased version of political bonds in the court of Henry VIII.
Krier notes the influence of early Chaucer works upon Spenser. Chaucer's early dream visions influenced Spenser and provide an example of linking plot to daily activity.
Kim, Myungsook.
Medieval and Early Modern English Studies 12 (2004): 67-84.
Contrasts the "Chaucerism" of John Cheke and Edmund Spenser with the inkhorn habit of borrowing Latinate terms practiced by other Renaissance English writers.
Faulkner, Peter.
Journal of William Morris Studies 16.2-3 (2005): 56-79.
Discussion of the Alcestis account in Morris's 'Earthly Paradise' and in Ted Hughes's adaptation of Euripedes's 'Alcestis,' including comments on the influence of Chaucer's LGWP on Morris.
Dimmick, Jeremy.
Review of English Studies 57 (2006): 456-73.
Greene uses Chaucer and Gower to represent licentious comedy and moral literature, respectively. In manipulating the debate between the medieval authors, Greene displays subtle awareness not only of his own literary persona but also of the authorial…
Cooper, Helen.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Explores the continuities of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, emphasizing the inventiveness of the Middle Ages and the rootedness of the Renaissance in medieval traditions, focusing on drama and on Shakespeare in particular. Recurrent references to…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Chaucer Review 41(2006): 99-104.
Given his interest in Chaucer and his ownership of a copy of TC, Dickens's "comic literary use of the motif of 'Christ-forgives-his-killers'" may be an echo of Chaucer's use of the motif, which is based on Luke 23.34, in TC 3.1577.
Behrens investigates the problems of authorship surrounding the dedicatory poem "Go litel boke, go litel tregedie" addressed to the four wardens of the mercer guild: John Olney, Geoffrey Feldyng, Geoffrey Boleyn, and John Burton. Alluding to TC, the…
