Browse Items (16369 total)

Suggests that Chaucer's citations of Lollius as a source for Trojan history may be attributable to his misreading of Horace's "Epistles" I 2,1.

Suggests that "for the nones" in LGWP (F 292-96 and G 194-98), rather than meaning "for the occasion," refers to the canonical hour of Nones, i.e., for the ritual of the "celebration of Nones."

Reviews arguments that identify and explicate "Seinte Loy" in the GP description of the Prioress (GP 1.120) as a reference to St. Eligius, and suggests an alternative possibility: St. Eulalia. Explores resonances of the reference--thematic and…

Includes Middle English texts by Chaucer (with glossary appended at end of document) in nine parts: I Proem (PF 1-4); II Pastorale (19 lines selected from LGWP-F 35ff.; III Pleynte (TC 1.400-20); IV Invocation I (TC 3.1-14); V Invocation II (TC…

Disagrees with R. L. Chapman's argument (1956) that the Shipman was the original teller of ShT, offering further evidence that Chaucer first assigned the narrative to the Wife of Bath.

Suggests that Andreas Capellanus's Rule 17 in "De Amore" is the "more likely source" for TC 4.415 than those previously suggested.

Explores the implications of the Knight's "cutting short" of the MkT, contrasting the characterizations of the two pilgrims, describing the Monk as "comic imitation of knighthood," and observing contrasts and parallels in the wording, details, and…

Anthologizes English poems and excerpts alphabetically by author, including the Envoy to ClT (7.1178-1212), translated by Hodnett into Modern English in rhyme royal stanzas.

Analyzes the "repeated allusions to the Scholastic concept of a divinely-ordained universal order" in ClT. Shows that such allusions are generally not in Chaucer's sources, and that they help to characterize the Clerk as a "serious scholar and devout…

Assesses Chaucer's use of the name "Damian" in MerT as an allusion to St. Damian who, with his brother St. Cosmos, was associated with medical healing. Attends to a pun on "leech" (healer) in the tale.

Assesses TC as a "peculiar combination of church, chivalry, and courtly love," exploring the history of the amalgamation of the "system of knighthood," the church's influence on the "chivalric code," and the "idealization of woman." Then examines…

Reconsiders the toponym "Pullesdon" as a location in archival records that pertain to Chaucer, Philippa, and their patrons Lionel and Elizabeth, exploring possibilities for the location and implications concerning Philippa and Elizabeth.

Reconsiders characterizations of the Dreamer of BD from George Lyman Kittredge (1915) forward, focusing on the Dreamer's reception of the Man in Black's song (475-86). Compares aspects of BD--especially the song--with sources and analogues from the…

Suggests Chaucer "was walking on dangerous ground" in choosing 1Timothy 6:10 ("Radix malorum . . .") as the theme of the Pardoner's sermon, adducing a Latin sermon by Oxfordian Robert Lychlade on the same theme that led to him being brought to trial…

Analyzes the meter of the opening line of CT (GP 1.1), focusing on renderings of "Aprill(e)" in manuscripts and printed editions, comparing it with meter elsewhere in CT, and arguing "that there is a strong possibility, even a probability, that…

Argues that Aleyn's "easy conquest" of Malyne in RvT can be attributed to their prior familiarity and to her promiscuity, the latter evident in the "ease" with which she uses the term "lemman."

Identifies and traces developments of the sources and analogues of WBT, emphasizing the transmission of Irish roots through Welsh elaboration, Arthurian development in Brittany and France, Middle English analogues, and various parallels in…

Describes Chaucer's life and works in a brief subsection of chapter two (pp. 47-56), offering appreciative commentary that characterizes the poet as one who "loved life," despite awareness of the "faults, sins, crimes, follies, and vanities of…

Provides "some scholarly background information" about the Pardoner intended for teachers of high school senior English classes, summarizing studies by Tupper, Kittredge, Curry, and Patch, and focusing on why Chaucer may have invested this Canterbury…

Identifies parallels between the characterizations of January and May in MerT and those of Pluto and Proserpine in Claudian's "De Raptu Proserpinae." Anticipating the role of the fairy deities in Chaucer's Pear-Tree episode, Claudian's "myth of…

Considers possible sources and analogues for three passages in FranT (5.721-25, 829-34, and 1113-15), explaining how diction, style, and rhetoric indicate the likely influence of Alanus de Insulis's "Anticlaudianus" (Alain de Lille's "Anticlaudian")…

Identifies previously unrecorded allusions to Chaucer, most of them reflecting his "reputation as a religious leader and reformer," some based on works attributed to him falsely.

Excerpts and re-titles a portion of chapter two of Chute's 1946 "Geoffrey Chaucer on England," describing the nature of Chaucer's education and the books he likely encountered in his early studies.

Assesses "unsavory" details of the GP description of the Summoner, the "bad feeling" between the Friar and the Summoner (WBP 3.829ff. and FrP 1265ff.), and concerns that link the GP Summoner and the summoner of FrT, clarifying the Friar's "attack" on…

Identifies various instances of irony in MerT, arguing that its "persistent irony" distinguishes the tale from Chaucer's comic fabliaux and aligns it with the "moral fable" of PardT. A poem of "clarity, critical observation, and disgust," MerT also…