Watts, William.
Essays in Medieval Studies 8: 59-66, 1991.
Explores Chaucer's uses of the word "gloss" to argue that he followed the model of the Roman de la Rose and included glosses in his own texts-marginal glosses at times, but also glosses incorporated into his texts to guide interpretation. Draws…
Wallace, David, ed.
Cambridge and New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Analytic survey of the literatures produced in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland between the Norman Conquest and the death of Henry VIII. Contributions from thirty-three authors on topics ranging from the "afterlife" of Old English to Reformation…
Trigg, Stephanie.
Thomas A. Prendergast and Barbara Kline, eds. Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority, and the Idea of the Authentic Text, 1400-1602 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999), pp. 270-91.
Considers how editors and critics from Caxton to Furnivall assume or pursue identity with Chaucer, imitating what they perceive to be Chaucerian sensibility in an effort to claim understanding of the poet and his works. Adopting the poet's voice and…
Tops, A. J.,Betty Devriendt and Steven Geukens,eds.
Leuven : Peeters, 1999.
Thirty-five essays by various authors on English and comparative linguistics, arranged in four groups: geographic and diachronic variation, "Synchronic Description and Theory, "Grammars from the Past," and "Language Contrast and Teaching." For two…
Spearing, A. C.
Susan J. Ridyard, ed. Chivalry, Knighthood, and War in the Middle Ages (Sewanee, Tenn.: University of the South, 1999), pp. 53-73.
Chaucer uses classical, pagan setting as a "screen" on which to "project alternatives to medieval social reality." He capitalizes on the strangeness of presenting classical privacy in TC. In KnT, especially in the temple of Diana, Chaucer explores…
Sola Buil, Ricardo (J.)
SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature 7: 161-80., 1997.
Chaucer expresses the dialectical tension between subject and history, between the inner and the outer self, between canon and parody in CT and TC. He represents this conflict through dramatic dialogue and theatrical performance, making the…
Smith, D. Vance.
South Atlantic Quarterly 98: 367-414, 1999.
Like Freud and Boethius, Chaucer views tragedy as the temporal transformation of a literal or figurative space. Integral to this understanding of tragedy is the notion of memory as a function of death, a relationship apparent in BD, MkT, and HF.…
Simpson, James.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 29: 325-55, 1999.
Literary and historical periodization conventionally depends on viewing the lyrics of Wyatt and Surrey (for example) as distinctive and innovative, expressing a characteristically "Renaissance" divided self that is isolated from political and social…
Hanawalt, Barbara A.
Barbara A. Hanawalt and David Wallace, eds. Medieval Crime and Social Control (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), pp. 204-23.
Explores legal and historical records pertaining to innkeepers and innkeeping in late-medieval London as a backdrop to the character of Chaucer's Host. Harry Bailly is most notable for his shrewd handling of people and his responsible maintaining of…
Fragment 7 of CT is unified by its focus on the problem of human violence and the "potential of literature to perpetrate or remedy this problem." In ShT, PrT, and Th, Chaucer shows their respective genres' "mythologies" of violence. Mel counsels…
Dolan, T. P.
Geoffrey Lester, ed. Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 61-72.
Examines details from GP (in particular the description of the Friar) and ParsT, arguing that Chaucer held the "orthodox view" that the poor should be protected because they were precious to God. Yet Chaucer also indicates that "there is nothing…
Cullen, Dolores L.
Santa Barbara, Calif. : Fithian Press, 1999.
Reads CT as a drama-with Chaucer as "director/producer" (158) and leading player-focusing on Th and Mel as psychological and moral extensions of Chaucer. Thopas and the father are one, with Thopas representing the phallus. Melibee is "the elevated…
Condren, Edward I.
Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 1999.
Reads CT (in Ellesmere order) as organized by the universal principles of entropy (movement to chaos), cybernetics (movement to stability), and synergy (transition to a changed or transcendent state). These three principles also inform the structure…
Bowers, John M.
Thomas A. Prendergast and Barbara Kline, eds. Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority, and the Idea of the Authentic Text, 1400-1602 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999), pp. 13-44.
Argues that Chaucer chose not to develop the characters of his Yeoman, Plowman, Guildsmen, and Cook because of political concerns. Richard II's reliance on Cheshire yeomen, increased concern about farm laborers and Lollardy, and reaction against the…
An, Sonjae (Brother Anthony).
Medieval English Studies 7: 63-92, 1999.
Chaucer's use of worthy and the many ways CT plays with questions of value lead to a reading of CT in which SNT exemplifies the highest value in human living-holiness-and joins ParsT to challenge all other values and narratives.
Youmans, Karen DeMent.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60: 1549-50A, 1999.
Chaucer's approaches to hagiography vary from ironic distancing in LGW to pious orthodoxy in SNT, preventing audience identification. Also treats Criseyde, Alisoun, and Dorigen. Griselda, a special case, is historicized and then dehistoricized.
Commentary on and recording of the extant music mentioned in Chaucer, arranged for harp and voice and embellished with other instruments; also includes other medieval songs. The commentary describes fourteenth-century harps and harping. The recording…
Stopford, J[ennifer], ed.
Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y. : York Medieval Press, 1999.
Ten essays on aspects of the anthropology and archeology of medieval and pre-medieval pilgrimage. Related to Chaucer studies are Ben Nilson, "The Medieval Experience at the Shrine" (pp. 95-122), which uses "The Tale of Beryn" as a source; and A. M.…
Sasamoto, Hisayuki.
Hisayuki Sasamoto et al., eds. Hearts to the English-American Language and Literature: Essays Presented to Emeritus Professor Sutezo Hirose in Honour of His 88th Birthday (Osaka: Osaka Kyoiku Tosho, 1999), pp. 315-28 (in Japanese).
Analyzes MerT, SNT, and CYT in the context of Ockhamist thought, focusing on physical sight and blindness.
Corpus Christi plays are "analogues for the construction of time and space" in CT. In the plays and in the poem, time and space are both physical and metaphysical, unifying characters and audience in the "single teleology" of movement toward…
Parker, R. H.
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 12.1: 92-112, 1999.
Documents Chaucer's knowledge of medieval accounting practice, explaining the principal-agent relation of the Reeve and his lord in GP and discussing debt in the description of the Merchant. Examines the role of accounting in ShT and demonstrates…
Nolan, Barbara.
Piero Boitani and Anna Torti, eds. The Body and the Soul in Medieval Literature (Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1999), pp. 79-105.
Comments on similarities between the mixture of bawdy and sublime in CT and in other medieval tales, collections, and contexts, exploring how bawdiness challenges official discourse. Examines at length Henri d'Andeli's aristocratic fabliau,…
The Miller is a stereotypical Celt, disparaged by society; Oswald the Reeve is an Anglo-Saxon who resents the Celtic Miller's "specialized trade." The Prioress is distanced from secular society by her profession and distanced from her profession by…
Chaucer evinces awareness of marriage law, in particular the necessity of a church ceremony to secure property rights. Wives with a legally unassailable right to property (May in MerT, the Wife of Bath, Alisoun in MilT, Cecilie in SNT) are in a much…
Jacobs, Kathryn.
Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest 6: 25-33, 1999.
Identifies the legal features of the lovers' pacts in CT. Legal diction (e.g., "accord"), careful preparation, and various kinds of delay connect the illicit relations in MilT, WBPT, ShT, MerT, RvT, and others with the legal contract of marriage.
