Calle Martin, Javier.
SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature 06 (1996): 64-84.
Traces the classical and colloquial origins of Chaucer's stereotyped comparisons (e.g., "as stille as any ston," "white as chalk"); describes their syntax; and assesses the functions of grammar, alliteration, and prosody in the development of terms…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
North-Western European Language Evolution 34 (1998): 99-153.
Historical assessment of Chaucer's multi-word (or phrasal) verbs, assessing the syntax and semantics of such verbs, the drift to post-positioning of the particles in these verbs (e.g., "wente forth" rather than "forth wente"), and the effects of…
Chickering, Howell.
David Sofield and Herbert F. Tucker, eds. Under Criticism: Essays for William H. Pritchard. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998), pp. 91-108.
Considers the pedagogical value of memorizing verse and comments on exercises in retention for students of Chaucer's poetry. Includes close reading of several stanzas of PF.
Borroff, Marie.
Peter S. Baker and Nicholas Howe, ed. Words and Works: Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature in Honour of Fred C. Robinson (Toronto, Buffalo, and New York: University of Toronto Press, 1998), pp. 223-42.
Defines kinds of rhyme by their varying degrees of "richness," from "simple rhymes" to "triple rhymes" (in which three successive terminal syllables rhyme).
Watkins, John.
Theresa M. Krier, ed. Refiguring Chaucer in the Renaissance (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998), pp. 21-39.
Examines allusions to Chaucer's poetry in works by Thomas Wyatt. Thynne's edition of Chaucer shows how he was appropriated for the crown's political agenda, while the Devonshire manuscript reflects subversive appropriation. Wyatt capitalizes on…
Ward, Antonia.
Studies in Medievalism 09 (1997): 44-57.
Argues that the impulse behind Furnivall's Chaucer scholarship was homosocial, a desire to become as close to Chaucer as possible and to share his love of the poet with other men as a way of bringing them closer together. This homosocial element has…
Pinti, Daniel J., ed.
New York and London: Garland, 1998.
Reprints eleven essays or book chapters pertaining to Chaucer's reception, with topics such as scribal habits, Chaucer's influence on later poets, Chaucerian apocrypha, and others.
Pearsall, Derek.
Victoria: University of Victoria, 1997.
A documentary biography of Lydgate that prints and places in context his life-records and includes a bibliography of his major works, modern editions, and essential secondary studies. The biography includes recurrent mention of where and how…
Matthews, David.
Studies in Medievalism 09 (1997): 5-25.
Uses the Hoccleve portrait of Chaucer as a focal point for examining the nineteenth-century image of Chaucer. Viewed at first as the one "modern" author of his time, Chaucer becomes, through the work of the Chaucer Society and the edition of Skeat,…
Lee, Sung-Il.
Medieval English Studies 05 (1997): 201-16.
Henryson's emulation of Chaucer is evident in his adoption of the stanza form of TC for his "Testament," yet he expresses his "rivalry" with his prececessor by offering a different conclusion.
Krier, Theresa M.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998.
Ten essays by various authors on the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century reception of Chaucer, as reflected in editing practice, growth of the canon, and poetic imitation and emulation. In "Introduction: Receiving Chaucer in Renaissance England,"…
Kohl, Stephan.
Roderick J. Lyall and Felicity Riddy, eds. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Scottish Language and Literature (Medieval and Renaissance) (Stirling/Glasgow: Department of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow, 1981), pp. 285-98.
Aruges that in its depiction of love Henryson's "Cresseid" is more a Renaissance poem than a medieval one. Though its subject matter and verse form follow Chaucer, the poem gives license "to love a human being for his or her own sake--not for God's…
Eisner, Sigmund.
Children's Literature Association Quarterly 23 (1998): 35-39.
Suggests that Chaucer "creates a persona from his son (Lewis Chaucer) to be the initial audience" of Astr and argues that Chaucer's prose style is pedagogic, written to be easily understood by children.
Johnson, Ian.
Maarten J. F. M. Hoenen and Lodi Nauta, eds. Boethius in the Middle Ages: Latin and Vernacular Tradition of the 'Consolatio Philosophiae' (Leiden, New York, and Koln: Brill, 1997), pp. 217-42.
Helps clarify the place and meaning of John Walton's translation of Boethius's "Consolatio Philosophiae" (1410) by contrasting it with Chaucer's Bo.
Bolens, Guillemette, and Paul Beekman Taylor.
Chaucer Review 32 (1998): 325-34.
At the beginning of BD, the Black Knight has an inaccurate conception of how chess is played. The misconception must be corrected by the narrator as the poem progresses and before the castle bell strikes midday and the game, the hunt, and the poem…
In BD and HF, Chaucer uses the "symplegades" or "clashing rocks" motif, which is related to the "Cliff of Death" theme in Germanic literature, as identified by Donald K. Fry.
Palmer, R. Barton.
David Galef, ed. Second Thoughts: A Focus on Rereading (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998), pp. 169-95.
Argues that in reading BD medieval audiences would also have reread Machaut's "Fonteinne Amoureuse" and recalled other works by Chaucer's predecessor. Chaucer's derivative version of the account of Ceyx and Alcyone "thematizes the story as a…
Steinberg, Glenn.
Theresa M. Krier, ed. Refiguring Chaucer in the Renaissance (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998), pp. 91-109.
Reads Spenser's "Daphnaida" as a "refiguration and response" to BD, modified by Spenser's Protestant outlook. Compares and contrasts the two poems, considering tone, idiom, and faith in the ability of art to console.
Thundy, Zacharias P.
Carmina Philosophiae 4 (1995): 91-109.
Suggests that as an example of several kinds of prophetic dream described by Macrobius, as an expression of wish fulfillment, and on the authority of Thynne, BD should be called "The Dream of Chaucer." Argues that the poem was probably recited for…
Yvernault-Gamaury, Martine.
Leo Carruthers, ed. Reves et propheties au Moyen Age. (London and New York: Longman, 1998), pp. 69-98.
Focuses on the function of reality and fiction in Chaucer's BD as influenced by Ovid, Boccaccio's "Amorosa visione," Guillaume de Machaut's "Dit de la Fonteinne Amoureuse," and "Jugement du roy de Behaigne."
Meecham-Jones, Simon.
Neil Thomas and Francoise Le Saux, eds. Unity and Difference in European Cultures. Durham Modern Language Series (Durham: University of Durham, 1998), pp. 155-71.
HF is a response to the "creative anxiety inherent in seeking to continue a literary inheritance believed to have already reached its highest peaks of achievement." In his presentation of a desert landscape, Chaucer partially resists Continental…
McTurk, Rory.
Leeds Studies in English 29 (1998): 173-83.
Several studies have suggested Chaucer's indebtedness to works by Giraldus Cambrensis. Comparison of passages from the "Topographia Hibernie" and HF support the claim that Chaucer used this particular Latin source.
Martin, Carol A. N.
Theresa M. Krier, ed. Refiguring Chaucer in the Renaissance (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998), pp. 40-65.
Assesses the presentation of HF in Speght's edition as an example of "Renaissance uneasiness" with the poem. Explains this uneasiness by contrasting HF with Sidney's "Apologie for Poetrie" (and Boccaccio's "Genealogie deorum gentilium libri"),…
Chaucer writes in a "highly literate cultural code of poetry," which reveals the evolving persona of the poet. It is possible that he read HF aloud in installments and that the original ending--reflecting, no doubt, some crisis at court--was…
