Calin, William.
Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi, ed. Eustache Deschamps, French Courtier-Poet: His Work and His World (New York: AMS Press, 1998), pp.73-83.
Contrary to earlier critical opinion, the "Ballade to Chaucer" demonstrates very little about Chaucer's renown outside court circles in southern England; it cannot necessarily be read as a sincere expression of Deschamp's opinion of Chaucer the poet.
Boitani, Piero.
Studi sul Boccaccio 25 (1997): 311-29
Demonstrates the influence of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio on Chaucer and, in turn, on English literary tradition, employing an extended metaphor that equates Italian tradition with the town of Certaldo and English tradition with Canterbury.
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
Argues that the Bible is a far more pervasive influence on Chaucer than has been previously recognized. Chaucer uses the Bible or its glosses in most of his writings, responding--through quotation, paraphrase, or allusion--to traditional notions of…
Reviews Furnivall-Halliwell correspondence, which is concerned mainly wiht the affairs of the New Shakespeare Society, but also includes accounts of Furnivall's work on Chaucer manuscripts.
Solopova, Elizabeth.
W. Speed Hill, ed. New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, II: Papers of the Renaissance English Text Society, 1992-1996. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, no. 188 (Tempe, Ariz.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, with the Renaissance English Text Society, 1998), pp. 121-32.
A description of questions raised in the process of producing the first installment of the computer-assisted "Canterbury Tales" Project (SAC 20 [1998], no. 11), and a justification of the project. The first installment made possible Solopova's…
McInerney, Maud Burnett.
Peter G. Beidler, ed. Masculinities in Chaucer: Approaches to Maleness in the 'Canterbury Tales' and 'Troilus and Criseyde' (Cambridge; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1998), pp. 221-35.
Chaucer plays with Ovid's "Metamorphoses" in his characterization of Troilus in bk. 3, examining the nature of masculinity by depicting Troilus as a "man trapped between two literary modes of loving."
Keller, Kimberly Anne.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60 (1999): 122A.
A psychoanalytic, Lacanian study of the lover's complaint reveals the fragmented lover as seeking at once wholeness through recognition of his "trouthe" by the lady and union with her. Treats lovers' fantasies and failures in TC, Lydgate, Hoccleve,…
Kaylor, Noel Harold, Jr.
Medieval English Studies 5 (1997): 83-105.
The influence of Boethius and Dante "gives shape and universal meaning" to TC. The operation of Fortune and her wheel, the four "Classical cardinal emotions," Dante's three spiritual realms, and the code of knighthood are evident in the deep…
2 vols. Volume 1: Texts and Illustrations. Volume 2: Catalogue and Indexes. Descriptions of 140 late-medieval manuscripts, selected for their representative value and focusing on their styles and programs of illustration. The introduction (1:…
Partridge, Stephen.
Daniel Pinti, ed. Writing After Chaucer: Essential Reading in Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century (London and New York: Garland, 1998), pp. 2-26.
Focusing on manuscripts of Chaucer's works, Partridge assesses the habits of scribes and book owners in the fifteenth century, showing how variants among texts alter meaning and how fifteenth-century readers, aware of such variants, made…
Silar, Theodore I.
Chaucer Review 32 (1998): 284-309.
The repetition of "fin" (the settlement of a fictitious suit) at the ending of TC has many legal overtones. It evokes "landholding," "harmonization of contrary positions," and "legal fiction," as in a legal suit for which there is, as in TC, a…
Wetherbee, Winthrop.
Thomas C. Stillinger, ed. Critical Essays on Geoffrey Chaucer (New York: G.K. Hall; London: Prentice Hall International, 1998), pp.243-66.
An analysis of the end of TC that reads Troilus's ascent (itself inherently meaningless) as a stage in the progress of the narrator's recognition of the relations between Christian poetry and classical tradition.
The word "directe" has been taken to mean "to dedicate," and critics have assumed that the poem was dedicated to Gower. But "ye loveres," Gower and Strode, are sent the poem for correction, especially in morals and philosophy. The word "directe"…
Costomiris, Robert.
The Library, 6th ser., 20 (1998): 99-117.
Uses correspondences between the Tanner texts of Clanvowe's poem and that printed in Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer to argue that Thynne's dependence on this manuscript was greater than scholars have avowed.
Boffey, Julia,and A. S. G. Edwards.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 20 (1998): 201-18.
Assesses John Shirley's role in the construction of the canon of Chaucer's shorter poems, using as test cases three poems attributed to Chaucer by Shirley but not by modern tradition: "The Chronicle [of Nine Women] Made by Chaucer" (Bodleian Library…
Prendergast, Thomas A.
William F. Gentrup, ed. Reinventing the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Constructions of the Medieval and Early Modern Periods ([Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), pp. 63-76.
Surveys "legends" about Chaucer's prodigality, from Thomas Usk's "Testament of Love" to early editions of Purse and modern critical reception of the poem. Editions of Purse and critical responses seek to defend Chaucer "from charges of political…
Taylor, Andrew.
Paul Budra and Betty A. Schellenberg, eds. Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel. (Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press, 1998), pp. 34-52.
Reads the "Tale of Beryn" and Lydgate's "Seige of Thebes" as acts of resistance to Chaucer's dissolution of his fiction in the meditation that is ParsT. These continuations of CT seek to keep alive the drama of CT through visualization, a form of…
Spreuwenberg-Stewart, Allison Dean.
Dissertation Abstracts International 58 (1998): 3542A.
Considers issues of gender, identity, and sexuality in depictions of clothing in poetry by Chaucer (Rom), Marlowe, Donne, Samuel Butler, and Milton. Through dress, Rom depicts the richness of desire and the roles of art and culture in both seduction…
Olson, Mary Catherine.
Dissertation Abstracts International 58 (1998): 4645A.
Seeks to explain how and in what ways illustrations affect reading, discussing the manuscripts of the Harley Psalter, the Old English Illustrated Hexateuch, the Marvels of the East, and the Ellesmere manuscript of CT. Ellesmere raises questions…
Machan, Tim William.
Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 91 (1997): 31-50.
Examines the textual tradition of Bo in light of the twelfth- to fifteenth-century textual tradition of Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," suggesting that the best text of Bo is Cambridge University Library ii.iii.21.
Horobin, S. C. P.
English Studies 79 (1998): 415-24.
Chaucer's spelling habits are still uncertain. Reasons for disagreement among scholars lie in approaches to the problem. Analysis of the spelling "ayein"/"ayeyn" in Hengwrt and Ellesmere and related manuscripts suggests that studies based on the…
Horobin, S. C. P.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 99 (1998): 411-17.
The similar scribal features of three manuscripts of CT (Devonshire; Trinity College, Cambridge R.3.3; and Bodleian Rawlinson Poetry 223) have sometimes been attributed to a group of scribes and supervisors. This attribution has been used to support…
Harris, Kate.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 20 (1998): 167-99.
The compiler-editor-scribe of the prose history in Trinity College, Oxford MS D 29 used ParsT and Mel as a source in six passages. The same scribe included Mel and MkT in Huntington MS HM 144. Harris describes the scribal adjustments of Chaucer's…
Greetham, David.
Vincent P. McCarren and Douglas Moffat, eds. A Guide to Editing Middle English (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998), pp. 287-302
Comments on theories that underlie the practice of editing Middle English texts, using Chaucer's Summoner as an extended analogue for such a commentary.
A biography of John Shirley (d. 1456) that examines available life-records and assesses his scribal output and influence. Shirley was a scribe of several important manuscripts that include works by Chaucer, Lydgate, and Gower; a collector and…
