Considers Troilus' allusion to Oedipus at 4.300, and rejects the suggestion that it reflects psychological understanding; Troilus refers to Oedipus as an exemplar of someone victimized by Fortune.
The original audience of TC would have read the decision of the Trojan Parliament in light of the 1385 Durham Ordinances, clause 3. Since this clause explicitly prohibits the imprisoning of unarmed women, the parallel suggests Criseyde's status as a…
Kaylor, [Noel] Harold, [Jr.]
Marcin Krygier and Liliana Sikorska, eds. To Make His Englissh Sweete upon His Tonge (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 11-19.
Following a four-part epistemological scheme posed in Boethius's Consolatio, Chaucer develops Troilus's love in TC from senses through images and reason to intelligence. As a figure of emotion, subject to tragedy, Troilus serves as a contrast to…
Blamires, Alcuin.
Corinne Saunders, ed. A Companion to Medieval Poetry (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010), pp. 335-51.
Blamires introduces TC as Chaucer's "longest finished poem," commenting on sources, fusion of genres, suppleness of verse form and diction, the characters' sympathies, and the poem's "emotional trajectory."
When Troilus kisses only Criseyde's eyes in TC 3.1352-55, the gesture marks a departure from Boccaccio, whose lovers kiss eyes, lips, and breasts. Following thirteenth-century French literary convention, the behavior may illustrate Chaucer's attempt…
Chaucer's transformations of his sources produced a work that invites multiple and open-ended responses. Benson contrasts TC and its source, Boccaccio's Filostrato; he assesses medieval and modern readership of TC; and he considers the story of Troy…
Travis, Peter W.
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 18 (1988): 195-220.
In its use of unarticulated sounds, nonce words, models of grammatical meaning, and logical propositions and contradictions, as well as its specific historical circumstances, NPT draws on the most familiar and elementary of cultural structures,…
Historical fiction and murder mystery, involving Chaucer and his contemporaries, including John of Gaunt, Adam Scriveyn, the murdered Cecily Champagne, and others.
Lopresti, Vincent August.
Dissertation Abstracts International 28.02 (1967): 636A.
Explores Chaucer's references and allusions to pagan gods in BD, Mars, KnT, TC, and MerT, emphasizing his innovations that are evident in light of source-and-analogue analysis.
Outlines the "historical background on outlawry as a legal practice," and uses this background to explore how the depictions of outlaws in WBT and KnT unveil "chivalry's ideological blemishes" by showing how outlawry displaces a character's…
Shimonomoto, Keiko.
Keiko Shimonomoto. The Use of Ye and Thou in the Canterbury Tales, and Collected Articles (Tokyo: Waseda Univesity Enterprise, 2001), pp. 93-100.
Originally published in the Bulletin of the Institute of Language Teaching (Waseda University) 51 (1996). Challenges M. A. K. Halliday's 1988 description of the prose style of Astr, focusing on the use of second-person pronouns and calling for…
Brown, Peter.
Suzanne Conklin Akbari and James Simpson, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Chaucer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), pp. 11-25.
Details the extant evidence for Chaucer's travel, both in England and abroad, noting that all known travel is for the court, if we define it as "the various royal households with which Geoffrey Chaucer was associated." Explores countries and places…
Kallich, Paul Eugene.
Dissertation Abstracts International 44 (1984): 2143A.
In poetry (BD, ABC) and in prose (Bo, Mel), Chaucer as translator of French diverged early from his sources; his mature work (including MerT) shows him adapting verse and molding English prose, altering received texts.
Thompson, W. Meredith.
Norman Davis and C. L. Wrenn, eds. English and Medieval Studies Presented to J. R. R. Tolkien on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday (New York: Humanities; London: Allen and Unwin, 1962), pp. 183-99.
Surveys Chaucer's translations of passages from the Bible, commenting on his Biblical knowledge, his artistry in translating and using scripture, his mediating sources, his possible uses of the Vulgate and Wycliffite versions, and his "attitude" to…
Griffin, Conan M., trans.
Boston, Mass.: Brill, 2023.
Translates Bo into modern idiomatic English, with text based on "The Riverside Chaucer," 3rd ed. (1986), and bottom-of-page notes, a glossary of proper names, and a citation glossary of Middle English words in Bo accompanied by Latin equivalents.…
Ono, Mana.
Studies in Medieval Language and Literature (Tokyo) 1 (1986): 93-105.
Comparing the use of "gentil" and "gentilesse" in Bo 3, pt. 6, 9, with Latin and French texts shows that Boethius had a great influence on Chaucer through Jean de Meun and that Chaucer uses the words in his own skillful way, as seen in works such as…
Oka, Saburo.
Thought Currents in English 63 (1990): 79-109.
The tale of Philomela involves a love triangle of one male and two females. Chaucer's narrative focuses on Philomene whereas Gower's analogue focuses on both Philomene and Progne. Chaucer achieves his most important transformation of the story by…
Haas, Renate.
Joerg O. Fichte, Karl Heinz Goller, and Bernhard Schimmelpfennig, eds. Zusammenhange, Einflusse, Wirkungen (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1986), pp. 451-65.
Shows Chaucer's congruences with early humanist conceptions of tragedy (including Petrarch's and Boccaccio's) and sketches the consequences for a new interpretation of MkT.
Gaylord, Alan.
Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest 11 (2004): 1-25.
An extended example of "prosodic criticism," which comments on several passages of TC (1.1-21, 53-56, 99-133, 981-87, 1016-29; 2.109-47, 190-217, 309-28, 407-28, 443-48; and 3.1198-1211). Gaylord explains how Chaucer's poetry invites readers to be…
The medieval conceptualization of tragedy has its roots in classical tradition, especially Seneca as mediated by Boethius. Herold surveys classical, patristic, and medieval ideas of tragedy and the tragic, exploring how Chaucer, among others,…
Herold, Christine.
Dissertation Abstracts International 55 (1995): 2382A.
Discusses the differences and similarities between classical Greek ideas and late Roman and medieval Christian concepts of tragedy, focusing on Lucias Annaeus Seneca and his influence on the works of Chaucer, Jean de Meun, and Boccaccio.
