Assesses Chaucer's Ret as an adaptation of rhetorical and literary conventions of prologue, epilogue, and literary confession, arguing that his uses of the conventions in both ParsP and Ret indicate that he is resisting traditional rejections of…
Beidler, Peter G.
Chaucer Review 28 (1994): 237-51.
Chaucer's RvT contains sufficient close parallels with Boccaccio's story of Pinuccio and Niccolosa to suggest that the latter might have been a source for the former. Two German versions of the cradle-trick story, although more similar in general…
Burbridge, Roger T.
Annuale Mediaevale 12 (1971): 30-36.
Compares and contrasts aspects of RvT with two analogues, the A and B versions of "Le Meunier et les .II. Clers," arguing that Chaucer's version achieves greater vitality, clearer characterizations and motivations, and a great deal of comic irony.
Regan, Charles Lionel.
American Notes and Queries 22 (1984): 97-99.
Chaucer's reference in RvT 4096 to "make a clerkes berd" (i.e., "cheat") may be echoed a few lines later in the oath "by seint Cutberd" (line 4127), suggesting terms for shaving and castration.
The red hose of the Wife of Bath may be her method of preventing venereal disease. According to the "doctrine of signatures," a fancied resemblance of a color to a disease could aid in remedy of prevention. Red was thought to be obnoxious to evil…
Crowther, J. D. W.
English Studies in Canada 8 (1982): 125-37.
In spite of many similarities to saints' legends, PhyT does not entirely conform to the genre. Instead of being a tale of faith affirmed, it is one of faith betrayed. Virginius's lack of faith leads him to slay Virginia rather than allow her faith…
Ortego, Philip D.
Chaucer Review 9 (1974): 182-89.
Surveys efforts to explain the meaning of "phislyas" (MLE 2.1189; here attributed to the Shipman), summarizing contextual concerns, manuscript variants, and several etymological hypotheses; agrees with those who treat it as a term related to…
Near, Michael R.
Pacific Coast Philology 20 (1985): 18-24.
Calls into question subject-oriented readings; proposes reading of PF as process and act. The narrator is an element of his own fiction. Refers to Chaucer's model, Graunson's "Songe Sainct Valentin."
Fowler, David C.
David C. Fowler. The Bible in Middle English Literature (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984), pp. 128-70.
Presents an overview of Ambrose's "Hexameron" and argues the informing presence of the hexameral tradition on a deep level--though it scarcely rises to the surface--in the text of PF.
Feil, Patricia Ann.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1985): 1620A.
Studied in the context of bird debates, of works by Andreas Capellanus and Machaut, and of Chaucer's own KnT, WBT, and FranT, PF shows generic mastery and artistic integrity.
Explores three kinds of love in PF (transcendental, lustful, and natural), arguing that their deployment in the poem constitutes gentle mockery of courtly love.
Reed, Thomas L. [Jr.]
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 50 (1980): 215-22.
The bird parliament accords with scholastic and literary forms of the debate, including the terminology which characterizes the tradition. Typical of the literary debate, PF ends without any clear decision on either side. The initial "demande…
Tenebruso, Marie Yrsa.
Dissertation Abstracts International 40 (1980): 5856A.
In spite of the limitations imposed on Chaucer by virtue of his socially inferior position in relation to his courtly audiences, his thorough mastery of rhetorical principles and techniques allowed him to transmit his "sententia," namely, the…
Jost, Jean E.
Parentheses: Papers in Medieval Studies 1 (1999): 53-82. [Web publication.]
In PF Chaucer deconstructs antifeminist courtly conventions and appropriates power for women. The poem challenges the views of woman promulgated by courtly love by alluding to contemporary political events (marriage of Anne of Bohemia) and by…
PardT has been classified as anti-marchen because its unhappy ending violates the marchen's typical "weightlessness," but given the negative nature of the hero, PardT does follow the normal marchen pattern. "Anti-marchen" should be redefined.
Gillmeister, Heiner.
Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic Literary Studies 29-30 (1988): 58-79.
Compares Chaucer's PardT with contemporary sermons by Honorius de Augustoduno and Giles of Rome using the theme of "radix malorum est cupiditas." Despite similarities among the three, only Chaucer's exemplum contains highly sophisticated linguistic…
DeNeef, A. Leigh.
Journal of Narrative Technique 3 (1973): 85-96.
Shows that confusion of literal and metaphoric understanding characterizes the Pardoner, the rioters of PardT, and the pilgrim audience (including the Host), who fail to "separate the immorality" of the Pardoner from the morality of his exemplum. The…
Snell, William.
Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature 10 (1995): 1-16.
Assesses PardT in light of contemporary literature about pestilence, arguing that Chaucer both distances PardT from his audience and critiques Flemings.
Delasanta, Rodney K., and Constance M. Rousseau.
Chaucer Review 30 (1996): 319-42.
Chaucer's translation of this work, alluded to by Alceste in "Legend of Good Women" (G 404-18), has since been lost. Authors use MS Corpus Christi 137 as a basis for their work.
The statement that the fox "thurghout the hegges brast" into the barnyard, which does not accord with the earlier description of the yard as surrounded by a fence and a dry ditch, is perhaps best accounted for as a narrational paraphrase of the name…
Adams, Robert.
Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 77 (1995): 9-18.
Questions whether PrT is an exercise in dramatic irony in which the Prioress's anti-Semitism is exposed to ridicule. The mother in PrT is called "this newe Rachel," but Rachel was a Jewish mother lamenting the massacre of Jewish babies by a Gentil…
Middleton, Anne.
Edward W. Said, ed. Literature and Society. Selected Papers from the English Institute. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1980), pp. 15-56.
Chaucer's pilgrims agree that "the pleasure and the use of literature are one thing," that the utility of literature lies not only in the kernel of its theme but in the felicities of its style and the pleasure of its audience as well. In this view,…
