Browse Items (16536 total)

Treats BD as an elegy, examining figures of speech.

Swooning in medieval literature points to a marked cultural contrast between medieval sensibilities and modern ones for which swooning is extreme and exceptional. This broad survey defines swooning as a "loss of consciousness, brought on by…

Mel suggests that interpretative perspective is crucial to meaning. Like the rest of fallen nature, language is indeterminate, so prudence is required to make sense of contingent existence. Apparent contradictions in Mel disappear if we understand…

Describes Southern Methodist University Bridwell Library's 1896 William Morris paper copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer. Includes details about letters, manuscript notes, drafts of illustrations and borders by Edward Burne-Jones, photographs, and other…

Describes the aesthetic and moral principles and practices, overt and covert, of the CT, acclaiming the vitality of the "framing structure" of the links and the complex ironies of the narrator (especially in Ret) for the ways that they enable and…

Chaucer's catalogues of feminine delights seem totally original, but upon closer scrutiny they reveal techniques employed by many other poets both serious and humorous.

Surveys and comments on English poetic translations of Dante's "Commedia" from Chaucer to Laurence Binyon, opening with mention of the Ugolino episode from MkT (based on "Inferno" XXXIII 1-90), followed by quotation of SNP 8.36-56, calling it a…

Surveys and comments on English poetic translations of Dante's "Commedia" from Chaucer to Laurence Binyon, opening with mention of the Ugolino episode from MkT (based on "Inferno" XXXIII 1-90), followed by quotation of SNP 8.36-56, calling it a…

As a translation of "Roman de la Rose," Chaucer's Rom is remarkably faithful; nevertheless, Chaucer did make changes to create greater "ease" and intimacy."

Chaucer's chief object in LGW is to explore, through the art of "variatio," irrational sexual passion as a source of human misery. The legends divide into three distinct groups: the pathetic tale, Dido and its variations, and star-crossed lovers.

Collection of essays on ekphrastic discourse from the eleventh to the seventeenth century in texts written in Middle English, but also Medieval Latin, Old French, Middle Scots, Middle High German, and Early Modern English. For four essays that…

Reflects on how GP yields patterns for writers to emulate, since the first line concerns the cycle of nature, patterns of order and hierarchy, and the theme of regeneration, in a syntactically complicated periodic sentence.

The signs of unfinishedness which appear most prominently in Chaucer's unfinished pieces are also present in the more finished pieces, where they make a major contribution to Chaucer's meaning. Chaucer's unfinishedness is due in part to the uses he…

Encourages study of the classical-medieval theory and practice of artificial memory, i.e., memory training that depends on associating ideas with familiar places, whether real or imagined. Comments on the important work of Frances Yates and…

In his paintings of the Canterbury pilgrims, Blake shows the influence of previous illustrations for and commentary upon CT, but goes beyond the artistic and textual tradition to set the group of pilgrims in his own Blakean cosmos, pairing characters…

Treats the "psychological realism" and "moral allegory" in TC as complementary, analyzing the imagery and themes of ancient gods, the moon, and mutability, associated with Criseyde. Images of hell and torment in the final two books, differing from…

Iconographic imagery in ClT indicates Griselda's exemplary physical, moral, and spiritual beauty.

Johnson examines Chaucer's attitudes about and representations of the "workings of the soul in stirring itself towards God," comparing Bo to its Boethian original in light of late fourteenth-century pastoral instruction and tracing similar sentiments…

Asserting the impossibility of a neutral approach and citing her Jewish ancestry, Paley considers PrT in its historical context.

Rejects the "drunkenness hypothesis" as a way of explaining the Pardoner's character, arguing that pride and "counterfeit humility" underlie the characterization and that the "[s]uspicion, aversion, and contempt" of the pilgrim audience toward him…

Describes the construction and functions of the astrolabe, an instrument "used for both astronomical and terrestrial observations," and an "analogue computer" for "determining the local time." Surveys historical descriptions of the construction of…

Explains the exegetical tradition of associating Noah with astrological prediction of the Flood and suggests that in MilT "Hende Nicolas has built his entire scheme" to dupe John "around the astrological tradition of the Flood," thereby lending comic…

The Physician's being "grounded in astronomye," i.e., astrology, is not a slighting gibe at his abilities. The publication of Nicholas of Lynn's "Kalendarium" (ed. Sigmund Eisner, Chaucer Library) offers "convincing evidence that Chaucer intended no…

WBP contains two quotations from Ptolemy (3.180-81, 326-27), setting up a system for classifying knowledge according to practica (the Wife) and theorica (Ptolemy). The Wife recontextualizes and trivializes Ptolemy's efforts to achieve a vision of…

Argues that the astronomical conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in TC 3.624-25 does not allude to a specific event in 1385 (by which the central book of the poem has been dated) but to a more "general tradition" of foreboding, thematically appropriate…