Browse Items (16376 total)

Encyclopedia entry that summarizes Chaucer's debt to classical tradition as source material for his plots, imaginings of the classical past, and "voicings" of classical speakers throughout his corpus. Comments on Chaucer's awareness of mediation and…

Murder mystery set against the backdrop of political uncertainty over the impending death of Archbishop Thoresby of York and investigated by Owen Archer, aided by his confidante Geoffrey Chaucer, recently appointed chamber squire to Edward III. Other…

Reads FrT as an exemplum against greed that is informed by commonplaces drawn from sermon tradition, specifically the "pulpit practice of late medieval mendicants." Aligns details of the plot and rhetoric in FrT with parallels found in works by John…

Identifies and describes geographical names and places used by Chaucer or evidently known to him. Arranged alphabetically, the dictionary lists names, describes the places, and their occurrences in Chaucer's works, offering etymologies for British…

Reads CYPT as Chaucer's response to the "pretentiousness, perverseness, and confusion he found in alchemy," exploring the poet's knowledge of alchemical sources, the place of CYPT in CT (especially in juxtaposition with SNT), and the skill and irony…

Examines the "process whereby realism evolved in Chaucer's work," particularly the "stylistic devices by which it was secured," considering Anel, TC, and various aspects of CT: early and late tales, the frame, and fabliaux.

On pp. 67-83 this anthology includes WBP in Theodore Morrison's modern verse translation and the ballade from LGWP.

Studies the Collation Text and the Printer's Copy of Tyrwhitt's edition of CT, identifying his reliance on two manuscript witnesses--British Library Harley 7335 and Cambridge University Library Dd.4.24--and establishing "his fidelity to the…

Compares and contrasts Chaucer's and Langland's views of the "lower clergy" (monks, friars, and parish priests) in light of the "religious backgrounds" of their age, arguing that despite their stylistic differences their views are very similar in…

Includes introductions to seven authors and works of western literature, keyed to texts in translation or modernization available in the "Great Books of the Western World" series. The "Sixth Reading" here (pp. 139-66) pertains to Chaucer and CT,…

Historical novel set in late-medieval England. Includes a character modeled on the Wife of Bath: Alyson, who owns a bathhouse/brothel in Southwark. Originally published as "The Brewer's Tale," North Sydney: Harlequin, 2014; 584 pp.

Frame-tale science fiction novel with echoes of CT, e.g., quotation of GP 1.12 on the opening page, recurrent references to travelers as "pilgrims," a galactic ship named "Geoffrey," interpolated tales (although purportedly autobiographical), etc.…

Focuses on three extant Tudor song-books to chart the relations between lyric and song in early English tradition, including discussion of popular and courtly works, late-medieval and early modern music, and the impact of the Reformation. Two issues…

Chapter 15, "Le Roman de Renart en Angleterre" (pp. 672-88), summarizes NPT and treats Pierre de Saint-Cloud's "Roman de Renart" (branch 2) as its major source, focusing on tone and spirit, and attributing differences to Chaucer's art, originality,…

An annotated bibliography, listing materials that pertain to the "Consolation of Philosophy" in French, German, Old English and Middle English, with sections on Chaucer's translation and to its influence, with seventy-six and forty-three items…

Introduces the manuscript of the Luttrell Psalter and the Oxford copy of William Caxton's second edition of CT (with hand-colored woodcuts), with extensive visual representation of the codices (panning many details) and their library settings,…

Treats PardPT as parts of a structured sermon against gluttony, gambling, swearing, and "'superbia', pride in its most Satanic form." The revelers and the Pardoner himself are guilty of the latter.

Describes several layers of allegorical meaning in NPT, explaining them in an ascending scheme of specific to general, content to form; suggests that Chaucer artfully combines the incommensurable to maintain both jest and earnest.

Explores the "[p]ossible influence" of ShT "on the Don Juan theme" in England and in Spain, observing that the former "is likely enough but difficult to prove," while the latter is "very unlikely and virtually unprovable."

Argues that Chaucer's use of conventional hunter and prey images in FrT "serves an organic function within the aesthetic whole of the work." Rather than "functioning as mere decoration" it reinforces and deepens "the comic irony both inherent and…

Assesses Criseyde's character in light of Carl Jung's theory of the nature of love as a "result of the incomplete human soul seeking its complement"--the "anima" seeking its "animus." Troilus's failure to act disappoints Criseyde's courtly…

Maintains that Chaucer corrected Boccaccio arbitrarily when he claims at MkT 7.2248 that Persians wrote about Zenobia.

Examines references to times and dates in Book II of TC, arguing that Chaucer creates a double sense of time in order to convey a "rapid sequence of events" among the three main characters while also conveying through a "longer time scheme" the…

Explores Chaucer's stylistic virtuosity in his references to horses and riding, commenting on appropriateness, suggestive naming and coloring, metaphoric and imagistic implications, and comic effects. Includes comments on horses in TC, LGW, and CT.

Comments on Chaucer's status as a member of the middle class, and explores his depiction of middle-class society in CT, with attention to how it reflects his contemporary world. Includes four b&w illustrations.