Although Chaucer does not divert from the pattern of Troilus's tragic fall from the top of the wheel of fortune, he employs ironic twists and ambiguities that diffuse the rigidity of the tale. The transitions in TC subvert attention from rigid…
The warning concerning silence in ManT derives from its penultimate position in CT and from the concept that real pilgrims are struck dumb on approaching the Holy Land (a theme echoed in Dante and de Lille). The Parson refuses to tell a tale, not…
An entry on a "boke of schrift" found in a commonplace book compiled by Cheshire gentleman Humphrey Newton (1466-1536) contains the section against swearers and flatterers from ParsT (600-21, 626-27). Humphrey perhaps chose this passage for its…
Details the strategy of "obeisant self-authorization " by which Lydgate places himself in Chaucer's debt, simultaneously embracing the older poet's influence and "overthrowing" his "paternal presence." He does this by controlling the Host-figure and…
Carter, Ronnie D, and David G. Bailey.
Chaucer Review 34: 236-41, 1999.
Polish academic writing on Chaucer follows a political pattern. Retreating from politically charged topics, students and professors have concentrated on linguistics topics, such as morphology, syntax, semantics, and loanwords. Most "literary"…
Close reading of three passages on Troilus's suffering (5.218-38, 540-53, 1674-1722) reveals an intensification of emotion through "rhetorical figures of compression and repetition and by cascades of rhyme sounds within the rhyme royal forms." The…
Duffell, Martin J.
Chaucer Review 34: 269-88, 2000.
Chaucer's model for the iambic pentameter line was Boccaccio's endecasillabo, not the French vers de dix. Chaucer introduced the "void" position, the "extra unprominent syllable within the hemistich, and possibly the epic caesura." All of his…
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…
PhyT is concerned with texts, whether "historical" or the "fable." Virginia is compared to a text--a "book"--and the concerns with governance and authority in the Tale pertain to interpretation.
Although modern readers read SqT as parody, such a reading would have seemed "preposterous" to pre-eighteenth-century readers, who were concerned with sententiae. Pairing tales, pouring over large sections of text, and engaging in self-reflections…
Viewed in both historical and literary contexts, the Friar's "typet" (probably a shoulder cape with a deep hood) and his "semycope" (a short cloak) show that he is breaking sumptuary laws for his fraternal order. That he also dresses in the finest…
Chaucer manipulates names in the TC to add nuance to the individual characters and to make clear their subtle relationships. Although "Pandare" is used first, for example, the name "Pandarus" relates to "Troilus" and implies the insinuation of the…
Longsworth, Robert (M.)
Chaucer Review 34: 372-87, 2000.
Through her use of the Samaritan woman, the Wife argues for the "exegetical reliability" of her own experience. Longsworth explores several biblical references in WBP and their exegetical backgrounds to show how the Wife, even while more…
Chaucer drew from more than one segment of Filocolo to design FranT. He incorporated the larger frame narrative of Florio and Biancafiore, a tale of Byzantine origin that allowed him to draw on various elements of the copious and complicated…
Beidler, Peter G.
Chaucer Review 34: 388-97, 2000.
In GP, the Wife's "foot-mantel" is not a "skirt," but a set of leggings or riding chaps, pulled up over the feet and legs from the bottom. "Large" refers not to the size of the Wife's hips, but to the loose drapery of the garment. The Wife may be…
Foster, Edward E.
Chaucer Review 34: 398-409, 2000.
Chaucer possibly intended for Mel to be a take-it-or-leave-it kind of work. Its storyline was extremely familiar in the fourteenth century, and its very presence within CT made a statement. Mel is a tale to be known rather than read, both by…
Laird, Edgar [S.]
Chaucer Review 34: 410-15, 2000.
Trinity College, Cambridge MS R.14.52 contains a late-fifteenth-century fragment of Astr. Its contents help illuminate previous copies of Astr and show Chaucer as a "compiler," creating a treatise out of which "other such treatises could be put…
In MLT, Gower's tale of Constance, and Émaré, the role of daughter--the woman cast adrift--is ambiguous, entailing both helplessness and independence, subversion and female power. Such tales reflect the notion of the daughter moving from…
As the first printer to collect Chaucer's works, Pynson has been accused of "inflating" and "contaminating" Chaucer's canon. But the concept of an author's "complete works" did not solidify until the nineteenth century. Pynson used Chaucer's name to…
Morrison, Susan S[igne].
Chaucer Review 34: 69-86, 1999.
In relation to the 1380 Cecily Chaumpaigne text, critics have generally suspected Cecily instead of Chaucer. This interpretation may fulfill a scholar's agenda but does not assist biographical accuracy. Attempting to "hear Cecily's voice" among the…
Although only seventy years separated Dante's and Chaucer's creative peaks, different philosophies affected their attempts to communicate divine truth through poetry. Reflecting Augustinian philosophy, Dante believed that all things divine could be…
Assesses Chaucer's sense of poetic tradition in HF, arguing that while following Dante's use of the vernacular, Chaucer eschewed Italian emulation of classical models because he distrusted "classical pretensions to artistic or moral superiority."
Late-medieval versions of CYT 8.1428-81 misread and/or misrepresent the text as an authority on alchemy, a reflection of a pervasive admiration of Chaucer as a man of science. Not until Enlightenment debunking of alchemy did scholars recognize these…
Using ironic techniques deplored by Christine, Chaucer is often misunderstood by modern audiences. Rigby contrasts Christine's "comprehensive defence of women" with Chaucer's satire in WBP, where Alisoun is the target.
