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.
Investigates credulity as a feature of radical medieval thought (Marsilio of Padua, William of Ockham, John Wycliffe) and as depicted in Boccaccio and Chaucer. A creative artist rather than a philosopher or theologian, Chaucer uses various characters…
McDonald, Nicola F.
Chaucer Review 35: 22-42. , 2000.
Manuscript evidence shows that fifteenth-century female readers of LGW were urban and either household servants or daughters of the gentry, whereas the implied female audience of fourteenth-century manuscripts consisted of members of the nobility,…
Chaucer employs "costume signs" in TC, affecting plot and characterization. Signature costumes assigned to each character shed light on significant parts of the plot, as do the reversal and degeneration of costume patterns. Characterization through…
Bolens, Guillemette, and Paul Beekman Taylor.
Chaucer Review 35: 281-93, 2001.
The "remedia" for the Black Knight's loss is achieved in two parts: the "reshaping" of the Black Knight's imaginative metaphor (chess representing the art of love) and the sounding of the castle bell, which awakens the poet and "ends both hunt and…
Bishop, Kathleen A.
Chaucer Review 35: 294-317, 2001.
Classical and medieval Latin influences on the fabliaux are as important to analyze as are the analogues Chaucer draws upon for his tales. Specifically, a close consideration of Plautus and Latin elegiac comedy can lead to a fuller understanding of…
Errors in "Cliffs Notes" and "MAX Notes" guides on the Wife of Bath lead to an unsympathetic interpretation of the character and inaccurate reading of WBT.
ClT reflects aspects of Richard II's life and philosophy of kingship--and perhaps Chaucer's fanciful solutions to Richard II's political dilemma of an heirless realm: divorce or a consort advisor. The insistence on "obedience to authority" in ClT…
Adam is a more complex work than generally thought, evoking Adam the "first father" and "the earthly instrument of chaos and capriciousness." The scribe's "long lokkes" link him to Chaucer's other prideful, foppish characters. The threatened…
Absolon's profession is reflected in his elaborate hairstyle (rather than tonsure); in his red, white, and blue clothing; and in his choice of the cultour as a tool for revenge. With cutting blade in hand, Absolon takes his "patient" by surprise,…
Pakkala-Weckström, Mari.
Chaucer Review 35: 399-411, 2001.
The debate between Prudence and Melibee is the struggle for "maistrie" between husband and wife. Learned and sophisticated, Prudence exhibits "feminine powers of persuasion." She changes from being "humble and respectful" to being "impatient,"…
Juxtaposes the various rhetorical styles of BD and its central dialogue to highlight the resolution of the two in the final couplet. Assesses the narrator by comparing his text and its rhetoric and by examining borrowings from Ovid, the figure of the…
When seen in light of probable sources in Decameron 8.1-2 and contrasted with Chaucer's other fabliaux, ShT is an "elegantly sophisticated comedy of bourgeois values [written] by a socially and intellectually elevated vintner's son."
Smith, Warren S.
Chaucer Review 36 : 374-90, 2002.
Far from being rambling, hasty, or incoherent, Dorigen's lament on faithful and faithless wives is a careful working out of the solution to her own dilemma. Starting with stories from Jerome's "Against Jovinian," she develops a favorable, Augustinian…
Driver, Martha W.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 228-49.
Driver examines John Speed's portrait of Chaucer (first printed version, Speght 1598) as a representation of "Elizabethan nationalism" and an emblem of Chaucer's reception. She also discusses Speed's career as a cartographer and historian and…
Twombly, Robert G.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 250-69.
Examines the rioters' encounter with the Old Man in PardT in light of Dominican meditation on death as a form of "affective psychology," exemplified in Henry Suso's "The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom." In this genre, "meeting" Death is a means to…
Various concepts of "otherness" in SqT--oriental setting, magic, non-human speech, female centrality--reflect Chaucer's "reshaping" of Ovidian "transformation" myth. His efforts to enter "into feminized animal subjectivity . . . intertwine with…
Grossi, Joseph L., Jr.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 298-309.
Grossi compares details of SNT with Jacob of Voragine's version in the "Golden Legend" and the Franciscan "abridgement" of the life of Saint Cecilia, arguing that Chaucer "sought to widen the intellectual divide between Roman paganism and primitive…
