Browse Items (16472 total)

Transcriptions of previously unpublished manuscript versions of three minor poems: "ABC" from Melbourne MS.; "Truth" from Nottinghame ME LM I; "Wom Unc" from Bodleian Fairfax 16.

Scog is successful as an expression of courtly friendship in the particular social circumstances of civil servants' lives.

The ms cited, an anthology of astronomical treatises possibly compiled in Spain c.1303, and transferred to England c.1350,may contain the specific sources for Chaucer's Astr. Two Chaucerian interpolations coincide with ms marginalia, and Chaucer's…

Chaucer's Clerk responds to WBT using the poetry of Petrarch, the tale of Griselda, and a spiritually improved version of Aristotelian logic.

Godwin's literary criticism of Chaucer's poetry contributed to the Romantic conception of Chaucer the man. His "Life" gives insight into the idea of the Middle Ages in early-nineteenth-century England.

Evaluation of the characteristics of genuine, spontaneous conversation supports the conclusion that CT provides realistic evidence of English speech in the late fourteenth century. Chaucerian conversation is affected by the need of speech to reflect…

A complete concordance to GP based on Robinson's second edition. All the words in GP are glossed on the basis of OED and MMED.

Chaucer's comments on language show him to be particularly sensitive to all aspects of English, which had become fully accepted as a literary language. Along with other Middle English writers like the "Gawain"-poet and Langland, he manipulates…

In MLT Chaucer does not change the events found in Trevet, but, rather, transforms their telling so as to alter our perceptions of them. His purposeful complicating expresses the Man of Law's narrative technique.

The character types in Chaucer's comic tales spring from the popular Aristophanic tradition; "popular" here does not exclude the learned or learning. While the humor of the tales is ambivalent and derisive, it yet elicits acceptance and sympathy.

Though the Pardoner is consummately evil, the Host must be reconciled with him because the former is still a representative of the church. The Host's outburst, though justified, is destructive because to the company the Pardoner is an embodiment of…

A "multiple approach" to PrT treats the significant inter-relationships between structure, theme, and meaning. For instance, Chaucer's use of prayer heightens the religious mood of this tale and emphasizes the mother/son thematic conflict.

The "Roman de Renart" has been overemphasized as a source for NPT and for other Middle English works; English animal fables, perhaps influenced in part by the "Roman," are more likely sources and should be explored more thoroughly.

Introduction to CT that surveys major concerns of the work, including narrative technique, character development, comedy, setting, major themes, reader involvement, and sources and analogues.

Tabulates the "frequency and percentage" of the modal auxiliaries shall/will and should/would in CT, presenting in eight tables the statistical data in relation to grammar (types of sentences and clauses, person, etc.), mode (poetry and prose), and…

Documents the "absence of a true charismatic hero who is valiant and noble" in the literature of medieval western Europe, commenting on a wide variety of works, including those by Chaucer, and attributing the late-medieval "retreat from heroism" to a…

Compares Chaucer's satire of courtly love with similar depictions in "Frauendienst" by Ulrich von Lichtenstein, "De Guillaume au Faucon," and "Flamenca," all of which reflect awareness of the fading of the courtly ideal and the dissolution of noble…

Explores problems in "Troilus and Cressida" in light of Shakespeare's uses of his sources, including TC.

Distinguishes two kinds of love associated with Venus in the Middle Ages, both of them subsets of earthly love: one "legitimate, sacramental, natural, and in harmony with natural law; the other, illegitimate, perverted, selfish, and sinful." Traces…

Gauges Chaucer's influence on Milton, often mediated by Spenser, commenting on the use of interlace or "labyrinth design" in the works of the poets and their concern with the "picture of quotidian domestic life" in the marriage tales of CT and in…

Assesses the meaning and status of "courtly" love and its relation to marriage in medieval traditions and critical commentary on these traditions. Considers a wide range of medieval Latin and vernacular representations of love and marriage, and…

A pedagogical introduction to the practices involved in preparing a critical edition of a Middle English text, with commentary on paleography, the language of Middle English, and the processes of textual criticism. Includes reproductions of the…

Originally published in 1949, the volume includes modern translations of selections from CT (all except for ShT, Mel, MkT, ClT, SqT, PhyT, MancT, and ParsT, which are described in summary); TC; selections from HF and LGWP; and samples of the short…

Defines and classifies various kinds of comedy according to their natures, subject matters, and social functions; then surveys this variety in the English literary tradition from the Middle Ages to 1970. Describes Chaucer's comedy (pp. 67-75) as…

Assesses the attitudes toward love and internality reflected in various accounts of the Dido and Aeneas story: Virgil's "Aeneid," Ovid's "Heroides," the "Roman d'Enéas," Chaucer's LGW, and Marlowe's "Dido Queen of Carthage." Chaucer derives his…