Coley, David K.
Chaucer Review 49.4 (2015): 449-73.
Argues that ShT comments on fourteenth-century controversies regarding tithing and examines the connections drawn between international finance and agrarian production.
The stanzas known as "The Tongue" in the Findern manuscript use source material from Lydgate's "Fall of Princes" and Chaucer's TC to create a coherent poem that is consistent with the manuscript's broader themes and is indebted to the literary legacy…
One scribe included the "Tale of Beryn" in his copy of CT. The Prologue presents Chaucer's pilgrims after they arrive at Canterbury, and the tale is appropriate to its teller, a merchant. Argues that the "Beryn" author was "an intelligent and…
Argues that Anel is "more a stylized emotional history than a series of meaningful events." In its plot, mode, and formal features, it is more akin to French love narratives ("'dits' of complaint and comfort") than other models that have been…
Argues that critical efforts to provide a harmonious interpretation of PF are misdirected because the poem is designed to represent the cacophony of this world rather than heavenly concord.
Chamberlain, David
Chaucer Review 5.1 (1970): 32-56.
Argues that Chaucer "weaves through the structure and themes of [PF] all four medieval species of music, and numerous subspecies, in a way that emphasizes the failing of the eagles" and "that the [planetary] spheres are . . . the cause of almost all…
Contends that the source of the allusion to Semiramis in MLT (2.359) is ancient historians and perhaps Boccaccio's "De Claris Mulieribus," not Dante's "Inferno."
Peterson, Joyce E.
Chaucer Review 5.1 (1970): 62-74.
Argues that SqT reflects its teller's unsophisticated "effort to dissociate himself and courtly love from the . . . crude caricature" evident in MerT, and contends that when the Franklin interrupts the Squire he is "'pretending' to think him…
Cherniss, Michael D.
Chaucer Review 5.1 (1970): 9-21.
Contrasts the form of Anel with that of Mars and compares its form and themes with those of Chaucer's dream visions and its characterizations with those in KnT. Also hypothesizes what Chaucer may have intended to do further in Anel with the source…
McClintock, Michael W.
Chaucer Review 5.2 (1970): 112-36.
Contrasts ShT with its fabliau analogues, arguing that Chaucer creatively adapts the genre by adding complicated characterization to the stark comic plot and by developing a serious thematic concern with the commercialization of sex and marriage,…
Ross, Thomas W.
Chaucer Review 5.2 (1970): 137-39.
Identifies bawdy double meaning in Pandarus's use of "al hool" in TC 2.587, signaled by Criseyde's embarrassed laughter and not apparent in Boccaccio's original.
Rowland, Beryl B.
Chaucer Review 5.2 (1970): 140-46.
Reads Chaucer's reference to "game" in MilT 1.3186 as a reference to mystery drama and discusses allusions to cycle plays in the details and correspondences of the Tale, including aspects of the Fall, the Flood, the Annunciation, the Slaughter of the…
Miller, Robert P.
Chaucer Review 5.2 (1970): 147-60.
Assesses MilT as an "anti-authoritarian" complaint against the estates--the clergy, the courtly aristocracy, the "providers," and women--depicting "the kind of thing the Miller would like to see happen to such people."
Duncan, Charles F. Jr.
Chaucer Review 5.2 (1970): 161-64.
Considers the Franklin's interruption of the Squire in Part 4 of CT to be a "brilliant dramatic vignette" that develops the characterizations of the Squire, Franklin, and Host.
Explores in CT the dynamic between with expansive spaces and narrow ones, especially as they correlate with views of the world that are variously serious or playful. Considers the intertextuality of KnT and the fabliaux of Part 1 of CT as a paradigm…
Thro, A. Booker.
Chaucer Review 5.2 (1970): 97-111.
Shows that "in Chaucer's comedy the triumph of wit is often a 'creative' act, an act of imaginative invention and ingenious construction," commenting on the division of the fart in SumT, demonstrating the prevalence of creative, constructive…
Paull, Michael R.
Chaucer Review 5.3 (1971): 179-94.
Shows how Chaucer's changes to Nicholas Trevet's version of the Constance narrative are influenced by the conventions of hagiography, including a tendency to allegory and heightened rhetoric. Assesses MLT as melodrama.
Condren, Edward I.
Chaucer Review 5.3 (1971): 195-212.
Challenges traditional dating of BD and identifications of its characters, arguing for 1377 as a date of composition (eight years after the death of Blanche) and reading Octovyen as both Edward III and John of Gaunt, the Black Knight as a younger…
Hennedy, Hugh L.
Chaucer Review 5.3 (1971): 213-17.
The summoner in FrT is "damned if he does and damned if he doesn't" repent because the old lady's curse (3.1628-29) condemns him if he fails to repent and his own self-curse (3.1610-11) condemns him if he does.
Uses WBT to exemplify Chaucer's combination of narrative devices characteristic of the rhetoric of oral persuasion: plot combined with exemplary materials and "direct statement" of theme or moral directive. WBT concerns human willfulness, evident in…
Hogan, Moreland H. Jr.
Chaucer Review 5.3 (1971): 245-46.
Identifies a version of the "Lover's Gift Regained" plot in a modern oral narrative recorded in South Carolina; comments on particular parallels with ShT.
Rosenberg, Bruce A.
Chaucer Review 5.4 (1971): 264-76.
Tallies similarities between the pear tree episode in MerT and the cherry tree account in an apocryphal narrative about the pregnancy of Mary, mother of Jesus. Explores parallels among various analogues, and explains how the parallels capitalize on…
Otten, Charlotte F.
Chaucer Review 5.4 (1971): 277-87.
Analyzes the "comic unity" of the Pluto-Proserpine episode of MerT with the four biblical accounts women to: Rebecca, Judith, Abigail, and Esther (4.1362-74), all figures of deliverance rather than deception. By association, Proserpine should be read…
