Uses the analytic methods of anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss to argue that KnT "embodies in the syntax of its plot the basic rules and taboos of a perfectly structured and unchallenged social and cosmological order"--in short, a "mythic…
Ryan, Lawrence V.
Chaucer Review 8 (1974): 297-310.
Argues that the "ritual outlined in the confessional manuals" underlies the depiction of the Canon's Yeoman's "psychological predicament." Still attracted to alchemy and disguising the connection between his Canon and the canon of his tale, the…
Establishes that the suggestion of amorousness is implicit in the basting of (tight-fitting) sleeves in the "Roman de la Rose," Rom, and related illustrations.
Garbáty, Thomas Jay.
Chaucer Review 8.1 (1973): 1-8.
Identifies the "compound humor" of the "geographic dialect" material in RvT and the GP description of the Reeve, where he is depicted as an "immigrant" from Norfolk to London and thereby the butt of humor for indigenous Londoners.
Surveys the literary tradition of the term "vavasour" and explores the implications of its use to describe the Franklin in GP. Focuses on encounters between vavasours and knights in French Arthurian romances, the juxtaposition of FranT and SqT, and…
Justifies various differences between FrT and its analogues by attributing them to the literal mindedness of the narrator, "one who takes distinctions seriously."
Studies aspects of PhyT that derive from hagiography, particularly its emphasis on Virginia as a "virgin martyr," not found in Chaucer's sources. As a result of Chaucer's various changes and genre modifications, the tale raises "grave questions of…
In TC, Chaucer shows the "inter-relatedness of the moral and the aesthetic" by demonstrating the "corruption and debasement" of key concepts: "honour," "worthiness," "gentilesse," "manhood," and "trouthe." Such debasement reflects the inevitable…
Fisher, John H.
Chaucer Review 8.2 (1973): 119-27.
Shows how the first three tales in CT can be seen to align with the discussion of three rhetorical styles in John of Garland's "Poetria"--courtly, civic, and rustic. Particularly applicable is Garland's commentary on his rectangular chart of…
Examines the tension in ClT between human pathos and clerkly training and intelligence, reading the combination as a depiction of late-medieval "clerkishness." Additions to his sources and the use of "specialized vocabulary" make Chaucer's tale…
Finnel, Andrew J.
Chaucer Review 8.2 (1973): 147-58.
Argues that Purse was written soon after the accession of Henry IV, addressed to the new monarch and composed as Chaucer's plea for funds while he was residing in the close of Westminster Abbey in order to avoid debts.
Ruggiers, Paul G.
Chaucer Review 8.2 (1973): 89-99.
Comments on Chaucer's "serious" poetry for the ways that it relates to various kinds of tragedy and tragic outlook--classical Greek, Boethian, "pathetic tragedy," ethical or moral tragedy, etc. Except in extreme cases such as MkT, Chaucer inflects…
Leicester, H. Marshall, Jr.
Chaucer Review 9 (1974): 109-24.
Argues that PF "exemplifies and confronts" late fourteenth-century concern with the role of subjective perspective in considering traditional authority. Through various stylized, "thought-marked" perspectives, the poem presents the "disruptive force"…
Friedman, Albert B.
Chaucer Review 9 (1974): 118-29.
Challenges critics who absolve Chaucer of anti-Semitism by blaming the Prioress instead. Anti-Semitism was rife in Chaucer's society, and he was likely complicit in the bias. Yet, the topic is a critical distraction in discussions of PrT, which…
Studies the astrological references in WBP and casts her horoscope, interpreting it to show that Chaucer illumines "the entire character of the Wife with a configuration of planets unique in the fourteenth century," a configuration that occurred in…
Examines the Prioress's claim that she is unequal to the task of praising Mary as an example of the inexpressibility topos, used recurrently in the Middle Ages to express the ineffable. Comments on several instances of the topos used by theologians…
Ortego, Philip D.
Chaucer Review 9 (1974): 182-89.
Surveys efforts to explain the meaning of "phislyas" (MLE 2.1189; here attributed to the Shipman), summarizing contextual concerns, manuscript variants, and several etymological hypotheses; agrees with those who treat it as a term related to…
Proposes a new sequence for the parts of CT, one in which the tales of the Physician and Pardoner follow that of the Man of Law and in turn are followed by those of the Shipman, Prioress, etc. In light of this sequence and its arrangement of…
Differentiates the lover's malady in BD from the traditional love-sickness found in its analogues, identifying the malady as a form of head melancholy curable by a good night's sleep, the narrator's only physician. The comic version of the tale of…
Summarizes R. K. Root's theory of three classes of TC manuscripts, and analyzes several variants to argue for the superiority of those found in Root's "beta" class. Treats "beta" variants as authorial revisions.
Reads Constance in MLT as an "Everywoman" who represents humanity in relationship to an "arbitrary and inscrutable God." Several abrupt descents into "crudity" in the tale remind us not to regard Constance as real, and contrasts with her mothers in…
