Condren, Edward I.
Chaucer Review 10 (1975): 87-95.
The 1368 date for the death of Blanche of Lancaster in J. J. N. Palmer's article ChauR 8 (1974) is probably correct, but this does not vitiate the 1377 date proposed by Condren ChauR 5 (1971) for the composition of BD.
Condren, Edward I.
Chaucer Review 23 (1989): 192-218.
Despite the crossed purposes of the Prioress's secular and religious impulses, each impulse paradoxically reaches fruition in PrT. In creating the young boy as an innocent so like herself and then describing his martyrdom with the particular…
Condren, Edward I.
Papers on Language and Literature 21 (1985): 233-57.
Chaucer celebrates "man's simultaneous transcendence and absurdity": in MilT, Nicholas's psaltery playing may be onanistic; in MerT, January's praise of Damian as "discreet," "secree," and "manly" may suggest his willingness to allow May…
Presents evidence of a coherently conceived allegory in ClT: God is to Man as Perfection is to Imperfection, a hierarchy based not on rank but on virtue. Thus God is to Man as Griselda is to Walter.
Condren, Edward I.
Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 1999.
Reads CT (in Ellesmere order) as organized by the universal principles of entropy (movement to chaos), cybernetics (movement to stability), and synergy (transition to a changed or transcendent state). These three principles also inform the structure…
Condren, Edward I.
Donka Minkova and Theresa Tinkle, eds. Chaucer and the Challenges of Medievalism: Studies in Honor of H. A. Kelly (Frankfurt and New York : Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 195-204.
In TC, Criseyde's appeals to Hector for clarification of her status in Troy suggest that Criseyde seeks a romantic response from Hector rather than the official response she receives. This disappointment acts as a catalyst for future behavior in the…
Condren, Edward I.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.
Condren explores similarities of theme and technique in BD, PF, HF and TC, focusing on numerical composition and Chaucer's "self-dialogue" on poetry and love. Biographical reading of BD reveals that the man in black is not Gaunt but the dreamer's…
Reads PardPT for the ways they reveal more about the Pardoner than he intends. The Old Man shows the pain of the Pardoner's "joyless existence," even though he has attempted to disguise it in his Prologue; the rioters reveal his obsession with death…
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…
Condren, Edward Ignatius.
DAI 31.05 (1970): 2338-39A.
Assesses the history and criticism of the concept of courtly love, contending that it is a "complicated metaphor for the poet's commitment to the craft of poetry." Then considers the occasions and philosophical implications of BD, PF, and HF, arguing…
Focuses on the scene of "intimacy" between Pandarus and Criseyde in TC and its excision from Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," arguing that Chaucer's expansion/embellishment of the original in Boccaccio's "Filostrato" compels the audience to…
Conlan, J. P.
Analytical and Enumerative Bibliography 10: 120-47, 1999.
Reexamines the "paradoxical evidence" of Ha4, arguing that Manly and Rickert's discussion of it was distorted by their a priori assumptions and their concluding that Chaucer's foul papers "served as the exemplar" of the manuscript. The affiliations…
Conlee, John W.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales". (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 27-37.
With the Knight and the Squire, Chaucer's Yeoman comprises the "basic English fighting unit--a unit sometimes referred to as a 'lance.'" Details of the Yeoman's GP sketch capitalize on the various connotations of "yeoman," and depict the Yeoman as a…
Conlee, John W.
American Notes and Queries 12.9-10 (1974): 137-38.
Tallies similarities between RvT and a section in John Barth's novel "Sot-Weed Factor" that indicate direct influence: cast of characters, setting, straying-horse motif, etc.
Argues that Troilus' ascent to the eighth sphere (TC 5.1807-27) combines Christian and pagan elements--the classical pagan notion of immortality among the stars transmitted to Chaucer via Alain de Lille, Dante, and Boccaccio, and the Christian…
Conlee, John W.
Studies in the Humanities 3.1 (1973): 1-3.
Suggests that the Pardoner's specification of "eight" bushels of treasure at PardT 6.771 symbolizes betrayal and the irony of desiring to achieve ultimate happiness through worldly means.
Item not seen. WorldCat records indicate that "No libraries with WorldCat.org subscription hold this item." Publisher's website reports that this is a detective mystery in which a young medievalist pursues a mysterious manuscript that may contain an…
Conley, John.
Studies in Philology 73 (1976): 42-61.
It is not likely that Chaucer links the topaz primarily with chastity in naming his knight Thopas. Rather, the poet uses the superlative reputation of the topaz as brightest of gems in a general chivalric context.
Connelly, William Joseph.
Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Oklahoma, 1972. DAI 33.02 (1972): 721A. Fully accessible via https://shareok.org/items/93da1b5d-2529-4aa1-baba-33772dfb564c (accessed Aoril 12, 2026).
Surveys criticism of Chaucer's works from Hoccleve and Lydgate to Dryden, identifying what it "reveals and contributes to the understanding and appreciation of Chaucer's poetry" rather than his literary reputation or the "state of English criticism…
Conner, Edwin Lee.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 534A-535A.
A study of appropriate "medieval traditions of mythography, symbolism, iconography, religious devotion, and textual exegesis" demonstrates the coherence of GP portrait of the Squire and SqT.
A subgenre of estates portraits, not touched on by Mann, includes "tarocchi," the richly illuminated playing cards of fourteenth- and fifteenth- century Italy that developed into tarot cards and modern playing cards. The four suits represent the…
Studies the history of English meter from Chaucer to Wyatt, considering scansion, rhythm, pronunciation, and syllabification, assessing Chaucer's uses of tetrameter and pentameter, and the practices of Lydgate, Hoccleve, and Wyatt. Focuses on the…
Connolly, Margaret, and Linne R. Mooney, eds.
York: York Medieval Press, 2008.
Thirteen essays by various authors, with a brief introduction by the editors. The collection treats English scribes, manuscripts, and the production and circulation of texts from 1350-1600. Addressing design and CT, the first section contains three…
Connolly, Margaret, Holly James-Maddocks, and Derek Pearsall, eds.
Thirteen essays on paleography, codicology, and manuscript studies in late medieval England, with emphasis on location and scribal identity, accompanied by an introduction (by Connolly), a personal tribute (by Pearsall), a list of Mooney's…
The references to chess in BD are confused because Chaucer seems not to have had any firsthand knowledge of the game, his source being not a proper handbook but the "Roman de la Rose." Applying the chess metaphor from Jean de Meun to a dissimilar…
