Analyzes the gothic, inorganic structure of BD, commenting on the poem's status as a lament, an elegy, and a consolation; its clear articulation of various parts; and its consistency with the compositional advice given by rhetorician Geoffrey of…
Payne, Robert O.
Chaucer Review 9 (1975): 197-211.
The "G" Prologue to LGW is central to Chaucer's poetic career both chronologically and artistically. The Prologue and its narrator are a "mythic distillation" of Chaucer's earlier works and show the love poet's mature awareness of his position in…
Richards, Mary P.
Chaucer Review 9 (1975): 212-15.
Since chronicle accounts of St. Neot's habits are contradictory, three extant recensions of the saint's life provide the best explanation of Chaucer's allusion in MilT. These recensions suggest that the poet establishes an ironic parallel between…
The long tradition describing the relationship between rhetoric and emotion is reflected in Chaucer's pathetic tales. Particularly in MLT, narrative comment upon the action and vivid description are the conventional strategies used to lead the…
The Host's reference to the "yiftes of Fortune and of Nature" is the thematic basis for Group C (Fragment 6). PhyT shows how Grace can sustain those injured by Nature's gifts; PardT shows the wretched fate of those who, blinded by Fortune's gifts,…
The Old Man of PardT, wretched because of his inability to die, embodies a lesson of "contemptus mundi" that should correct the rioters' "rash wish" to overcome physical death,but due to their spiritual blindness, they fail to heed his warning.
Because the description of Sir Thopas underscores his artificiality and contains references to puppetry, the knight may be viewed as a puppet of Chaucer-Pilgrim, himself a puppet manipulated by Chaucer-Poet. This metaphor clarifies the operation of…
In its narrative strategy and its theme of the comic irrelevance of the abstractions on which men try to base their lives, Nigel of Longchamps' medieval Latin beast fable, "Speculum Stultorum," provided a suggestive model for Chaucer's NPT.
By proposing aesthetic and religious inevitability, the palinode to TC relieves the reader's frustration at Chaucer's deliberately ambiguous characterization of the poem's three main characters and shows the unity underlying the seemingly diverse…
Hanson, Thomas B.
Chaucer Review 9 (1975): 297-302.
To emphasize the theme of Troilus' misconception of the nature of love and to make his poem reflect the stages of "gradus amoris," Chaucer placed the consummation scene at the numerical center of the "beta" version of TC.
By subtle allusions and a skillful balance of opposites, Chaucer reveals that the Wife of Bath conspired with Jankyn to kill her fourth husband, caused Jankyn's death by betraying him to her friends, and became a garish, cynical old woman incapable…
The dialogue between Virginius and Virginia and other intensely religious elements suggest that Chaucer's PhyT was directly influenced by the account of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac given in contemporary mystery plays. This dramatic influence is…
Despite old objections concerning the date of Deschamps ballade to Chaucer and the Frenchman's rudimentary knowledge of English, it is likely that in his use of "pandras" Deschamps was alluding to Chaucer's TC. This shows that, during his own…
Finnie, W. Bruce.
Chaucer Review 9 (1975): 337-41.
In two recent articles discussing Chaucer's assonance (JEGP, 71; PMLA, 88) Percy Adams fails to make critical distinctions between phonemes that differ quantitatively, thus seriously undermining his own conclusions about assonance and obscuring…
Shigeo, Hisashi.
Chaucer to Kirisutokyo (Chaucer and Medieval Christianity) Symposium Series of Medieval English Literature 1. (Tokyo: Gaku-shobo, 1984): pp. 133-53.
Chaucer reached a temporal conclusion that free will is allowed when one seeks after goodness in compliance with Providence.
Examines ClT 911-17 and concludes that, because of textual ambiguities, it is difficult to know whether Griselda has physically changed upon returning to her former home or, as Harding seems to believe, her "olde coote" is no longer fit to be worn.
Maleski, Mary A.
Chaucer Yearbook 05 (1998): 41-60.
Debates whether Chaucer's Prioress is childlike or simply childish, and questions why she is on a pilgrimage. Also discusses the extent of Chaucer's understanding of medieval religious women.
Claiming "there is no clear textual evidence for the assertion that [the Ellesmere order] reflects Chaucer's intention," Forni questions the authority of the Ellesmere order and examines how that order was canonized as Chaucerian. She contends that…
Examines late-fourteenth-century English attitudes toward crusading as background for Chaucer's view of the Orient as a form of the "Other." Evident in LGW, Chaucer's views reflect the prejudices of his age, which regarded Orientals as irredeemable.
Examines PrT and the Prioress's sketch in GP as reflexes of gender performance and the historical conditions that shaped such performances. The anti-Semitism of her tale results from her suppression of her "bodiliness," represented in a fetishizing…
Jordan, Robert (M.)
Chaucer Yearbook 1 (1992): 135-55.
Contrasts TC and ManT as examples of metafiction, showing that in each the narrative persona is not a character in any traditional sense but a voicing of the author's concerns with language and fiction. ManT overtly declares the instability of…
Knapp, Peggy A.
Chaucer Yearbook 1 (1992): 157-75.
Curry's and Robertson's critical efforts seek to disclose stable, authoritative meaning; they reflect the hermeneutics of Hirsch, concerned with finding valid interpretation. The efforts of Aers and Patterson reflect Gadamer's reconstruction of…
