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…
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.
