A biography of John Shirley (d. 1456) that examines available life-records and assesses his scribal output and influence. Shirley was a scribe of several important manuscripts that include works by Chaucer, Lydgate, and Gower; a collector and…
Connolly, Margaret.
Philologie im Netz Supplement 4 (2009): 5-20.
Describes how Mary Haweis's 1877 publication of "Chaucer for Children: A Golden Key" brought Chaucer's stories to the domestic realm of women and children as a tool for organization and education. Connolly suggests that Haweis authored later books…
Connolly, Margaret.
Karen Pratt, Bart Besamusca, Matthias Meyer, and Ad Putter, eds. The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript (Göttingen: V&R Academic, 2017), pp. 81-100.
Assesses the value of John Shirley's attribution of Adam Scriveyn to Chaucer in the only manuscript where it appears, arguing on the grounds of Shirley's "other statements about Chaucer" that the attribution is reliable and, on more general external…
A biography of John Hawley that concludes by arguing (pp. 147-55) that Hawley was at the center of a number of satirical allusions in Chaucer's GP description of the Shipman. Chaucer depicts a professional mariner, which Hawley was not, but the…
Conrad-O'Briain, Helen.
Philip Coleman, ed. On Literature and Science: Essays, Reflections, Provocation (Dublin: Four Courts Press), 2007, pp. 27-42.
Considers FranT rather than CYT Chaucer's clearest contribution to science fiction, a genre here presented with an ancient legacy. In FranT, Chaucer uses the "tension at the heart of science fiction--between the possible and the not necessarily…
Chaucer's pilgrims in CT do not reach the martyr's shrine in the cathedral, Langland's pilgrims in "Piers Plowman" do not attain any of his even remoter visionary goals, and Spenser's Arthur in "The Faerie Queene" falls short of his ideal destination…
A history of English literature that emphasizes the continuity of ongoing forms and thematic concerns. Two chapters pertain to Chaucer: "Chaucerian Epic and Romance" and "Chaucer, Langland and the Treachery of the Text." The first traces how Chaucer…
Conroy, Anne Rosemarie.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1977): 253A-54A.
"The Isle of Ladies" was attributed to Chaucer until 1878. It is primarily a lover's complaint to his lady. The characters are based on Chaucerian models (like Criseyde) but play somewhat different roles.
Considine, John.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Surveys the making of English, German, Latin, and Greek dictionaries from 1500 to 1650, including the contributions of Franciscus Junius (among others). Discusses the unpublished manuscript of Junius's glossary to Chaucer and the place of Chaucer's…
Considine, John.
Notes and Queries 256 (2011): 490-91.
Shows that "rake" in the proverbial simile "thin as a rake/rail" (first attested in English in the GP description of the Clerk's horse, I.288) means a fodder crib.
Conti Camaiora, Luisa.
Giovanni Iamartino, Maria Luisa Maggioni, and Roberta Facchinetti, eds. Thou sittest at another boke: English Studies in Honour of Domenico Pezzini (Milan: Polimetrica, 2008), pp. 305-18.
The theme of doubleness in "The Floure and the Leafe" appears to have been especially attractive for Keats,whose attention was always drawn to the relationship between life and art. He found in the medieval poem an interesting "authority" that…
Contzen, Eva von, and James Simpson, eds
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2022.
Collects ten essays by various authors that discuss lists and listing as epistemological, rhetorical, and poetic devices, with an introduction by the editors ("Enlistment as Poetic Stratagem"), and a comprehensive index. For four essays that pertain…
Contzen, Eva von.
Jan Alber and Greta Olson, eds. How to Do Things with Narrative: Cognitive and Diachronic Perspectives (Boston, Mass.: De Gruyter, 2018), pp. 79-92.
Assesses the characterizations of Dido in HF, LGW, and William Caxton's "Eneydos," analyzing their direct discourse and representations of mental state as examples of how premodern authors present well-known figures from the literary past. Chaucer's…
Contzen, Eva von.
Eva von Contzen and James Simpson, eds. Enlistment: Lists in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2022), pp. 115-34.
Uses Chaucer's list of poets of Troy in HF 1460ff. as a "vantage point" to demonstrate how epic catalogs in Middle English Troy narratives are "sites of scepticism towards established truths, questioning the Trojan War, the claims of epic, and poetry…
Contzen, Eva von.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 53 (2023) 597-622.
Focuses on three different approaches to CT, examines the ways that scholars have attempted to avoid ascribing intention to Chaucer, and concludes that "when engaging with Chaucer, critics need to embrace intention as a key generator in the…
Contzen, Eva von.
Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 175 (2023): 62-81.
Argues that Kynaston's Latin translation of Books I and II of TC, published in 1635, exemplifies "heterochrony"--a "temporal counter-site located in the present and indicative of alternative modernities." Addresses the "perceived outdatedness of…
Cook, Alexandra Kollontai.
DAI A67.10 (2007): n.p.
Like many of his predecessors, Chaucer explores risks in dealing with pagan sources, but he renders such risks pleasurable as a means to "destabilize Christian constructs of safety."
Cook, Alexandra.
Susanna Fein and David Raybin, eds. Chaucer: Visual Approaches (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016), pp. 23-38.
Revisits the significance of the image-based mnemonic system known as artificial memory, especially as conceived in John of Garland's "Parisiana poetria," for Chaucer's poetic project in HF. Argues how "visual mnemonics and creative memory" shape…
Cook, Daniel, ed.
Garden City, N. Y.: Anchor, 1966.
An edition of TC with facing-page glosses and occasional notes, preceded by an Introduction (pp. vii-xxxviii) that includes a summary of the medieval Troy story, commentary on Chaucer's source material (Boccaccio, Boethius, and the conventions 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.
Alice misunderstands the sacramental nature of Christian marriage--which requires perennial mutual affection and joining of wills, not self-centered egoism--creating a serious obstacle to the sacrament's efficacy in producing grace. Alice does not…
Cook, James W.
American Notes and Queries 7 (1968): 53-54.
Surmises that, as a satiric response to the anti-Semitism of PrT, NPT may reflect Chaucer's possible knowledge of a twelfth-century "Anglo-Jewish collection of 107 animal fables," the "Mishle Shu' alim," generally attributed to Berechiah Ben Natron…
Argues that in ClT Chaucer "has successfully humanized the psychological motivation of both Walter and Griselda," de-emphasizing the "supernatural" aspects of the characterizations found in analogous narratives, and depicting his protagonists with…
Cook, Jon.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 169-91.
CT shows extensive evidence of "Carnival" (Bakhtin) influence. GP, Miller, and Host show evidence of the carnivalesque approach to life. The clerk, on the other hand, reasserts "official values." CT offers the first English model of secular and…
