Resemblances between Aelfric's and Chaucer's versions of the St. Cecilia legend suggest a common Latin source, possibly Mombritius' "Passio." But Chaucer's treatment, different from Aelfric's especially in dealing with the crowns of flowers, is more…
"Wyn ape" in ManT (9.44) should be taken as "fool's wine." The Manciple had drugged the Cook in order to prevent him from betraying his (the Manciple's) chicanery, and in the Headlink, he serves him with an antidote.
"Pace" Allen's and Sayce's ironies, dramatic and symbolic propriety for ParsT require penance, and predict, by the figure of the supper and the Host's unwitting use of Pauline imagery, an eschatological end.
Comparison with contemporary documents show ParsT to be a manual for penitents; homiletic elements are minimal and the appeal is to reason rather than the emotions. Despite numerous minor inconsistencies ParsT has a clear and effective structure. …
McAlpine, Monica E.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978.
"De casibus" tragedy stems from a single event which determines the protagonist's career. By contrast, the genre of TC is Boethian, depicting multiple crises in the lives of its characters with no single experience as the crucial one. The story of…
Knapp, Peggy Ann.
Chaucer Review 13 (1978): 133-40.
Criseyde's characterization and role in Chaucer's fiction define the way Nature herself looks and functions in the world. Troilus and Pandarus as "priests of Nature" cannot reconcile their image of her with a nature that is "slyding of corage."
Schibanoff, Susan.
Studies in Scottish Literature 13 (1979): 92-99.
Although Pandarus did not appear in literature until Boccaccio's "Il Filostrato," 1336, by 1440 his name had degenerated into a common noun in English. This rapid development argues against the dualism and complexity modern critics find in him. The…
Taylor, Ann M.
American Notes and Queries 17 (1978): 18-19.
In Criseyde's debate on whether to take Troilus as a lover (2.598-812), the word "thought" occurs fourteen times, the most dense usage in the poem, reflective of Criseyde's practice of thinking before acting. In contrast, "thought" in Troilus' case…
Van, Thomas A.
Southern Humanities Review 12 (1978): 89-97.
Pandarus is a persuader, not a philosopher; so he sees before him not existential problems so much as materials to be shaped to a happy resolution. An earthly maker, at points an imitation of the Divine Creator, he tries but fails to achieve a human…
Gillmeister, Heiner.
English Studies 59 (1978): 310-23.
Troilus's "kankedort" is an Anglo-Norman equivalent of the proverbial "chien qui dort" (sleeping dog); Troilus expects a rude rebuff, ending his love affair.
Knedlik, Will Roger.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1978): 1538A-39A.
The body of this dissertation consists of a chronological compendium made up of an individual abstract-like annotation for each significant piece of scholarship (published before 31 December, 1969) which has treated BD during the first 600 years…
Shoaf, Richard Allen.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1978): 4812A.
BD is revisionary art which de-mystifies the language of conventionalized desire and revises the Boethian consolation dialogue. The narrator suffers the same "tristitia" as the knight and must be cured. A confession entails the knight's Augustinian…
The dream-frame ("envelope") of PF reveals Chaucer's struggling with the problems of poetic composition, particularly of fusing form and context. The poem's unity is a function of the narrator's stance, more divorced from the poem's subject (Love)…
Loganbill, Dean.
Publications of the Missouri Philological Association 3 (1977): 1-9.
PF can be used as a vehicle for notional instead of Newtonian criticism. It is better interpreted as a complicated art form rather than as social criticism.
Seah, Victoria L.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1978): 4151A.
PF, "Temple of Glas," and "Kingis Quair" deal not with courtly love but with marriage. The idea underlying all three works is that one should be free to marry whom one loves.
Chiappelli, Carolyn Pace.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1978): 4839A.
The opposition of knowledge in HF suggests the fourteenth-century reaction to the scholastic efforts of the thirteenth century to forge a synthesis between reason and faith. However, this dissertation does not argue that Chaucer was a reformer. The…
Since in his most carefully completed poems Chaucer avoids or undercuts any full thematic resolution, it is unlikely that the missing conclusion of HF would explain away the dynamic tensions of the poem. Probably the most inconsequential of the…
Fisher, John H.
South Atlantic Bulletin 43.4 (1978): 75-84.
The marriage of Richard II to Isabel in 1396 explains the revision of LGW prologue; Chaucer's likely understanding of and distantly prudent attitude toward Richard accounts for the new tone.
Guerin, Dorothy Jane.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1978): 4149A.
Chaucer's chief object in LGW is to explore, through the art of "variatio," irrational sexual passion as a source of human misery. The legends divide into three distinct groups: the pathetic tale, Dido and its variations, and star-crossed lovers.
King, Ronald, illustrator.
Guildford, Eng. : Circle Press, 1978.
Fine art printing of GP, with accompanying abstract visual renderings. Each copy (250 printed) includes one of twenty additional original screen prints by King and an accompanying poem or commentary by Roy Fisher, Andrew Crozier, Kevin Power, or…
Seeks to define "romance" in Western literary tradition, commenting on its development from classical roots up to modern fantasy literature. Common formal features help to define the term, along with recurrent narrative patterns and themes. The…
Boyd, Beverly, ed.
Lawrence, Ks.: Allen Press, 1978.
Edits Caxton's earliest Chaucer publications, except for the first printing of CT, including PF (aka "The Temple of Brass"), Henry Scogan's "Treatise" that includes Chaucer's Gent, the lyric "Wyth empty honde" that Chaucer alludes to in WBP (3.415)…
Burkman, Katherine H.
Athens: Ohio University Press, 1978.
Presents two scripts for "teaching through performance": 1) an adaptation of scenes from several of Shakespeare's plays, presented as a single playscript ("Shakespeare's Mirror"); and 2) a fusion of reduced, modernized versions of MilT, PrT, WBPT,…
Kratzmann, G. C.
Scottish Literary Journal 5.1 (1978): 17-22.
Assesses Chaucer's influence on "The Unicorn's Tale," found in the early-sixteenth-century Asloan MS and adapted from Nigel of Longchamp's "Speculum Stultorum" which Chaucer alludes to in NPT 7.3312-16. Focuses on verbal echoes from Chaucer's NPT…
Kretzschmar, William A., and Rodney Delasanta.
PMLA 93 (1978): 1007-08.
An exchange of letters in the PMLA Forum section, discussing the tone and details of Delasanta's essay, "Penance and Poetry in 'The Canterbury Tales," published earlier in 1978 in PMLA.
