Browse Items (16376 total)

In GP the Franklin and the Man of Law are presented as companions, but they have antithetical views on astrology: the Man of Law insists on its value, the Franklin condemns it as "supersticious cursednesse."

Adduces reports that St. Joce's relics were brought to Winchester (Hyde Abbey) in 901. The abbot of Hyde lived next to the real Tabard Inn and Chaucer may have introduced St. Joce into WBP as a bit of local lore.

One of the best and earliest observations of the basic distortion of history with regard to women and their roles is made by the Wife of Bath (III, 688-96). Christine de Pisan makes a comparable but more elaborate statement of the mistreatment of…

The headwear of the Wife of Bath and of the Pardoner, in light of I Cor. 11:3-12, links the two pilgrims symbolically, both rejecting their proper sex roles and thus simultaneously flouting Paul's distinction between male and female and literalizing…

Argues that GP 259-62, 642-43, and TC II, 36-37 are allusions to the Great Schism: the Friar like a pope in his "'double' worstede"; the pope like a popinjay (of two voices?), and the proverb that more than one way leads to Rome.

By using the language of feudal economics Chaucer equates the summoner with the devil.

Traces broad similarities between FrT and the Robin Hood ballads to suggest that Chaucer knew early forms of the ballads and adapted them for comic effect.

The vernicle, an image of Christ, reminds us that man is made in God's image, and emphasizes the Pardoner's perversion of that image, both morally and spiritually. Yet it also provides hope that the Pardoner may reform himself.

Cites "De Doctrina," IV, xxvii, 59 as a source or gloss at least on the Pardoner's "confession": Augustine notes that the wicked may preach what is right and good.

Common characters and incidents in PardT and three Irish versions of Aarne-Thompson folktale Type 763 may indicate cross-fertilization between folklore and medieval literature. Most arguments favor an oral source for the PardT. The episode of the…

Chauntecleer's citation of Daniel (NPT 7.3128-29), frequently taken to refer to Daniel 7, more pertinently refers to Daniel 4 where Nebuchadnezzar relates a dream similar to Chauntecleer's and to the dreams Chauntecleer cites. This dream and its…

In English literary tradition before Chaucer the concept of the devil has great vitality. But in CT, only in SumT and ParsT does the term "devil" have its traditional force; for the most part, one finds a transition away from the medieval idea.

Shows that MED's definition of "mevyng" is correct, and that the word is not a scribal error for "menyng" but exists in its own right.

ManT--a warning to the Cook with whom the Manciple quarrels--supports three main themes: the insignificance of social rank (9.105-270), the danger inherent in anger (271-91), and the foolishness of a wanton tongue (292-362).

Links the python slain by Apollo with an alchemic symbol and argues that ManT is thematically related to CYT.

Root's contention that his alpha, beta, and gamma classifications represent stages of Chaucer's revisions of TC is untenable. The ms evidence must be judged for itself,not in comparison with other "revision" problems such as those in Gower and…

Two major sources of the realism in TC are the Platonic cosmic fables (e.g., the "Boece") and the arts of love or handbooks for lovers, particularly the "Pamphilus." The fables would seem far removed from realism; however, their writers' concern…

The pagan references in TC perform two obvious functions: they provide local color and they help to delineate character (as in Pandarus' scorn of Troilus--who has just uttered a prayer to several pagan deities--calling him a "mouses hert," III,…

Trevet's commentary on Seneca's "Hercules Furens," which Chaucer may have known, reveals that medieval theorists gave weight to the "formal cause" of tragedy. In TC, the interpolated songs, dreams, prayers, and letters may be analyzed as elements…

Seven essays by various hands. For the individual essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Essays on Troilus and Criseyde under Alternative Title.

Recently critical emphasis has been upon the sustained irony in the tragic tale of TC. Along with it is a peculiarly Chaucerian kind of comedy that may best be labeled "bodily laughter," because although it laughs "at" the body, it does so out of…

C. S. Lewis was right to emphasize Criseyde's timorousness. She is unambitious and moderate, and the cosy, unheroic situation in Troy in the first three books suits her well.

Modernist critics reduce Troilus' experience to sentimentality. They encourage us to pity the hero because he could not do otherwise. The lesson of TC is, on the contrary, that the characters in the tale (and we the audience) do indeed have choices…

Troilus' prayer to Mercury is ill-considered. The god's diffident and finally unsuccessful attempt to bed Herse brings disaster to the go-between Aglauros. Further, the reference to this affair draws a pointed contrast between Pandarus and Herse's…

Evidence suggests Pandarus is a peer to Troilus and hardly older than Criseyde, probably around thirty. The younger age eliminates harsh judgments on his involvement in their love affair and on behavior deemed lecherous in an older man.