Browse Items (16379 total)

Compares and contrasts Gower's tale of Florent with WBT and "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle," arguing that Gower and Chaucer "grapple with ethical circumstances in human relationships" (matters of right conduct and governance,…

Compares and contrasts the uses of estates literature in works by Gower, Chaucer, and William Langland, explaining the didacticism of Gower, Chaucer's "playful 'show--don't tell'" in GP, and Langland's allusive allegorizing.

Surveys Gower's reception among fellow poets and critics, including comments on the effect of Chaucer upon Gower's reputation and the value of comparing their versions of individual stories.

Twenty-five pedagogical essays by various authors, with an introduction by the editors and a comprehensive index. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower under Alternative Title.

Describes and discusses two analogues to the pear tree episode in MerT (and in Boccaccio's "Decameron"), one in Persian by Rumi in his "Mathnavī," and one in Arabic by Ibn al-Jawzi in his "Kitāb al-adhkiyā'." Also describes and discusses two…

Argues that Gower's intention in "Confessio Amantis" is both "poetic, as well as political." Emphasizes how Chaucer and Gower are concerned with "authority and experience" in their poems. Discusses WBT in relation to Gower's "Tale of Florent."

Examines Horatian influence on works ranging from the Exeter Book to Langland, Gower, and Fragments VIII and IX of CT.

Offers a "new description of Chaucer's interaction with Italian poetry," focusing on how he avoids borrowing several of its most innovative features: the "presence of a beatific lady," the tendency to elevate the poet's poetry to high authority, and…

Examines Chaucer's engagement with his French contemporaries (e.g., Machaut, Froissart, Deschamps), suggesting that Chaucer may have adapted elements from those writers such as voice and form in establishing his own poetic authority.

Discusses the intersection of death, money, and elements of the Catholic mass in PardT. In the wake of the plague, the mass became closely associated with death because of the spreading practice of saying masses for the souls of the dead. The…

Discusses Chaucer's awareness of the plague and reference to it in his works, especially PardT.

Refers to the death-bearing rioters in PardT as an example of the theme, found in medieval art, of "death as living within" the body.

Collects essays that focus on the theme of death from the later heroic era to the eighteenth century. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Death in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times under Alternative Title.

Claims that Chaucer contributes to the debate concerning the translation of the Bible into English through his exploitation of the Old Testament in MLT and WBT.

Surveys studies of Chaucer's uses of Dante and Boccaccio as sources, focusing on work done since 1980 and "highlighting new and forthcoming work."

Presents comprehensive overview of all three iterations of Langland's "Piers Plowman." Provides discussion of differences between Langland's characters and Chaucer's depictions of social characters in GP.

Examines echoes, resemblances, and differences between the evocations of Lucretia in LGW, BD, and CT, and German painter Lucas Cranach's portrait (1513) of the Roman paragon of wifely virtue. References to Chaucer's poems, its ancient sources, and…

Suggests that Chaucer engages the Boethian tradition in TC and HF, only to challenge (and ultimately reject) that tradition's ideas of self-regulation.

Provides close reading and interpretation of "Piers Plowman," and observes how Chaucer and Langland often share similar political and religious views of medieval society. Refers to SumT, WBPT, GP, KnT, ParsT, RvT, and PF.

Analyzes the name "Pertelote" in NPT as "beautiful paramour" and "little beauty," and "Colle," "Talbot," and "Gerland" as dog-names. Includes recurrent concern with levels of style in Chaucer's naming and on names that link aspects of CT, e.g.,…

Analyzes the occurrences of the preverbal y- prefix in seven manuscripts of CT, attending to grammatical, syntactic, and metrical considerations. Concludes that, although the construction is used to form passive constructions clearly, the data also…

Fourteen essays by various authors, with an introduction by the editors and an index. For two essays pertaining to Chaucer, search for The Use and Development of Middle English under Alternative Title.

Establishes that scribe John Shirley lived in Westminster/London early in his career (in the 1390s) and therefore may have been familiar with Chaucer at the time, lending credibility to Shirley's opinions about Chaucer's works and their dates of…

Considers the appearance of the "mysterious inscription 'Ch'" beside several poems in MS Codex 902 in the University of Pennsylvania Libraries collection. Scholars have assumed that the "Ch" stands for Chaucer, but Strakhov argues that the poems are…

Presents essays that explore ways that manuscript evidence is used to understand "literary, geographic, scientific, devotional, and hagiographical knowledge" in the later Middle Ages. For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search for Taxonomies of…