Each of the five names Chaucer uses for the moon goddess denotes a particular aspect of the goddess. A study of these names in TC, FranT, KnT, and MerT and of the functions they denote helps us understand the personalities of the women who invoke…
Using Chaucerian spellings, the dictionary is designed for beginners and nonspecialists as well as for scholars and specialists interested in the etymology, formation, and development of personal names and names of gods and goddesses (mythical and…
Middle English "beere" could mean "bear," "bier," or "pillow." The first of these is impossible in the context of TC 2.1638, but both other meanings are probably there: Pandarus ironically foreshadows Troilus's death, and he also foresees the hero…
Summarizes various problems in dealing with Chaucer's imagery, and examines the imagery in KnT and MilT. In both tales, images tend to "appear in clusters" and they are oftentimes linked in "iterative" patterns to reinforce theme. Considers animal…
Treats the Old Man of PardT as the "total opposite" of the three revelers: he "embodies or manifests . . . in some manner Christian goodness." He first offers to the revelers a merciful "way to salvation," but when they "flatly reject" it, he justly…
Dean, Christopher.
Notes and Queries 211 (1966): 90-92.
Assesses the five uses of "place" as a locational noun in the description of the tournament in KnT, arguing that it has a "precise technical meaning," i.e., the "grassy ground of the arena within the lists." This meaning is also found in Middle…
Dean, Christopher.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics / Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 9.2 (1964): 67-74.
Tabulates and analyzes Chaucer's use of function words before nouns and pronouns, showing that his usage "resembles in the main that of modern English," although in at least one respect more similar to "modern vulgar English than modern standard…
Traces the theme of the decline of the world in biblical and medieval tradition, examining three literary texts: Bernard of Cluny's "De Contemptus Mundi," John Gower's "Confessio Amantis," and ClT, where the virtues of "steadfastness and patience"…
Dean, James M
James M. Dean, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer (Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2017), pp. 128-43.
Focuses on Chaucer's storytelling style, which combines fiction, invention of literary characters that bring in "details and personalities from 'life,' " and metafictive narrative elements.
Dean, James M.
Comparative Literature 41 (1989): 128-40.
Compares Chaucer's treatment of the Mars and Venus fables with Ovid's and with other medieval versions to demonstrate that Chaucer created Mars as a misguided commentator on his own story. Chaucer's audience, familiar with Jean de Meun's "Roman de…
Dean, James M.
Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy, 1997.
Surveys the "senectus mundi" topos in late-medieval literature, particularly in Latin, French, and English literature, from Jean de Meun to Chaucer. Separate chapters address the topos, Middle English historical writing, Jean de Meun, Dante, "Piers…
Dean, James M.
R. F. Yeager and Brian W. Gastle, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower (New York: Modern Language Association, 2011), pp. 143-55.
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,…
Dean, James M., and Christian Zacher, eds.
Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992.
A collection of original essays by friends and students of Donald R. Howard--Oliver H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University--who died in 1987 at the age of fifty-nine.
For individual essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for…
Dean, James M., and Harriet Spiegel, eds.
Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2016.
Textbook edition of TC, conservatively edited from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 61, with modern punctuation, sidebar glosses and bottom-of-page notes, an index of characters, a glossary of common words and phrases, and a select bibliography.…
Dean, James M., ed.
Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2017.
Collection of essays that explores various literary aspects of Chaucer's oeuvre, with particular focus on the "international motif" and "transnational" themes found in many works. Essays address critical contexts and readings to help understand…
Dean, James.
Studies in Philology 88 (1991): 251-75.
In his rhyme-royal poetry, Gower adapted Chaucerian techniques as well as techniques from his own French seven-line poetry. Dean reviews Cinkante balades, Traitie pour essampler les amantz marietz, In Praise of Peace, and Amans's "supplicacioun" from…
The unadorned, unironic ParsT is what Chaucer wanted for the ending to CT. The Ricardian pattern of sickness, pilgrimage, and penitence shows why Thomas Gascoigne's narrative of Chaucer's deathbed retraction of his writings is a likely story, or not…
Dean, James.
Modern Language Quarterly 46 (1985): 235-49.
Probably written before Chaucer knew Boethius well, BD is a courtly poem offering the consolation of art, the solace that one can achieve through "makyng" or listening to poetry. The alleged Boethian aspects of BD reflect the French…
Although PF ends inconclusively, Chaucer gives it a sense of ending through the concluding roundel, which provides an image of resolution, affirming that, while life may be inconclusive, art can provide an ending.
The last tales of CT form a closing sequence of transformation: SNT (conversion fervor in the early church), CYT (alchemical madness of fourteenth-century England), ManT (debasing of myth), and ParsT (change of soul through penitence), as Chaucer…
