Browse Items (16376 total)

Surveys the history and iconography of the "asinus ad liram" topos and examines its use in Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," Juan Ruiz's "Libro de buen amor," and TC. Pandarus inverts Philosophy's use of the topos.

Surveys several classical, oriental, and exegetical traditions of the symbolic or exemplary value of the cock, variously an emblem of wisdom, pugnacity, or stupidity. Chauntecleer of NPT is unusual in combining many qualities, for later literary…

Commentary on the Wife of Bath as a vital character who reflects Chaucer's distate for antifeminist categorization of women as saints or whores.

Questions the nature and extent of Chaucer's influence on the "Scottish Chaucerians," since most medieval literature is simultaneously derivative and innovative. The "Kingis Quair" of James I (viewed here in the context of the Selden manuscript) is…

Aruges that in its depiction of love Henryson's "Cresseid" is more a Renaissance poem than a medieval one. Though its subject matter and verse form follow Chaucer, the poem gives license "to love a human being for his or her own sake--not for God's…

Twenty-eight essays by various authors on Scottish language and literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Scottish Language and Literature…

Japanese translation of BD, HF, and PF, based on Robinson's and Skeat's editions.

Brewer critiques Root's explanation of relationships among TC manuscripts, arguing that Root's explanation is inconsistent and commenting on the possibilities of discovering the process of Chaucer's revisions.

Bloomfield considers natural law, an interest in distant geography, and the similarities between magic and technology in SqT as evidence of the "new spirit of the Renaissance" in Chaucer's works.

Translation of PF into Japanese.

Summary description of Astr that describes Chaucer's "admirable textbook method" and comments on his "rules of good technical writing," including simple diction and syntax, awareness of audience, repetition for emphasis, and copious illustrations.

Line-by-line, phrase-by-phrase commentary on the grammar and lexicon of CkPT, presented as a series of notes to a reprinting of the text from F. N. Robinson's 1957 edition.

Summary (without text) and commentary on the GP description of the Knight and on KnT, arranged in sections, accompanied by glosses to Middle English words and phrases. Also includes a brief introduction to Chaucer and his literature; commentary on…

Challenges several claims made by Alice Miskimin in "The Illustrated Eighteenth-Century Chaucer," Modern Philology 77 (1979): 26-55.

Argues that medieval allegory and "much of science fiction" share a common "presupposition" of conveying an "abstract message" or "vision of truth," comparing various themes and devices of science fiction with examples drawn from medieval…

Argues that internal evidence (meter, repetitiveness, exaggeration, etc.) is sufficient to establish that "The Fair Maid of Ribblesdale" is a parody, comparing examples drawn from the poem to similar ones in Chaucer's MercB, MilT, and, especially,…

Summary (without text) and commentary on WBPT, arranged in sections, accompanied by glosses to Middle English phrases. Also includes a brief introduction to Chaucer, CT, and medieval antifeminism; commentary on characterization, the Wife's horoscope,…

Fire imagery and the theme of order in Dryden's adaptations of Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio, and Chaucer (KnT, WBT, NPT, and Parson) evince that his "Fables" centers thematically on "natural order characterized by the paradox of constant change."

Summarizes medieval attitudes toward dreams and traces their roots in the Bible and classical tradition, emphasizing their prophetic qualities. Then discusses dream vision conventions and their uses in "Pearl," "Piers Plowman," and several shorter…

Describes various kinds of "parliament-poems" in Middle English, focusing on PF as a model for others, and commenting on the depiction of the parliament scene in TC, Book 4, and its concern with "voting by voices" or assent. Summarizes Chaucer's…

Modeled on Chaucer's BD, although reshaped "radically," Spenser's "Daphnaida" is less a "traditional lament" than a "warning against grieving too much." Compares and contrasts the two poems to clarify their similarities and differences, and discusses…

Surveys Joseph Conrad's allusions to Chaucer and to the Bible, and argues that in the novel "Victory" Conrad expresses his "sense of radical modern otherness." In Conrad's novel, "Jones's sexual anomaly mirrors a spiritual malaise," as does the…

Tallies Birney's contributions to Chaucer scholarship, particularly his studies that pertain to irony and close reading, and assesses their importance in the tradition of twentieth-century Chaucer criticism.

Assesses "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell" with recurrent glances at its analogues, Gower's "Tale of Florent" and Chaucer's WBT. The life question in the "Wedding" and in WBT "speak directly to a perennial feminine plight" (69), and in…

Modern English, two-act drama that presents abbreviated, modified versions of KnT, RvT, CkT (a song), WBT, NPT, PardT, MerT, and MilT, framed as an annual tale-telling contest rather than a pilgrimage. The Miller and the "M.C." are focal characters…