Surveys criticism that considers the Ceyx and Alcyone story in BD, exegetical readings in particular, and edits a version of the tale found in fourteenth-century Ovidian manuscripts available in Chaucer's England, with full apparatus and with…
Surveys two medieval attitudes toward marriage (pro-matrimonial [Aquinas] and anti-matrimonial [Jerome] and their depictions in various tales of virgin martyrs, analyzing SNT most extensively.
McAlpine, Monica Ellen.
DAI 33.12 (1973): 6877-78A.
Reads TC as a critique of the "old tragic idea" of fall through fortune, emphasizing the poem's concern with human choice derived from Boethius's "Consolation," and observing a "Boethian comedy" in Troilus and a "Boethian tragedy" in Criseyde. TC…
Shaner, Mary Carol Edwards.
DAI 34.02 (1973): 739A.
Surveys medieval attitudes toward the women featured as protagonists in Chaucer's LGW and reads Chaucer's characters in light of these attitudes, observing that they vary as "not-so-good" women and "not-so-bad" ones, a reflection of the limits of…
Surveys the interrelated astrological, mythographical, and allegorical traditions of Mars in the Middle Ages, and focuses on the myth of his adultery with Venus and its representations in the plots and allusions of Chaucer's Complaint of Mars, KnT,…
Petricone, Sister Ancilla Marie.
DAI 34.03 (1973): 1251A.
Examines the progressions of events in various French and English Breton Lays; includes commentary on repetition as a narrative technique that leads to closure in FranT.
Surveys medieval understandings of Rome and its history as background to understanding Chaucer's allusions to Rome and Romans, especially his treatments of them in PhyT, SNT, the Caesar and Nero accounts in MkT, and the Lucrece legend of LGW.…
Argues that Thop can be read as a didactic narrative that breaks off at the "point most effective for developing the theme of salvation" which is brought to conclusion in Mel. The tales share similar concerns with vice and with the world, the flesh,…
Explores the influence of CT on Spenser's "Faerie Queene," especially the Renaissance version of Chaucer's work available to Spenser in Thynne's edition. Includes a list of Spenser's references and allusions to Chaucer.
Traces the development of the "sermo humilis" tradition in literature and the visual arts as a context for Chaucer's uses of "pathetic style" in the Ugolino episode of MkT, PrT, PhyT, and MLT, arguing that these accounts reflect the evolution of…
Cannon, Thomas F., Jr.
DAI 34.07 (1974): 4190-91A.
Gauges the performances of the Canterbury pilgrims by their relative balance between self-will and common will, basing the distinction on patristic notions of pilgrimage and successful progress toward God, as well as Horace's aesthetic criteria of…
Discusses Chaucer's accomplishments in the development of lyric poetry, with commentary on Machaut, Deschamps, Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Villon. Chaucer is the "high point" of the English tradition inspired by the French.
Nicholson, Peter Charles.
DAI 34.08 (1974): 3114A.
Argues that the source of ShT is Boccaccio's "Decameron," and that their several differences were "made necessary by Chaucer's alteration of the ending." Chaucer gave his tale the "superficial appearance of a French fabliau" in order to critique the…
Surveys the importance of classical and medieval rhetorical theories that underlie late medieval poetry, and discusses the "flowering of rhetorico-poetic technique in Chaucer's verse," analyzing samples of his poetry in light of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's…
Describes the models of verbal portraiture in the "Rhetorica ad Herennium" and works by Geoffrey of Vinsauf and Matthew of Vendôme and their impact on Chaucer, arguing that the portraits of Fortune and Blanche in BD reflect the Black Knight's state…
Summarizes John Dryden's theory of translation in his "Fables Ancient and Modern," and explores the discrepancy between this theory and his practice in his translations of KnT, NPT, and WBT, all of which "violate the spirit of their originals."
Describes how Arabic writing "bridged" Hellenic tradition and medieval philosophy, how Arabic science influenced Western civilization, how Arabic literature influenced portion of CT, and how courtly love in TC may reflect the influence of Ibn Hazan's…
Argues that the use of similar techniques by Chaucer, Spenser, and Dryden constitutes a "distinctive English fabular tradition," discussing ManT, PF, and NPT, as well as Spenser's "Shepheardes Calendar," "Mother Hubberds Tale," and "Muipotmos," and…
Considers Chaucer's dream poems in the context of "epithalamic conventions" found in medieval French dream poems and their sources, exploring similarities of "structure, imagery, and theme."
Explores the skeptical uncertainly about dreams that is expressed in the opening of HF as it relates to classical and medieval notions of "mythopoesis" and the validity and interpretation of poetry. Reads HF as a parody of mythopoesis.
Studies the narrators of BD, HF, PF, and LGW for the ways that Chaucer uses them to examine "the task of revivifying the past" and explore the truth value of poetry and poetic traditions.
Leana, Joyce Fitzpatrick.
DAI 35.02 (1974): 1049-50A.
Argues that HF is unified and that in its concern with the power of language it anticipates the theme of language as magic or illusion in CT. Also explores the sources of HF.
Considers Chaucer's (and others') treatment of envy as a Deadly Sin as background to the Renaissance understanding of the vice, which was influenced by classical tradition as well.
De Nerville, Catherine Jenelle Maness.
DAI 35.03 (1974): 1619A.
Discusses critical approaches to Chaucer's poetry using M. H. Abrams' categories of literary theory (mimetic, objective, pragmatic, and expressive) and commenting on the criticism of D. W. Robertson Jr., Robert M. Jordan, Robert O. Payne, and Charles…
