TC is a thoroughly Christian poem in which characters of a pagan past bring about through their actions the contrary of their expectations, whereas the narrator achieves his purpose exactly, despite his seemingly varied tones. Thus the palinode…
Renoir, Alain.
Orbis Litterarum 36 (1981): 116-40.
TC's first three images (peacock, stairs, Bayard) assume an affective function and create a context for reader response. Passages from the "Iliad," the "Aeneid," and "Chanson des quatre fils Amyon" explain the strong affective element of the allusion…
Rowland, Beryl.
English Studies in Canada (Toronto): 7, 2 (1981): 129-40.
The narrator establishes a relationship with the audience to give the impression that they are jointly and empirically exploring human nature. His continuous presence and the mode of oral delivery enables the narrator to impose his views on the…
Rutherford, Charles S.
Papers on Language and Literature 17 (1981): 245-54.
Troilus's final speech in Book IV includes three of the only four proverbs he uses, suggesting a new-found "auctoritee." Troilus casts off idealism, speaking for the first time as a cynic and unhappy prophet. The Troilus who allows Criseyde to…
Salemi, Joseph S.
Chaucer Review 15 (1981): 209-23.
Although the frame of TC is Boethian determinism, within it works the playful hand of Fortune (and the word "play" occurs frequently, with a variety of senses). The three major personages represent different attitudes toward freedom of choice and…
Tavormina, M. Teresa.
Ball State University Forum 22 (1981): 14-19.
The lunar calendar and imagery of TC 4, though inspired by a similar device in "Filostrato," are far more elaborate than those in the source. The title characters are often directly correlated to these images, which deepens their development.
Matthews, Lloyd J.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 82 (1981): 211-13.
The lines of Matteo Frescobaldi's "Canzone XI" provide the nearest analogue for Chaucer's description of Prudence with "eyen thre." As bankers to the crown, the Frescobaldi had direct links with fourteenth-century England, and the verbal parallels…
Parr, Johnstone,and Nancy Ann Holtz.
Chaucer Review 15 (1981): 255-66.
Recently computerized astrological tables permit faster and more accurate computation. Chaucer describes events that took place in 1385, but the unusual planetary configurations would undoubtedly have been predicted before that date; hence one…
Collins, David G.
Publications of the Arkansas Philological Association 7 (1981): 9-30.
As the figure of Briseida, Criseyd, Cressida moved from Benoit de Saint-Maure (ca. 1160) and Guido della Colonne (1287), through Boccaccio (1336) and Chaucer (ca. 1385), to Shakespeare (1601-1602) and Dryden (1679), her portrait becomes increasingly…
The pathetic tales must been seen in connection with the Ricardian emphasis on emotionalism and the commonality of Christ's human nature and man's. The aim of the pathetic voice is not to make any sweeping statement of human experience but to…
Collette, Carolyn P.
Chaucer Review 15 (1981): 138-50.
The Prioress' preoccupation with emotion and the diminutive reflects the 14th century's concern for a particularized and emotional style in the arts. Though her tale seems odd and inconsistent, it has a consistent sensibility which uses the…
Jacobs, Edward Craney.
Chaucer Review 15 (1981): 151-54.
Madame Eglentyne's "Amor vincit omnia," where we would expect "Caritas vincit omnia," is used for ironic effect. Since Paul defines "caritas" as the "bond of perfection," Chaucer's use of the motto to bind together the Prioress' rich beads is…
Shikii, Kumiko.
The Fleur-de-Lis Review (December 25, 1980): 25-54.
Chaucer's Monk is by no means an ideal clergyman. He is one of the best targets of Chaucer's satire. He shows the degenerating status of the Church and the religious orders, to remind the readers of the need of renovation from within.
Gordon's translation of "Le Roman de Troie" distorts Benoit by omitting important passages. The most critical omission is one of a moralizing nature which emphasizes the fickleness of Criseyde and all women. Gordon must have been influenced by the…
Holloway, Julia Bolton.
Michael Masi, ed. Boethius and the Liberal Arts: A Collection of Essays. Utah Studies in Literature and Linguistics, no. 18. (Berne: Peter Lang, 1981), pp. 175-86.
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.
Rowland, Beryl.
Jan Goosens and Timothy Sodmann, eds. Third International Beast Epic, Fable and Fabliau Colloquium, Munster 1979: Proceedings (Koln and Wien: Bohlau, 1981), pp. 340-55.
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…
Fradenburg, Louise O.
Roderick J. Lyall and Felicity Riddy, eds. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Scottish Language and Literature (Medieval and Renaissance). (Stirling/Glasgow: Department of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow, 1981), pp. 177-90.
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…
Kohl, Stephan.
Roderick J. Lyall and Felicity Riddy, eds. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Scottish Language and Literature (Medieval and Renaissance) (Stirling/Glasgow: Department of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow, 1981), pp. 285-98.
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…
Lyall, Roderick J.,and Felicity Riddy,eds.
Stirling/Glasgow: Department of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow, 1981.
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…
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, Morton W.
Poetica (Tokyo) 12 (1981): 28-35
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.
