Burrow, J. A.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Deals with the ideas behind Middle English literature, wirters, audiences, genres, personality versus impersonality, allegory, edification, and the attitude of later ages to the literature of medieval England.
Clark, George.
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 52 (1982): 257-65.
Whereas Chauntecleer was caught by the fox on the third of May,Arcite's escape from prison and Pandarus's first visit to Criseyde took place on the fourth. These differences in date have different meanings according to medieval "lunaria,"…
Eade, J. C.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 4 (1982): 53-85.
Examines ways in which Chaucer called upon his readers' mental agility and elementary acquaintance with astronomy to show how passages customarily regarded as difficult or impenetrable yield to orderly analysis once their technical apparatus has been…
The reflexive "maken" ("to pretend") is studied in a discussion of the conscience of the Prioress, the Parson, the Pardoner, Griselda, Friar John, and the Wife of Bath. "Spiced conscience" means "tender feeling," or "hypocritical religiosity."
Kane, George.
Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, eds. Acts of Interpretation (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982), pp. 237-55.
Chaucer derived his concepts of love poetry from various contemporary traditions of romantic love. He satirized the concepts of "fin amour" with a firm knowledge of its contrasting forms and unpredictable variety, utilizing all its aspects from its…
Leach, Eleanor Winsor.
Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, eds. Acts of Interpretation (Norman, Okla., Pilgrim Books, 1982), pp. 299-310.
In KnT, May symbolizes the future promise of Emelye's love. In LGW strong emphasis on women and love is tied to men's ability to judge them. May, the season most likely to obscure these judgments, is a metaphor for fulfillment of love's promise.
Discusses Chaucer's sense of history and his historical approach to the pagans and the imperfection of pagan theology and philosophy, centering on TC and on KnT.
Olson, Glending.
Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Later medieval medical theories and ethical commentaries recognized the benefits of literary pleasure. Olson's aim is "to redress an imbalance in modern scholarship that fosters, intentionally or not, the notion that medieval literary thought had…
Rowland, Beryl.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 4 (1981): 33-51.
The reaction of Chaucer's contemporary listeners was more confident and unequivocal than our own because of the way the reader presented the poetry through oral delivery.
Rubey, Daniel Robert.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1982): 3154A.
Medieval romances reflect changing attitudes toward social conflicts with chronologically developing alterations in their audiences. Chaucer's romances are studied briefly.
Traversi, Derek.
Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1982.
Treats (1) the theme of poetry in Dante's "Purgatorio," (2) why Ulysses is in hell, (3) FranT, (4) ManT, (5) "Unaccommodated Man" in "King Lear," (6) The imaginative and the real in "Antony and Cleopatra," and (7) Shakespeare's dramatic illusion in…
Ward, Benedicta.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
Surveys patristic commentary and theory regarding miracles, and treats miracles associated with various shrines: Saint Faith, Saint Benedict, Saint Cuthbert, Saint WIlliam, Saint Godric, Saint Friedeswide, and Saint Thomas of Canterbury, as well as…
Zanoni, Mary Louise.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1982): 5115A.
Chaucer's use of philosophy, classic and medieval, goes far beyond Boethius. KnT explores order and disorder in terms of scholasticism; TC treats will and determinism in the light of views from Augustine to Bradwardine; and NPT subtly inverts…
Bookis, Judith May.
Dissertation Abstracts International 43 (1982): 1140.
In PrT, MLT, ClT, SNT, and PhyT, Chaucer manipulates the genre and rhetoric of the saint's life in differing ways to evoke audience response to the professional stereotypes of the narrators.
A pendant is usually conjectured to be a "penner," a pencase, emblematic of the poet's profession. It is, however, more likely to be an ampulla, a lead vial supposedly containing blood from the martyr of Saint Thomas of Canterbury.
Lundberg, Marlene Helen Cooreman.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1982): 3993A.
Gower and Chaucer treat the same traditional stories differently: Gower typically narrates them as exempla in "Confessio Amantis," whereas Chaucer, breaking from the fixed pattern of LGW, tells them in CT to explore truth.
Moritz, Theresa Anne.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1982): 4445A.
Certain twelfth-century mystics, especially Bernard of Clairvaux, interpreted the Song of Songs as figuring the love of God and man not only through heterosexual love but specifically as an ideal of marriage. In Chaucer's works both the concept of…
The fragment containing SNT and CYT is unique in the intrusion of new pilgrims undescribed in GP. Two seemingly unrelated stories are tightly unified: SNT in the "lastynge bisynesse" of Saint Cecilia; CYT in the fraudulent "bisynesse" of the Canon,…
Rex, Richard.
Massachusetts Studies in English 8 (1982): 20-32.
Among the hitherto unrevealed examples of subtle bawdy humor in Chaucer's poetry are many in KnT. These provide suggestive commentary on the Knight's character. The Miller's values probably come closer to Chaucer's own sentiments than do those…
