Browse Items (16376 total)

Assesses invocations and formulas used to address divinities, characters,and sources in TC.

In MkT,Zenobia is punished for transgressing her gender; and symbols of her former power (including the vitremyte, here newly interpreted) become burlesque attributes.

Kendrick considers secular and religious contexts in which the smile of the Prioress may be understood.

Examines the laughter of Troilus in light of the tradition of contemptus mundi and stresses links between TC and pilgrimage literature.

Studies the function of medieval inscribed or letter-shaped jewels and similar objects, referring to Chaucer's Prioress and to TC.

Considers friendly and hostile relationships, commenting on GP and TC.

Identifies characteristic features of the rhymes and rhyme-elements in CT; a prolegomenon to an in-progress "Rhyme Concordance to the Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer."

Surveys nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century French Chaucer criticism, from early appropriations of Chaucer into French literary tradition to recognition of his importance in anticipating the Renaissance.

Mel capitalizes on a pattern of attention to women earlier in CT, reflecting Chaucer's own concern with female rights of speech and self-expression.

Warlike heroism is never clearly praised in CT. It is always connected with "feeble" characters, such as women and children, whose weapons are their voices (prayers, songs).

Compares and contrasts courtly love in Gower's "Confessio Amantis" and Chaucer's TC.

Explores the foreign, exotic elements of SqT, commenting on its setting, its inclusion of marvelous objects, and its relations with other literature set in the Orient.

Compares Chaucer's WBT and Gower's "Tale of Florent" as indices to the authors' social and moral outlooks. Whereas Gower consistently emphasizes maintaining a hierarchical status quo, Chaucer's concern for the individual and his recurrent…

Considers FranT in light of Epicurean philosophy, arguing that Dorigen's Epicurean efforts to seek perfect tranquility are thwarted by those who seek honor (Arveragus), impossible love (Aurelius), illusion (Aurelius's brother), and riches (the clerk…

GP prefigures the comedy of humours in its emphasis on body language, while the depth and complexity of Chaucer's wit make him a forerunner of Shakespeare and Dickens.

Some features of Chaucer's putative lost lyrics may be inferred from those that exist. There may have been hundreds of occasional lyrics, reflecting Chaucer's penchant for octosyllabics and decasyllabics and for isosyllabic stanzas. He was skilled…

The poets had similar careers, and Deschamps's "Ballad to Chaucer" testifies to the supranational circle of knights-cum-poets. Deschamps's garden metaphor, his comparison of Chaucer to Socrates, and other comparisons indicate that the French poet is…

Includes introductory comments on displacement in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, specifically the meaning of travel in Chaucer.

Focuses on Chaucer's uses of Ovid, specifically his use of the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe in LGW.

Comments on the relationship between narration and food in CT.

Examines the pace of WBT as an example of the loathly hag story and reads in it echoes of several other Canterbury narratives.

Explores American fascination with Dante as a way to get "some purchase on Dante," e.g., K. Taylor's contrast of "Dante with Chaucer to erect Chaucer the 'anti-Dante'." Examines the influence of Dante on LGWP and briefly on HF. Shoaf concludes that…

Describes uses of the lexemes "trouthe" and "soth" in CT, comparing them with "truth" in present-day English. Shows that, associated with love, light, and wisdom, Chaucer's "trouthe" differs from his "soth": the former resides in an abstract semantic…

Includes essays by Leonhard Schmitz (1881), George Dawson (1886), William Calder (1892), John W. Hales (1893), Frank J. Mather (1899), Henry C. Beeching (1900), Alfred Ainger (1905), George H. Cowling (1934), and "Chaucer at Woodstock" (1882).

Twenty previously published essays, in English or German, and a bibliography (447-69) arranged by individual work. The volume opens with Erzgräber's "Chaucer-Forschung im 20. Jahrhundert: Einleitung" (pp. 1-31), an introduction to the essays…