A biography of John Hawley that concludes by arguing (pp. 147-55) that Hawley was at the center of a number of satirical allusions in Chaucer's GP description of the Shipman. Chaucer depicts a professional mariner, which Hawley was not, but the…
Fourteenth-century nominalist challenges to realism also challenged the universalizing truth of proverbs. Through his treatment of proverbs in NPT, WBP, and TC, Chaucer contrasts the "sic" of dominant realist discourse with the "non" of nominalist…
Oram, William A.
David A. Richardson, and A Kent Hieatt, eds. Spenser at Kalamazoo: Proceedings from a Special Session at the Thirteenth Conference on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 5-6 May 1978 (Cleveland: Cleveland State University, 1978), pp. 238-53.
Comparative analysis evinces how Spenser adapts Chaucer's BD in creating his "Daphnaida." The impact changes, however, as Chaucer's "Man in Black presents Gaunt with an idealized version of himself," while Spenser's poem presents his friend, Arthur…
Holahan, Michael.
David A. Richardson, ed. Spenser: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern (Cleveland State University, 1977), pp. 116-31. [Microfiche available from the Department of English.]
Both Chaucer and Spenser make use of the qualified or unresolved ending. The outer limit of Chaucer's work is doctrine. Spenser seems to hold out hope for absolute vision.
Crampton, Georgia Ronan.
David A. Richardson, ed. Spenser: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern (Cleveland State University, 1977), pp. 132-34. [Microfiche available from the Department of English.]
Spenser and Chaucer both composed subtle, complex closures, spreading out before the audience several endings, like sections of a fan. Many medieval poems ended almost interchangeably in a formulaic prayer for salvation.
Barthel, Carol.
David A. Richardson, ed. Spenser: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern (Cleveland State University, 1977), pp. 72-83. [Microfiche available from the Department of English.]
In adapting the outdated motif of the medieval romance of dreaming of a fairy queen from Chaucer's Thop, Spenser blends naiveté and sophistication.
Davis, Walter R.
David A. Richardson, ed. Spenser: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern (Cleveland State University, 1977), pp. 84-91. [Microfiche available from the Department of English.]
Disagrees with Carol Barthel's assertion that Spenser derived Prince Arthur's dream of the Fairy Queen from Chaucer's Thop, but argues that, in completing SqT in Book 4 of "The Faerie Queene," Spenser encourages his readers to seek allegorical…
Staley, Lynn.
David Aers and Lynn Staley. The Powers of the Holy: Religion, Politics, and Gender in Late Medieval English Culture (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), pp. 179-259
Revises, and reprints as one, the following essays: "Inverse Counsel: Contexts for the 'Melibee'" and "Chaucer's Tale of the Second Nun and the Strategies of Dissent."
Moi, Toril.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 11-33.
Reviews controversy (important in TC studies) on courtly love in Robertson, Donaldson, and Benton; naive "reflectionism" is attacked by Marxist theorists. In "De amore," desire is a hermeneutical challenge: "God for Andreas, like death for Lacan,…
Patterson, Lee.
David Aers, ed. Culture and History, 1350-1600: Essays on English Communities, Identities, and Writing (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992), pp. 7-41.
During the reign of Richard II, love poetry such as Clanvowe's "Book of Cupid" was a means whereby courtiers could interrogate the "power, patronage and lordship" of the fetishized court. Patterson considers Clanvowe's allusions to Chaucer in this…
Pearsall, Derek.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 123-47.
Studies the hermeneutical "reflection of contemporary historical actuality" in Chaucer criticism. Although various critical schools--epistemologists, phenomenologists,Marxists and Russian Formalists (Medvedev, Bakhtin), etc.--recognize the…
Ferster, Judith.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 148-68.
Modern phenomenological hermeneutics offers a profitable method for interpreting Chaucer. Five basic hermeneutical principles can be illustrated by a close reading of FranT, including the imitation in real life inspired by the tale.
Cook, Jon.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 169-91.
CT shows extensive evidence of "Carnival" (Bakhtin) influence. GP, Miller, and Host show evidence of the carnivalesque approach to life. The clerk, on the other hand, reasserts "official values." CT offers the first English model of secular and…
Beckwith, Sarah.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 34-57.
Drawing on Lacan and feminist criticism, Beckwith examines female mysticism as the only public expression permitted women in the Middle Ages and discusses the Otherness of the female and of God.
Aers, David.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 58-73.
Reacting to critical theorists--Bakhtin, Derrida, De Man, Eagleton, Lentricchia, and others--Aers writes an essay as a meditation on "glosynge" in SumT 1788-96.
Aers, David.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature and Historical Inquiry: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2000), 68-81.
Challenges the notion that Mel asserts orthodox Christian sensibility. By privileging prudence over the theological virtues and by omitting "Christ, the Church [. . .], the Trinity" and sacramental forgiveness, Mel suggests heterodox views.
Fowler, Elizabeth.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature and Historical Inquiry: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2000), pp. 55-67.
Reads MLT as a "thought experiment" in which the topos of the ship (familiar in both romance and political/legal philosophy) is used to confront the "conflict of laws" among the various cultures represented: Christian, Islamic, and pagan. With ClT,…
Fowler, David C.
David C. Fowler. The Bible in Middle English Literature (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984), pp. 128-70.
Presents an overview of Ambrose's "Hexameron" and argues the informing presence of the hexameral tradition on a deep level--though it scarcely rises to the surface--in the text of PF.
Eberly, Susan Schoon.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 15-39.
Surveys the biblical, folkloric, and courtly imagery of thorns and hawthorn trees, which indicate the "presence of misguided love." Considers use of the imagery in a wide variety of works, including KnT and some Chaucerian apocrypha.
James, Clair F.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 95-118.
Argues for an ironic reading of "The Kingis Quair," interpreting Minerva as an ally of Venus. TC influenced the author's view of Minerva, and the protagonist's decision to follow his will rather than reason places him in sinful subjection to…
Brown, Melissa L.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 119-43.
Thought to be the work of Chaucer until 1775, Roos's translation clarifies the role of the Lover as a "woful lover." The humor and criticism of the poem are aimed at the Lover, not the Lady.
Snyder, Cynthia Lockard.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 145-71.
Thought to be the work of Chaucer until the 1870s and long read largely for its style, "The Floure and the Leafe" is an ironic allegory warning readers not to "succumb to the deceptions that have befallen both the Flower and the Leaf." The details…
Friedman, Bonita.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 173-90.
Thought to be the work of Chaucer until the 1870s, "The Court of Love" manipulates the conventions of love lyric and allegory, including several details from LGW, PF, and Pity. Such manipulation produces humor, depicting Philogenet as a kind of…
Chamberlain, David.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 41-65.
Long considered a work by Chaucer, "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" is probably by his friend, Sir John Clanvowe. It is a work of considerable wit and subtlety, presenting a "libidinous narrator," a virtuous cuckoo who embodies Christian truth, and…
Crockett, Bryan.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 67-93.
Reads Lydgate's "Temple of Glas" as a "sustained, ironic treatment of frustrated love," citing the following as sources of details of the poem and influences on its formal techniques: "Roman de la Rose," HF, TC, PF, KnT, and MerT.
