Browse Items (16471 total)

"Part One" contains five moral or "Boethian" poems, four humorous poems addressed to individuals, four love lyrics, and one gnomic poem: Truth, Gent, Sted, Form Age, For; Purse, Adam, Buk, Scog; Ros, MercB, Wom Nob, Wom Unc; and Prov.

Offers new support for the old theory that PF represents Anne of Bohemia as the "formel eagle" and King Richard, Charles of France, and Friedrich as her three suitors, presenting new ararguments for dating the poem in 1380 and new evidence that both…

Discursive review of Chaucerian scholarship and research published in 1980.

Surveys Middle English references to Spanish people, places, and things, concluding that, among Middle English authors, Chaucer "reflects the greatest and the most diverse knowledge" of Spain. He was familiar with Spanish geography, "hispano-Arabic…

Characterizes several differences between the archaic (prescientific) and modern mindsets: literal vs. relative, oral vs. literate, mythic vs. scientific. Includes a brief discussion of Chaucer's mixture of the two.

Friar Lawrence of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet echoes Pandarus of TC. As rhetors, both are fond of apothegms; dramatically, each acts as a go-between; thematically, each reflects how truth escapes human efforts to capture it in fiction.

Includes discussion of the influence of KnT on Shakespeare's play, focusing on the play's structure and its concern with "reconciling a faith in cosmic order with our experience of life's apparent chaos" (256).

Assesses "incongruity in the sheer quality of style" in Pericles, especially the Gower passages, suggesting that Shakespeare was inspired by Thopas--Chaucer's experiment in incongruity produced from the "inferior art" of an earlier tradition.

Chaucer and Shakespeare use different narrative techniques to lend ambiguity to the characterization of Criseyde/Cressida, but each uses ambiguity to create sympathy for his character.

Assesses Astr as a piece of technical writing, admiring Chaucer's use of a personal voice, everyday examples, devices of cohesion, and other indications of audience awareness.

The tension between sensual love and orthodox truth in TC can be seen in nascent form in Boccaccio's "Filocolo," even though Chaucer depends for his plot on "Filostrato." The tension is rooted in Dante's "Comedy" and in the "Roman de la Rose," but…

Smith assesses characterizations of Criseyde, focusing on Chaucer's, Henryson's, and Shakespeare's characterizations but commenting on others. She argues that the character must be understood in light of contemporaneous attitudes toward, for example,…

A facing-page Middle English/Spanish verse translation of PF, with notes and introduction by the translator.

Comparison of manuscripts of CT enables inferential conclusions about their exemplar (which does not survive), but the complexity of these conclusions justifies reliance on the Hengwrt manuscript. Blake considers the likelihood that the manuscripts…

Assesses character names in works "from 'Beowulf' to Robert Henryson, tracing patterns in onomastic function, language philosophy, and literary form." Includes discussion of names from HF, TC, and CT.

Offers a "partial explanation" for the paucity of fabliaux in Middle English: lack of concern with courtly sentiment in Middle English romance fails to "provide conditions conducive" to "parody and ironization of romance" that is fundamental to the…

Using evidence of paleography, orthography, watermarks, and indications of provenance, dates booklet 1 of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson C.86, as the second quarter of the fifteenth century; dates booklets 2-4 as early sixteenth century.

Argues that "The Flower and the Leaf" and "The Assembly of Ladies" are both concerned with female chastity as a means to effective power, the first asserting this theme and the second expressing frustration with such assertions. Also surveys…

"This study argues that, in major Middle English works, authority is the central issue involved in concepts of character and of relationships beween characters. 'Havelok the Dane,' 'King Horn,' 'Sir Orfeo,' Malory's works, and 'The Canterbury Tales'…

Presents the text of the Middle English poem, "Lyarde," discussing it in light of Goliardic satire and identifying instances where the poem shares themes with parts of CT: the "sexual superiority" of clerics (the Monk in MkP and NPE), wives' control…

Describes the Kelmscott Press edition of Chaucer as the "supreme achievement" of the partnership between Morris and Burne-Jones, placing the volume in the careers of the two men, describing the process of its production, and examining a number of…

Demonstrates that details of dress in William Blake's "Canterbury Pilgrims" derive from the monuments in Westminster Abbey. Focuses on Blake's depictions the Pardoner, Prioress, and Wife of Bath.

Describes the major social institutions and social practices of late-medieval England, identifying their roots, indicating their later developments, and illustrating their features from Middle English literary sources, especially the works of…

Reads FranT as an epitome of the CT to the extent that both are concerned with the "ideal of patience and the problems of time and change," emphasizing the universality of these concerns and their appearances throughout the CT. As in Marie de…

Treats TC and KnT together because each derives from a source by Boccaccio and because each includes Boethian thought; also considers the Shakespearean analogues of each and compares each with opera, Books 1-3 of TC correspond to the "medieval…