Facing-page translation (Middle English verse/German prose) of selections from the CT, with introductions, commentaries, and bibliographies. Includes GP, KnT, MilT, WBPT, FranT, PardPT, and NPT. Translations by Bergner, Waltraud Böttcher, Günter…
Neumann, Fritz-Wilhelm.
Hans-Heinrich Freitag and Peter Hühn, eds. Literarische Ansichten der Wirklichkeit: Studien zur Wirklichkeitskonstitution in Englischsprachiger Literatur: To Honour Johannes Kleinstück (Frankfurt am Main: Peter D. Lang, 1980), pp. 41-57.
Assesses the arena and attendant temples in KnT as a squared circle, central symbol in the tale and its concerns with perception and reality.
Anderson, Judith H.
Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, eds. Acts of Interpretation (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982), pp. 105-18.
Close reading of the uses of the conjunction "but" as an "illogical adversative" in Spenser's Proem to Book 6 of "The Faerie Queene," compared and contrasted with Chaucer's related uses in his GP. Generally, Chaucer's usage "serves narrative…
Pope, John C.
Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, eds. Acts of Interpretation (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982), pp. 345-62.
Explicates tensions within several poetic evocations of mutability in English poetry: the Old English "Wanderer," "Beowulf," the end of Chaucer's TC (5.1835-48), and Spenser's Mutability Cantos. Chaucer and Spenser both use "equivocation" to express…
Summary (without text) and commentary on MerT, arranged in sections, accompanied by glosses to Middle English phrases. Also includes a brief introduction to Chaucer and his backgrounds; commentary on themes, characterization, and style of MerT; the…
Originally published in 1966, here revised, corrected, and expanded. Describes Chaucer's grammar and usage, anatomized according to parts of speech, with extensive examples. Topics include verbs (in their various tenses, aspects, and moods), nouns,…
An anthology of translations from Greek and Roman by English writers, including a section on Chaucer (pp. 32-33) with a brief (and erroneous) biography and a selection from Chaucer's Dido legend (LGW 1180-1209), from Virgil's "Aeneid" 4.129-50,…
Crozier, Andrew, Roy Fisher, Keith Please, and Kevin Power.
Guildford: Circle Press, 1982.
Twenty lyric poems inspired by descriptions in GP: "Knight," "Dyere," "Cook," "Tapicer," and "Webbe," by Roy Fisher; "The Reeve, " "The Manciple," "The Merchant," 'The Doctor of Physic," by Keith Please; "Some Instructions of the Horses," by Andrew…
Brewer, Elisabeth
Harlow: Longman; Beirut: York Press, 1982.
Study guide to MilT that includes a plot synopsis, running commentary, and glosses (text not included). Also includes descriptions of characters and characterization, various themes and devices, stylistic features, and suggestions for further study;…
Borges, Jorge Luis.
Andrew Hurley, trans. Collected Fictions: Jorge Luis Borges (New York: Viking, 1998), pp. 508-15.
Fantasy story about the transmission of Shakespeare's memory from one man to another; includes several references and allusions to Chaucer. The story was first published in Spanish in a limited edition. "La Memoria de Shakespeare" (Buenos Aires:…
Kean, P. M.
London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
Describes Chaucer's contributions to English literary tradition: a "new kind of organization" of large narrative, an "urbane" style that assumes a shared set of values with its audience, and a "new attitude" toward the "usefulness and dignity" of…
Hoeniger, F. David.
Shakespeare Quarterly 33 (1982): 461-79.
Describes "the marked incongruity in the sheer quality of styles" in Tho and Mel, commenting on them as "burlesque," and using them to support an argument that Shakespeare intentionally employed mediocre, archaized poetry in the first two acts of…
Hatton, Thomas J.
Chicago: Dramatic Publishing, 1982.
Adapts WBT for the stage, maintaining its Arthurian setting, the life-question, concern for female mastery, and faithful/faithless choice. Eliminates the rape motif (here a kiss) and the magical transformation (here a matter of disguise). Characters…
Matthews, Kathleen Douglas.
Ph.D. Dissertation. University of New Hampshire, 1982. Fully accessible via https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1321 (accessed April 7, 2026).
Explores aspects of Williams' development of his poetic identity, including the importance of Chaucer as a model, emphasizing the modern poet's knowledge of Chaucer and Chaucer criticism and his emulation in "Paterson" of Chaucer's comic techniques.
Six essays on literary, social, and historical contexts. The two final essays analyze Chaucer's use of Boccaccio's "Teseida" to explore Chaucer's methods and poetic-philosophical development.
PardT has been classified as anti-marchen because its unhappy ending violates the marchen's typical "weightlessness," but given the negative nature of the hero, PardT does follow the normal marchen pattern. "Anti-marchen" should be redefined.
Deals with Chaucer's technical knowledge, ambivalence toward astrology and magic, and literary uses. Studies ambiguities, confusion, complexities, and conflicting attitudes of the Franklin toward astrology, astronomy, and magic.
