Peck, Russell A.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 143-70.
A reworking of the author's "Saint Paul and the 'Canterbury Tales'" (Mediaevalia 07 (1981): 91-131). Saint Paul is invoked in NPT to justify use of fables; in ParsT, to reject them. Chaucer's own attitude is the Nun's Priest's. Pauline ideas…
Fleming, John V.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 183-95.
For his worldly, depraved clerics, Chaucer draws not on the actual world but on "crabbed Latin texts monkish in their aspirations and unworldly in their doctrines," i.e., upon scriptural exegesis and ascetic theology, as in GP's Summoner, Friar,…
Alford, John A.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 197-203.
On "glosing" and scriptural authority in WBP, WBT, FrT, and SumT. The groping motif of SumT is informed by Gen. 24:1-4 and 47:27, requiring an oath on the genitals.
Jeffrey, David Lyle.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 207-28.
The Aeneas story as cliche is appropriate for the poem's subject: fame. The fame of Aeneas was important in Christian historiography, but ambivalent because of his betrayal of Dido. Biblical language and allusion rather than "the story of Troy or…
Robertson, D. W.,Jr.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 3-32.
Understanding medieval literary use of scriptural tradition requires knowledge of relevant social history, especially for Chaucer--not merely a "textual" man but a "moral, social, and political man." The complex Christian tradition, functioning…
Reiss, Edmund.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 47-61.
The 700 biblical quotations and allusions in Chaucer are used to support arguments, to suggest "a plethora of significances," to evoke, to echo; or, alternatively, to alter, pervert, or misapply biblical themes, exposing human folly, as in MilT,…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 65-73.
Chaucer used the "Glossa ordinaria" in WBT and MerT; his use of the term "glosing" shows his awareness of fraudulent exegetes. ParsT is more literal than exegetical. Chaucer's attitude toward exegesis was shaped by the antifraternalism of the…
Caie, Graham D.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 75-88.
Puzzling marginal glosses in Ellesmere, Hengwrt, and Cambridge Dd.4.24 may be intended to guide interpretation, as was customary even in vernacular texts. Accepted as integral to the text for a century, glosses serve various purposes in MLT, glossed…
Jeffrey, David Lyle.
David Lyle Jeffrey. House of the Interpreter: Reading Scripture, Reading Culture (Waco, Tx,: Baylor University Press, 2003), pp. 111-16.
Explores ecclesiastical connotations of the word "rente" in the GP description of the Friar, in SumT, and elsewhere in medieval usage.
Jeffrey, David Lyle.
David Lyle Jeffrey. House of the Interpreter: Reading Scripture, Reading Culture (Waco, Tx,: Baylor University Press, 2003), pp. 87-110.
Considers the three-part structure of HF, the poem's references to Virgil's "Aeneid," and its allusions to Dante's "Divine Comedy" and to Ezekiel, arguing that, thematically, it abandons history as a source of truth, considers the potential of…
Patrouch, Joseph A., Jr
David M. Hassler, ed. Patterns of the Fantastic (Mercer Island, Wash.: Starmont House, 1983), pp. 63-66.
Opens a discussion of Harlan Ellison's uses of a "speaking voice" in his fiction by commenting on Chaucer's multiple narrative voices and the depiction of "Chaucer reading aloud" in the Troilus frontispiece (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 61).
Brooke, Christopher (N. L.)
David M. Smith, ed. Studies in Clergy and Ministry in Medieval England. Purvis Seminar Series; Borthwick Studies in History, no. 1 ([York]: University of York, 1991), pp. 1-19.
Explores the life of Edmund Gonville--cleric, shrewd land agent, and man of affairs--and Chaucer's depiction of the Parson. Despite his considerable financial successes, Gonville was like the Parson in that he did not rent out his benefice.
Sanders, Barry.
David R. Olson and Nancy Torrance, eds. Literacy and Orality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 111-28.
In GP, Chaucer poses himself as a "liar," capable of impossible feats of memory; in tales such as MilT, he capitalizes on the oral genre of joking. As a liar and a joker, the literate Chaucer manipulates oral expectations, compelling his audience to…
Wenzel, Siegfried.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 1-10.
Surveys scholarship pertaining to ParsT, describing the recent emphasis on interpretation rather than on philology. Identifies a "perspectivist" approach that regards ParsT as equivalent to the other Tales and a "teleological" approach that sees it…
Raybin, David.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 11-43.
ParsT confronts and resolves the dual focus evident throughout CT: the intricate variety of human error and the radical simplicity of penance. Echoing GP--and recalling the theology of spiritual progress reflected in FrT, PardT, ClT, and Mel--ParsT…
Ferster, Judith.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 115-50.
Argues that ParsT fits its teller. Seen in relation to its sources, the Tale reflects a particular and individualized kind of spirituality--a spirituality averse to physical pleasure, critical of inappropriate taxation, and ambivalent about…
Roper, Gregory.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 151-75.
ParsT is an examination of conscience that prepares for the act of confession that is Chaucer's Ret. Late-medieval notions of self differ from modern ones; the process of preparing for confession led the penitent to recognize and discard the sinful…
Gross, Charlotte.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 177-97.
ParsT ends CT but does not bring transcendent closure to the work. In various ways--including several verb forms and other variations from Pennaforte's "Summa"--ParsPT reaffirm temporality rather than asserting eternality; they focus attention not on…
Holley, Linda Tarte.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 198-208.
As a reckoning or quantification of sin, ParsT rationalizes the "complexities of the human will." By making human options clear, it can serve as either a beginning or an end.
Raybin, David.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 209-52.
A "full" bibliography of scholarly work on The Parson's Tale; includes 175 annotated entries, each with a bibliographic citation and a description.
Newhauser, Richard.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 45-76.
Assesses ParsT in its genre of vernacular penitential manual, demonstrating that in structure and detail it is closely affiliated with Heinrich von Langenstein's "Erchantnuzz der Sund." Similarities between these two contemporary works raise…
Ransom, Daniel J.
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 77-93.
Preliminary collations of The Parson's Tale lines 10.75-551 indicate that de Worde's 1498 edition of the Tale derived from a high-quality manuscript rather than from William Caxton's second edition. Such editorial effort reflects high regard for The…
