Browse Items (16381 total)

Argues that the subject matter, irony, depiction of love, and touches of humor in KnT are "in no way inappropriate" to the characterization of the Knight evident elsewhere in CT

Explores the imagery of nature and death in TC, arguing that Criseyde is "representative of a principle of life" and "best understood in terms of her cyclical or seasonal progression through the poem." Pandarus is associated with mutability, and…

Surveys late medieval "attitudes toward alchemy" in order to establish their influence on CYPT. Although Chaucer's depiction is generally orthodox in its condemnation of alchemy, it derives language and details from treatises that promote the study,…

Provides a full description of the Coventry manuscript (City Record Office, Coventry) that includes six of Chaucer's Short Poems (ABC, Buk, Gent, Purse, Sted, Truth), along with works by Hoccleve, Lydgate, Mandeville, and others). Edits the text of…

Critiques--pro and con--Robertsonian criticism, also known as exegetical, Augustinian, or historical criticism, describing its theoretical and practical strengths and limitations, and exploring its possibilities for further illuminating medieval…

Describes three groups of equestrians among the Canterbury pilgrims: those who ride proud horses, those who "ride either poor or at least un-caparisoned horses," and "those whose characters seem compromised by their 'inefficiency' as horsemen."…

Shows that Chaucer's depiction of Fame in HF has several parallels with the depiction of her in the French "Ovide moralisé": use of anaphora in amplification of Ovid's original, Fame's role of judge and her "aura of authority," and overt concern…

Treats the Old Man of PardT as the "total opposite" of the three revelers: he "embodies or manifests . . . in some manner Christian goodness." He first offers to the revelers a merciful "way to salvation," but when they "flatly reject" it, he justly…

Suggests that the notion of making a "virtue of necessity" in TC and Theseus's "First Mover" speech reflect late-medieval nominalism and express concern with the precariousness of human life and its relation to "Ultimate Justice." Ending on a…

Considers the tone and attitude of the seventeen-stanza "Epilogue" of TC (5.1751-1869), observing a shift between the first five stanzas and the last twelve and suggesting that the latter are addressed to a reading audience rather than the original,…

Asks why Chaucer uses a "Latin masculine name of the month to refer to his very feminine heroine" in MerT, answering that it contributes to the theme of healing in the Tale, much as does Damyan's association with St. Damian, patron saint of healing.

Contemplates social status and social mobility in Chaucer's works, considering them in light of contemporaneous attitudes. Focuses on Chaucer's uses of "degree" and the ladder of degree as a "symbol of social mobility," inflected by Chaucer's comic…

Describes the "basic historical method" of KnT as consistent with the "contemporary aristocratic chronicle," showing how Chaucer uses Statius's "Thebaid" to archaize the plot drawn from Boccaccio's "Teseida" and create a world "believable" for his…

Lists bibliographical citations of Chaucer studies, with sections on reference works, biography, social and cultural environments, editions and modernizations, language and versification, sources, individual works, apocrypha, etc., but excluding…

Suggests that in FrT the association of the fiend in with the color green may show how exegetical tradition filtered into folklore.

Poetic narrative based on characters and plot of TC, set in contemporary Troy, Wisconsin.

Explores the classical and medieval poetic theories that underlie the genre of the fabliau, particularly its lack of concern with meaningfulness, commenting on several French fabliaux, and discussing the comedy and satire of MilT, RvT, ShT, and SumT.…

Argues that post-medieval notions of comedy obscure the relations between sense and sententiousness in Chaucer's poetry, explaining that Boethian, analogous thinking underlies Chaucer's art and that Hebraic and Graeco-Roman poetic traditions help to…

Describes how the Boethian concept of divine (fore)knowledge of eternity underlies various aspects of TC and explores how narrative devices, allusions, the treatment of time, and the epilogue evoke the "illusion of 'present eternite' for the reader…

Argues that Chaucer used French versions to facilitate his translation from Latin and that he sought to produce literal translations, although his prose translations are more literal than his poetic ones. Considers, Bo, Mel, Rom, Venus, and ABC,…

Explores how "complex irony in Chaucer has the effect of affirming both sides in a conflict or both terms in an opposition," discussing the device in TC, KnT, NPT, PardPT, and the end of the CT. Includes discussion of Boethius's "Consolation of…

Murder-mystery action drama in which the serial killer uses the Seven Deadly Sins to organize his crimes. Includes several visual and verbal references to ParsT and CT.

German translation of CT, with notes and glosses,originally produced by Adolf von Düring as part of his three-volume "Geoffrey Chaucers Werke" (Strassburg, 1883-86). Hoevel's edition was reissued in 1974.

Collects examples of Chaucer's uses of pseudo-sciences in CT, for the most part, astrology and physiognomy.

Describes the rise of writing in English during the "age of Chaucer," commenting on the Ricardian poets (emphasizing Chaucer), Middle English sermon cycles, Lollard translation, and other examples of the "elevated vernacular" of late…