Baird-Lange, Lorrayne Y., and Cynthia Dobrich Myers.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 06 (1984): 233-78.
A total of 232 items including reviews, compiled by an international team of scholars, and based upon the MLA International Bibliography, with additions.
Both poets move between extremes of "lust" (delight, pleasure,love) and "lore" (the wisdom of the past). Gower sees lore as a passive standard, while Chaucer questions its relevance and efficacy as a moral guide. Chaucer exhibits extremes, from the…
An overview of research in progress on the mythographic tradition in the Middle Ages (primarily commentary on the works of Virgil, Lucan, Statius, Martianus Capella, Boethius, and Ovid) and examples of its applicability to Chaucer.
Chapter 4 is "The London of Yevele and Chaucer, 1300-1400"; gazetteer and map (182-83) "show main sites where the remains of the medieval and Tudor City of London can still be visited."
Specht, Henrik.
Raken Ringbom and Matti Pissanen, eds. Proceedings from the Second Nordic Conference for English Studies (Abo: Abo Akademi, 1984), pp. 403-13.
Examines "ethopoeia" and "adlocutio" in characterizations and portraiture.
Wilson, Katharina M., ed.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984.
An anthology of women writers from the ninth through the fifteenth centuries, edited and translated by various hands,with biographical and critical studies; includes writings of Dhouda, Hrotsvita, Marie de France, Heloise, Hildegard of Bingen,…
The last tales of CT form a closing sequence of transformation: SNT (conversion fervor in the early church), CYT (alchemical madness of fourteenth-century England), ManT (debasing of myth), and ParsT (change of soul through penitence), as Chaucer…
Otal Campo, Jose Luis.
"Actas del IV Congreso de AEDEAN." (Salamanca: Ed. de la Universidad de Salamanca, 1984), pp. 107-21.
The "illocutionary" system of the narration in CT is organized into six levels based on two criteria: direct communication between literary personae standing at the same illocutionary level and transferred communication between different levels.
Specht, Henrik.
Studia Neophilologica 56 (1984): 129-46.
As seen in GP, the formal method of characterization is rooted in Cicero, Priscian, and Matthew of Vendome. The physical repugnance of the Summoner symbolizes moral ugliness.
Clasby, Eugene.
Howell Chickering, ed., pref., and introd.; Frederic Cheyette and Margaret Switten, pref. 1983 NEH Institute Resource Book for the Teaching of Medieval Civilization (Amherst, Mass.: Five Colleges, 1984), pp. 230-31.
Compares Chaucer's treatment of order in KnT with the concept in "De consolatione philosophiae" of Boethius, the "Confessions" of Saint Augustine, and the "Commedia" of Dante.
Scattergood, V. J.
Chaucer Review 19 (1984): 14-23.
The protagonist of CkT has antecedents, from both society and literature, that permit one to extrapolate details the Cook might have used: trickery, age, and criticism of contemporary mores.
The historical development of an Old Testament law can be applied to "Sir Gawain" and WBT. WBT, which begins with a "lawless, violent rape and ends with the free gift of fairness and fidelity, progresses by the efficiency of a statute (cf. OT 'eye…
Lee, Anne Thompson.
Chaucer Review 19 (1984): 169-78.
Most critical opinion has followed Kittredge's 1912 evaluation of FranT as Chaucer's treatment of ideal marriage. FranT is actually about what it is like to be married, and its center is Dorigen, Chaucer's unique portrayal of a genuinely good,…
Distraint, established in the thirteenth century, required that landholders whose lands produced 20 pounds a year must become knights, the rank involving both military and civil service. The remark that he would rather have a son with the Squire's…
The Host's aversion to this tale is a clue to its interpretations: the narrator, a typical medieval physician, reveals himself and his profession through his narration. The death of Virginia is emblematic of the Physician's lack of concern for his…
Collette, Carolyn P.
Chaucer Review 19 (1984): 39-45.
Chaucer draws on the symbolic and scriptural traditions of the oak to permit the Pardoner to show off his exemplum-telling skill. Anagogically the exemplum is an allegory of grace offered and refused.
The tradition of anti-Semitism lent itself to three kinds of imagery: murder-sacrifice (especially the Slaughter of the Innocents), economy, and law. Covert references in PrT to a shadowy image of the Old Testament God the Father makes him an evil…
Burnley, David.
Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 10 (1984): 77-90.
Reconstructs some features of the stylistic "architecture" of Chaucer's language and illustrates its exploitation in the GP description of the Prioress. The portrait may be more critical, less ambiguous, and less sympathetic than is usually assumed.
Rex, Richard.
Modern Language Quarterly 45 (1984): 107-22.
Cites evidence from medieval theology, sermon literature, etc., to show fourteenth-century religious tolerance of Jews and the belief that they could gain salvation. PrT is Chaucer's ironic comment on the Prioress, religious prejudice, and common…
Response to saints' legends is normally sober, but "Legenda Aurea," Chaucer's source for SNT, exhibits flashes of humor. In a reading of SNT that accepts the natural response of laughter, Valerian, Tiburce, and Almachius are seen to play the fool,…
Both Astr and Equat (if indeed Chaucer's), compared with run-of-the-mill technical writing, show Chaucer to have been a skilled translator and writer, unambiguous and interesting. If Equat is another's, the writer was heavily influenced by Chaucer.
BD offers a sampler of medieval literary genres including lyric and several varieties of narrative. Consolation comes from the recognition of Blaunche's virtue and her comparison with the Virgin Mary. The answer to the question "Where is she now?"…
