Compares the theme of forced marriage in WBT, "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine," "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell," and Gower's "Tale of Florent." While all the works concern forced marriages, Chaucer's knight undergoes "greater coercion,"…
Meyer, Robert J.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 221-38.
Structural unity is achieved by the back-to-back romances in the tale, the first a mock quest, the second a narrative that asks what men most desire (gentility, youth, beauty). The Midas exemplum and the pillow talk of gentility are integral parts…
Murphy, Ann B.
The Centennial Review 28:3 (1984): 204-22.
The Wife's personality develops through five marriages from a materialistic, mercantile desire for power and wealth to "an earthly form of spiritual transformation through marital love." WBP traces how Allison learns to love and to stop equating…
Quinn, Esther C.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 211-20.
WBT is an ironic Arthurian romance, particularly when viewed alongside Marie de France's "Lanval" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which parallel it in several ways.
Robertson, D. W.,Jr.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 6 (1984): 1-20.
Discuses Ovid, "Roman de la Rose," and the theme of Midas in WBT. The Wife alters the story of Midas, ironically exposing both her own shortcomings and those of the knight in her tale.
Fleming, Martha H.
Peter Cocozzella, ed. The Late Middle Ages (Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1984 (for 1981)), pp. 89-101.
Presents evidence of a coherently conceived allegory in ClT: God is to Man as Perfection is to Imperfection, a hierarchy based not on rank but on virtue. Thus God is to Man as Griselda is to Walter.
Arrathoon, Leigh A.
Language and Style 17:1 (1984): 92-120.
Throughout MerT synonyms for the Boethian values of true bliss and sorrow are juxtaposed to develop the theme of the woe that is in marriage--parallel to the "contemptus mundi" theme of the "Consolation." The protagonist of MerT uses Boethian…
Hira, Toshinori.
Bulletin of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Humanities (Nagasaki) 24.2 (1984): 97-111.
The narrator of MerT evokes the same moral response from the audience as the authors of the "Comedy." Although the narrator appeals to the superiority of the audience over his dramatic characters, he perhaps admires their crudeness, which the…
Schmidt, Gary D.
Anne C. Hargrove and Maurine Magliocco, eds. Portraits of Marriage in Literature (Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1984), pp. 97-105.
Chaucer uses enfolding irony in MerT and FranT to examine the good marriage, with insights on courtly love and adultery through shifting perspectives and character conflict.
Bergner, Heinz.
Xenia von Ertsdorff and Marianne Wynn, eds. Liebe--Ehe--Ehebruch in der Literatur des Mittelalters: Vortrage des Symposiums vom 13. bis 16. Juni 1983 am Institut fur deutsche Sprache und mittelalterliche Literatur der Justus Liebig-Universitat Giessen (Giessen: Wilhelm Schmitz, 1984),pp. 140-47.
FranT mirrors contemporary contradictory beliefs about marriage, criticizing standards and legal constraints that force paradoxical and confusing demands on married partners,and exposing the predicament of three moral characters who fall short with…
Lane, Robert C.
Anne C. Hargrove and Maurine Magliocco, eds. Portraits of Marriage in Literature (Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1984), pp. 107-24.
The marriage speech of Averagus and Dorigen is of pivotal importance in understanding the dynamics of their marriage. Human interaction does not guarantee valid or shared meaning.
Benson, C. David.
American Notes and Queries 22 (1984): 62-66.
The Physician's being "grounded in astronomye," i.e., astrology, is not a slighting gibe at his abilities. The publication of Nicholas of Lynn's "Kalendarium" (ed. Sigmund Eisner, Chaucer Library) offers "convincing evidence that Chaucer intended no…
Durmuller, Urs.
Andre Crepin, ed. Linguistic and Stylistic Studies in Medieval English. Publications de l'Association des Medievistes de l'Ensignement Superieur 10. (Paris, 1984): pp. 5-22.
Using applied sociolinguistics, Durmuller follows Schauber and Spolsky in analysis of verbal behavior of the Pardoner, whose oddities in language (speech acts, pronominal reference, selection of lexical items) relate to his strange behavior.
Yeager, R. F.
Studies in Philology 81:4 (1984): 42-55.
According to a theological tradition of the late Middle Ages, gluttony included swearing, blasphemy, sorcery, witchcraft, and devil worship, as well as excessive eating and drinking.
Adams, Robert.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 6 (1984): 83-102.
Discussion of the debt as religious. The characters in ShT are "impenitent" because they and the Shipman have been blinded to moral and spiritual truth by their middle-class milieu.
Burrow, J. A.
Claude Rawson, ed. English Satire and the Satiric Tradition. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984), pp. 44-55. Also in Yearbook of English Studies 14 (1984): 44-55.
Th, according to L. H. Loomis, follows no previous pattern of burlesque. This article disputes Lommis's contention through comparison with "prise de Neuvile" in action, language, opening address, catalogues, descriptions, parody, abrupt ending, and…
Gaylord, Alan T.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 6 (1984): 65-84.
Th is analyzed in the context of CT and compared with PrT. The deliberate failure of Th to achieve the promised "miracle" is a comment on the difference between miracles and poetry: miracles "overwhelm" debate, while poetry evokes it.
Taggie, Benjamin F.
Fifteenth-Century Studies 10 (1984): 195-228.
Treats Chaucer's use of the story of Pedro of Castile in MkT and BD; argues that Chaucer was unique in showing Pedro favorably--which suggests Gaunt was Chaucer's patron.
