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…
Shigeo, Hisashi.
Chaucer to Kirisutokyo (Chaucer and Medieval Christianity) Symposium Series of Medieval English Literature 1. (Tokyo: Gaku-shobo, 1984): pp. 133-53.
Chaucer reached a temporal conclusion that free will is allowed when one seeks after goodness in compliance with Providence.
Sklute, Larry (M.)
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1984.
Dream visions, TC, the "outer form" of CT, and individual tales reveal an authorial evasion of closed, authoritative determinations of meaning and moral values--correlative to the cognitive indeterminacy of late-medieval nominalism. CT is suited to…
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Clifford Davidson, ed. Word, Picture, and Spectacle: Papers by Karl P. Wentersdorf, Roger Ellis, Clifford Davidson, and R. W. Hanning. Early Drama, Art, and Music Monograph Series 5 (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University Medieval Institute Publications, 1984), pp. 1-19.
Not mere "doodles" but symbolic images, scatalogical images in the margins of medieval manuscripts derive ultimately from biblical and religious writing. Verbal scatalogy in MilT and SumT is serious, moralistic, not vicious.
Wildermuth, M. Catherine Turman.
Dissertation Abstracts International 45 (1984): 1112A.
Medieval literature uses pathos of innocent suffering to relate physical to spiritual. The humanization of Griselda highlights her Christian virtues; the Prioress emphasizes the spiritual; the Physician stimulates audience self-awareness.
Williman, Daniel, ed.
Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1982.
Six essays by various hands on the plague and its effects: demographics, millenarianism, iconography of death, the "Decameron," and Middle English literature.
Yeager, R. F.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 6 (1984): 135-64.
Caxton's Chaucer is "moral," while Thynne's is "gentle." In their selection and rejection of texts both were guided by established critical principles.
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.
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…
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,…
Hussey, Stanley S.
Wolf-Dietrich Bald and Horst Weinstock, eds. Medieval Studies Conference Aachan 1983 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1984), pp. 121-30.
Examines CT characters for individuality not conditioned by the story in FranT, MilT, TC, GP's Host and Merchant, MerP, MerT, and RvT.
Kolve, V. A.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984.
Juxtaposes "visual materials and their literary analogues" to illuminate larger images created by narrative action. Seven chapters treat medieval hypotheses of audience and image; Chaucerian aesthetics of the image in the poem; KnT, the…
Olson, Glending.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 6 (1984): 103-19.
In WBP the Friar promises to tell a tale or two at the expense of summoners by journey's end; the Summoner, not to be outdone, brags that he will do the same at the expense of friars before the pilgrims reach Sittingbourne, i.e., "before" journey's…
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…
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,…
