Browse Items (16381 total)

Shows that Chaucer's references to "planetary, solar, and lunar configurations, " though usually "veiled," add complex dimensions to his plots and may help us to establish dates for several of his works; discusses Mars, TC, PF, LGW (Hypermnestra),…

Observes that carpenter John's sense of worldly instability in MilT is established in 1.3423-30 and 1.3449-50, anticipating his ready acceptance of Nicholas's prediction of the Flood later in the Tale.

Studies the "theology of marital relations" in MilT, WBP, and MerT, using ParsT as a partial statement of orthodoxy, surveying views from Augustine to Wyclif of the roles of procreation and pleasure in sexual relations between married partners, and…

Argues that the discussion of gentility by the Loathly Lady in WBP effects a change in the knight's moral vision, with no physical change in the Lady. Imagery and allusions to Baptism reinforce the point and run parallel to similar concerns in WBP,…

Assesses the styles and rhetorical devices of FranT. Matching rhetoric to meaning, Chaucer's "modulation of style" in FranT helps to characterize the narrator and the major characters of the Tale and to guide readers' understanding of the variable…

Tallies books and articles pertaining to Chaucer--ones in progress, completed, and/or published in 1968.

Reads Gavin Douglas's poem as an examination of how poetry can lead to honor, focusing on the originality of the poem but noting its dependencies as well, including the influence of the eagle from HF.

Uses late-medieval and Renaissance herbals to show that the ingredients for a remedy that Pertelote recommends to Chanticleer in NPT are all "quite wrong for her patient" and his condition: some unavailable, some inappropriate, and some deadly. The…

Demonstrates that Chaucer's works are a significant source of John Minsheu's multilingual dictionary, "Guide into the Tongues" ["Ductor in Linquas"] (1617).

Argues that friendship in TC "is an idea that matters very much," both as a "value" and an "element in the plot." Throughout the poem, Chaucer depicts various friendship relations (support, protection, counsel), strengthening those found in…

More than merely consolation for John of Gaunt, BD conveys the "more universal theme" of "personal loss and its effects on man's physical and psychic condition." Traditionally associated in various sources with leading, with healing, and with…

A modern English translation (with brief notes) of Constantinus Africanus's treatise "De Coitu," cited with scorn in MerT (4.1810-11).

Reads Scog as a playful, comic version of a "moral ballade" or "balade of bon conseyl" that shares similarities with French models, portions of TC, and several of Chaucer's other lyrics. Comments on the unity of the poem, its possible occasion or…

Surveys studies of Chaucer topically (language, manuscripts, sources, etc.), with emphasis on works written between 1960 and 1967.

Argues that "as a better joke," "worly" is preferable to "worthy" in Tho (7.917). The latter appears to be "scribal normalization" of Chaucer's mocking of a "well-worn native" word.

Identifies exegetical details in the characterization of Absolon in MilT, helping to identify the clerk with the sins of avarice, lechery, and pride and showing how he is a parody of Robyn the Miller "in the Miller's own tale."

Explores the sources of Chaucer's allusions to Priapus and to Pyramus and Thisbe in MerT (4.2034-37 and 4.2125-31) and argues that the allusions deepen the bitter cynicism of the Tale by suggesting sexual fruitlessness and frustration in the pear…

Considers evidence from ParsP (10.42-44), KnT (1.2605-16), and LGW (635-58) that Chaucer may have been familiar with Middle English alliterative romances, arguing that the proposition is unlikely. While he may have known alliterative religious…

Compares the plots and characters of FranT and PhyT, arguing that they share parallels that are "significant" and "quite possibly intentional." Focuses on Dorigen and Virginia.

Excavates the multi-layered ironies of WBT, focusing on the motifs of transformation and bad judgment and on the Wife of Bath's manipulations of her narrative materials, particularly the Ovidian Midas exemplum.

Describes, tabulates, and analyzes the "word-order patterns in the Subject-Verb cluster in twelve texts of Late East Midland prose and poetry, 1369-1400," including BD, KnT, TC (Book 5), GP, PardT, NPT, ParsT, Mel, and Astr, as well as texts by…

Investigates the historical backgrounds to the "status" of Chaucer's Monk, concluding that he is "probably" Benedictine and "perhaps the prior" of a "dependent cell," with a "reasonably good income." As an "important administrator," he is "qualified…

Discusses similarities and differences between Chaucer and Shakespeare, concentrating on biography, theme, and literary techniques as well as borrowings. Comments on Shakespeare's adaptations of TC and KnT, and explores the writers' audiences, their…

Reads the garden in PF as a "picture of the world in a fallen state," in contrast with Scipio's "celestial paradise." The contrast is highlighted by different "time-schemes," and the work leaves unresolved the paradoxes of love's varieties.

Describes the literary resources available to Chaucer (and their limitations), comments on the works that influenced him most pervasively, and explores the "close links" between dreaming and reading in his dream visions (BD, PF, HF, and LGWP) and…