Browse Items (16381 total)

Chaucer is versed in medieval medical theories, which underlie the physical and emotional descriptions of the Reeve in both GP and RvP.

From the perspective of medieval psychology, January's pretensions to youth and sexual vigor are ridiculous and potentially fatal, since his sexual overactivity diminishes vital spirits and causes, among other effects, blindness and eventually death.

Because modern medical theories tend to slight classical and medieval theories (Galen, Aristotle, Avicenna), some of Chaucer's works are usually imperfectly understood. (For instance, flatulence was associated with virility.)

Collects seven essays by Everett on topics in Middle English studies, some previously published and some unpublished, plus a "Memoir" about Everett by Mary Lascelles, and a Bibliography of Everett's publications. For two previously unpublished essays…

Seeks a "fuller understanding of Chaucer's meaning," exploring the "numerous small additions, arrangements, omissions, [and] constant alterations" made in his uses of Boccaccio's "Filostrato" in TC. Focuses on the vivifying, individuating…

Assesses the conventionality and originality of PF in form or genre, matter, and rhetorical style, arguing that the poem is a "delicately ironical fantasy on the theme of love," both courtly and natural, presented largely through a "series of…

Middle English "hap" develops a network of meanings among texts--from providential in "Patience"; to Chaucer's Boethian applications in TC; to the varied ill luck, astrological destiny, and providence of Malory--thus demonstrating the impossibility…

Uses Heidegger's language concerning the "concealing" and "unconcealing" of truth to examine the narrative layers through which readers interpret Criseyde's character. Criseyde's speeches subtly but forcefully unconceal her own "trouthe," raising…

Everhart considers Chaucer's translation strategies in Bo and identifies his unusual one-to-one substitution of "hap" for Latin "casus" in that work. Multiple connotations of "hap" in TC imply a different, playful rhetoric of translation that in turn…

Studies the "ars dictaminis" in late-medieval England, focusing on its influence and uses in administrative circles, ecclesiastical and secular, with particular attention to the career of Gilbert Stone, an "episcopal chancellor." Includes discussion…

Examines the significance of astrological allusions to the "form and meaning" of CT, particularly how they reflect and contribute to the work as a "dramatic allegory" of human pilgrimage through worldly sorrow.

Himself accused of rape, Chaucer could inhabit the "role of masculine agent" of the crime and that of the "feminized victim of accusation," reworking the traditional "metaphoric equation of deceptive language and female infidelity."

Robinson glosses Justinus' words "er ye have youre right of hooly chirche" (MerT, 1662) as "before your wedding is really solemnized." This should read "before your funeral is really solemnized."

Eyler considers the Pauline concept of "spiritual athleticism" (a means of struggling with temptation) in hagiographic literature and in canonical medieval English texts, including CT. Argues that the spiritual athlete moves from "trope in early…

Following Arcite's death in KnT, Theseus designates for his funeral "that selve grove" (1. 2860) where Arcite and Palamon first fought privately, which technically would have been "destroyed" to erect the lists for the public tournament in which…

Nicholas's door in MilT (knocked off of its hinges in one moment and then closed on its hinges a few minutes later) is a semiotic hinge in the play between public and private space, echoing Theseus's attempts to control space in KnT.

Fourteen essays by various authors on topics ranging from Old English and Icelandic sagas to early modern Spanish literature and Shakespeare's "Richard III." The volume includes an introduction by the editor, an index, and a cumulative bibliography.…

This volume provides select bibliographical listings for a range of English writers, from Joseph Addison to W. B. Yeats, arranged alphabetically by author, covering materials up to 1977. The Chaucer section (pp. 32-37) lists discussions of canon and…

Assesses Chaucer's uses of various kinds of similes and similetic comparisons--Homeric, epic similes; biblical "similitudes"; proverbial comparisons, Ovidian and Dantean comparisons; and more--demonstrating his variety, borrowings, and adaptations.…

Explores relationships between heralds and poets as reflected in works by Chaucer (including HF and KnT), Malory, Skelton, and Spenser. These works "reveal complex concerns about literary and political authority, the public status of the poet, and…

This introduction to a collection of essays on "Representing the Middle Ages" begins by providing an overview of representations of experience in the NPT. After presenting an overview of key criticism, the article asserts that the tale seeks to…

Explores Spenser's naming Chaucer "Tityrus" and how it implies greater respect for Chaucer than for Virgil.

Argues that Equat exemplifies how late medieval writers blended "theoretical and practical material, exploiting the flexibility of the vernacular and moulding it to their needs." Following Kari Anne Rand, treats Equat as the work of John Westwyk…

Combines a biography of Benedictine astronomer John Westwyk with contextualizing information about medieval science, technology, education, and innovation, particularly in the monastic settings of St. Albans Abbey and its Tynemouth Priory. Credits…

Discusses the narrator's function in the comedy of TC.