Browse Items (16381 total)

Characterizes the narrator of BD as a comic "would-be courtier" who takes pains to "appear courtly and noble and in love." The narrator is also likeable and much in awe of the Black Knight, functioning as a device whereby Chaucer censures excessive…

Challenges the notion that the descriptions of the pilgrims in GP are drawn from real-life models and compares and contrasts Chaucer's techniques with those of Guillaume de Lorris in "Roman de la Rose" and William Langland's in "Piers Plowman."…

Regards Criseyde's departure from Troy in TC as a "fated event," while it is a matter of fortune in Boccaccio's "Filostrato." Shows how Chaucer adjusts his source, increases the dramatic irony of the plot, and gives to his readers a perspective that…

Combines literary biography with genre-study to assess the poetry of John Lydgate, particularly his conventionality and craftsmanship, his techniques of amplification and idealization, his commonplaces and "categories of thought," internal and…

Contends that the source of the allusion to Semiramis in MLT (2.359) is ancient historians and perhaps Boccaccio's "De Claris Mulieribus," not Dante's "Inferno."

Assesses MilT as an "anti-authoritarian" complaint against the estates--the clergy, the courtly aristocracy, the "providers," and women--depicting "the kind of thing the Miller would like to see happen to such people."

Contrasts ShT with its fabliau analogues, arguing that Chaucer creatively adapts the genre by adding complicated characterization to the stark comic plot and by developing a serious thematic concern with the commercialization of sex and marriage,…

Argues that critical efforts to provide a harmonious interpretation of PF are misdirected because the poem is designed to represent the cacophony of this world rather than heavenly concord.

Explores the implications of illegality in Chaucer's GP description of the Sergeant at Law as a "purchasour."

Explores Chaucer's intensification of emotion through his uses of variations on loving "with good wille, body, hert, and all," echoes of a biblical injunction.

Describes the presence of apostrophe ("exclamatio") in TC and assesses its various effects: amplification, heightening of style, advancement of plot, and characterization--especially of Troilus, Criseyde, and the narrator, but also of Pandarus,…

Suggests that two allusions to Matthew's gospel in the GP description of the Prioress contribute to the "ironic stance" of the description, despite the narrator's "calculated evasiveness."

Tallies books and articles pertaining to Chaucer--ones in progress, completed, and/or published in 1969.

Explores in CT the dynamic between with expansive spaces and narrow ones, especially as they correlate with views of the world that are variously serious or playful. Considers the intertextuality of KnT and the fabliaux of Part 1 of CT as a paradigm…

Surveys and summarizes critical assessments of Chaucer's Pardoner and PardPT from ca. 1940-1970, observing trends and emphases. Then offers a reading of the Pardoner as an extravagant "put-on" who deliberately creates an outrageous personality for…

Suggests that Haze Motes of Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood" is "not unlike Chaucer's Pardoner" and the Old Man of PardT, who is "perhaps the Pardoner's alter-ego'."

Considers the Franklin's interruption of the Squire in Part 4 of CT to be a "brilliant dramatic vignette" that develops the characterizations of the Squire, Franklin, and Host.

Contends that both Troilus and Criseyde submit to Fortune in TC by pursuing a form of worldly "sikernesse" (security), reflecting their lack of the awareness advised by Philosophy in Boethius's "Consolation." Only after leaving the world does Troilus…

Offers meteorological and folkloric evidence that March was known as a dry month in medieval England, lending verisimilitude to GP 1.2.

Gauges the "literary probability" that the Envoy to ClT (and the preceding stanza), 4.1170-1212, was intended by Chaucer to be voiced by the Clerk, suggesting that either the Host or the Wife of Bath may be considered the speaker, adducing manuscript…

Contrasts the form of Anel with that of Mars and compares its form and themes with those of Chaucer's dream visions and its characterizations with those in KnT. Also hypothesizes what Chaucer may have intended to do further in Anel with the source…

Suggests that Chauntecleer is Chaucer's satiric target when he refers to Boethius in NPT 7.3294; the rooster apparently is not familiar with Boethian music theory found in both "De Musica" and the "Consolation of Philosophy."

Argues that Chaucer "weaves through the structure and themes of [PF] all four medieval species of music, and numerous subspecies, in a way that emphasizes the failing of the eagles" and "that the [planetary] spheres are . . . the cause of almost all…

Assesses various historical documents that pertain to the marital life and legacy of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, arguing that the evidence indicates John was dedicated to Blanche, even after her death.

Comprises eight chapters by various authors surveying English literature from the Old English period through Middle English prose. The chapter pertaining to Chaucer includes four sections: 1) a brief account of Chaucer's life (pp. 159-62), by W. F.…