Browse Items (16381 total)

Treats the "relevant historical events, some basic attitudes (of the era), literary stragtagems," and TC itself, which is a "vivid example of the degrading and disastrous consequences" when a noble, valorous man places his seduced private will above…

Argues, from the symmetrical structure of TC, binary rather than the popular five-part interpretation. Manuscript studies suggest that Chaucer originally wrote TC as a two-part poem and later changed it. Shakespeare had the same conflict.

Through courtly love, Boethian philosophy, and Godly intervention, Oedipal fantasies of Freud are played out in TC.

Derived from Matheolus's "Lamentationes," the two crowns or "corones" in TC 2.1935 are rewards for Troilus's fidelity in marriage and his heroic death in the Trojan war.

Although the principles of order are not treated in medieval rhetoric books, they govern the structures of representative texts, including TC.

TC has fifty-six developed lyric passages. The frequent ballade-like sequences of stanzas in these passages and the rhyme-royal form adapted from the ballade, together with Chaucer's uses of Machaut's "Remede de Fortune," show that TC has an…

In late November, 1984, Jupiter, Venus, and the crescent moon were in the same configuration Chaucer may have seen May 12,1385, and mentioned in TC 3, associated with the torrential downpour. The terminus a quo for TC 3 is 1385.

Chaucer portrays Criseyde both alone and with a family--a dualism of portrayal inherited from the rhetorical tradition of viewing things from both sides, as in Cicero's "De inventione."

These highly unconventional epistolary poems lack well-defined literary antecedents and clearcut sources, instead reflecting the poet's own experiences and opinions on his craft and love and marriage. As universal ironic statements by a naive…

In Wom Nob, Chaucer uses traditional "topoi" and rhetorical and syntactic structure in French style; Ros is a playful parody of these conventions.

Two references in John Jones's sixteenth-century "The Arte and Science of Preserving Bodie and Soule in Healthe, Wisedome, and Catholike Religion" praise Chaucer's English language and ParsT.

Chaucer's Man of Law attacks Gower for stories of Canacee and Apollonius, while defending Chaucer for omission of "swich unkynde abhomynacions" (MLP 77-89). Gower sympathizes with but condemns the characters. In Chaucer we have "a less rigidly…

Supplies opening and closing lines, rubrics, modern titles, descriptions of the works, manuscript locations, and bibliographies.

Studies the role of Theseus in KnT as a "minister Dei," who governs the people in accordance with the leading medieval principle, "utilitas publica prefertur utilitate privatae."

TC is vindicated as a finished work of art, as complete in terms of the clarity and proportion that constitute its beauty. Chaucer's poetic allusion to Dante's "Paradiso" 14.28-30 is cited as an apt ending, and Morgan stresses the appropriateness of…

Introduces the themes and genres of major works of Middle Engish, with special emphasis on Chaucer and CT. Narrated by Protase Woodford; produced by Stephen Mantell.

Explores the syntactic variability of Chaucer's "of-phrase," focusing on its capability of being transposed and separated from its modifying head.

The various parts of MLPT "cohere around the multiple meanings of 'law,'" although the "Introduction" was still being shaped.

The Pardoner should be read not as a real person but as an allegorical figure. Modern discussions overemphasize the Pardoner's sexuality and distort the fact that hints about his sexuality prepare for the more important concern with his…

The Pardoner is characterized not by signs of homosexuality, but by indication of effeminacy, thought in the Middle Ages to indicate carnality. Green offers parallels in works by Gower and Lydgate.

Mel, MkT, and NPT are related by their concern with spiritual perception or its lack: Mel deals with the failure to listen to Prudence and the return of Sophia; MkT shows "the consequence of sacrificing both prudence and sapientia"; NPT reasserts the…

Examines Chaucer's use of gerunds, observing that his usage is generally not unusual for his time except in two respects: he more frequently uses the construction "determiner+gerund+of-adjunct"; and seemingly "modern" gerunds with verbal properties…

In light of the mythological tradition of Janus and connections between January and Adam, January's self-deception in MerT is less bitter than funny. In general, the Tale "is one of the great literary celebrations of marriage, albeit a comic one."

Middle English text of NPPT (with the Croesus account from MkT), accompanied by facing-page notes, a glossary (pp. 147-52), and an introduction (pp. 7-94) that surveys Chaucer's life and works; the sources of NPT; the characterization of the Nun's…

Consider "the two quite different versions of the Dido and Cleopatra stories as they appear in the works of major Latin and English poets, beginning with the commissioning of Virgil's "Aeneid" ca. 29 B.C. and carrying through to the publication of…