Fisher, John H.
Text: Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship 6 (1994): 165-80.
Since no authorial text of CT or TC is available for a best-text edition, a combination of the habits or "uses" of the earliest scribes, with spelling normalized to accord with Equat, should be used to produce an edition. Fisher exemplifies such an…
Argues that English became the official language of England in the fifteenth century as the result of "deliberate, official policy." Dissemination of Chaucer's works and those of his followers suggests that the poet was chosen as the "cynosure" of a…
Fisher, John H.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
Prints eight previously published essays with a new introduction, all pertaining to the influence of bureaucratic and literary language on the standardization of English. Chronicling the development of Fisher's idea that standard written English…
Fisher, John H.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 281-87.
The GP sketch of the Manciple is interesting insofar as it reflects Chaucer's possible associations with the Inns of Court. The profession was a rare one in Chaucer's day, although there are similarities between reeves and manciples. The antagonism…
Examines the evolution of the word "humanism" and explores Chaucer's artistic application of fourteenth-century nominalism as it relates to his fusion of medieval ideas of community, tradition, and the emerging figure of the individual. Treats CT,…
Fisher, John H.
Nancy M. Reale and Ruth E. Sternglantz, eds. Satura: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honour of Robert R. Raymo (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2001), 239-47; 36 b&w illus.
Fisher comments on the series of faces or portraits depicted in the historiated initials of the Bedford Psalter, arguing that they depict members of the affinities of Richard II and Henry IV: the kings themselves and the future Henry V, Gower,…
Fisher, John H.
Chaucer Review 8.2 (1973): 119-27.
Shows how the first three tales in CT can be seen to align with the discussion of three rhetorical styles in John of Garland's "Poetria"--courtly, civic, and rustic. Particularly applicable is Garland's commentary on his rectangular chart of…
Fisher, John H.
Modern Language Review 67 (1972): 241-51.
Argues that parts 1-5 of CT represent a "wholesale revision that Chaucer was engaged in at the time of his death," while parts 6-10 "represent an earlier stage of composition." Suggests that Chaucer "introduced dramatic interplay between narrator,…
Fisher, John H.
New York: New York University Press, 1964.
Describes the development of John Gower's critical reputation, his life records, his literary career (including attention to manuscripts, sequence of composition, and revisions), the major social and political themes of his works, and his…
Fisher, John H.
South Atlantic Quarterly 60 (1961): 71-79.
Explores Chaucer's stylistic virtuosity in his references to horses and riding, commenting on appropriateness, suggestive naming and coloring, metaphoric and imagistic implications, and comic effects. Includes comments on horses in TC, LGW, and CT.
Fisher, John H., and Mark Allen, eds.
Boston : Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.
Revised edition of CT, based on Fisher's "Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer" (1977), with new on-page glosses and explanatory notes, plus bibliography (pp. 402-41). Includes lightly revised essays on Chaucer's life and language and a new…
Fisher, John H., and others.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 3 (1981): 189-259.
Based on the "MLA 1979 International Bibliography," plus additions, including 232 books, articles, and reviews, compiled by an international team of contributors.
Fisher, John H., ed.
Allen, Mark, ed.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977 and 1989.
Boston: Wadsworth, 2012.
A comprehensive edition of all of Chaucer's known works (including Equat and Rom), with glosses and notes at the bottom of the page and a text that relies on the collations of previous editors. Includes introductions for each of the works; additional…
Fisher, John H., et al.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 1 (1979): 201-55.
A list of 273 items, including reviews, based upon the "MLA International Bibliography," with additions, compiled by an international team of scholars.
Fisher, John H., Malcolm Richardson, and Jane L. Fisher.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984.
Diplomatic transcriptions of select writings of "Signet clerks of Henry V, who established the first forms and style of the official written (English) language." Includes 241 letters,indentures, and other documents, with an introduction to forms and…
Interprets the GP description of the Prioress as a satire of an institution rather than a critique of an individual, offering the reading as a prolegomenon to a comparative discussion of the challenges of teaching English and teaching foreign…
Fisher, Judith L.
Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic Literary Studies 39-40 (1994): 155-77.
Examines the iconography of nineteenth-century engravings of select Canterbury pilgrims published by Knight. The postures, details, and styles in the engravings reflect assumptions about social order, as well as Knight's program of educating his…
Fisher, Judith L., and Mark Allen.
William K. Finley and Joseph Rosenblum, eds. Chaucer Illustrated: Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures (New Castle, Del. : Oak Knoll; London: British Library, 2003), pp. 233-73.
The authors explore two kinds of Victorian medievalism (antiquarian detail and moral didacticism) in visual tradition, surveying Victorian depictions of CT in painting and book illustration and focusing on various illustrations of ClT. Includes a…
Mentions Chaucer (WBP) while discussing the rise of experience as an acceptable authority in the writing of female mystics, supplanting a previous exclusive reliance on traditional authority.
Fisher, Leona.
Kathleen A. Bishop, ed. "The Canterbury Tales" Revisited--21st Century Interpretations (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2008), pp. 151-65.
Affiliations between women and Fortune recur throughout MkT, a facile parallel rendered ridiculous by Chaucer's depiction of the Monk and the Monk's tale-telling style.
Fisher, Marlene, ed.
Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1969.
A textbook anthology of literary works (some excerpted) that pertain to love and marriage, from the classical period to modern America. Includes MerT in Nevill Coghill's modern translation (pp. 17-44), with a brief descriptive introduction and…
Fisher, Matthew.
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2012.
Focuses on the role of authorship within the scribal process, and emphasizes "intertextuality" as an important facet of medieval historiography. Briefly discusses how Chaucer "de-authorizes" Adam Scriveyn's work, yet reveals his own authorship in…
Fisher, Matthew.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 45 (2023): 313-61.
Attributes the copying of British Library, MS Cotton Appendix XVI ("Statuta Angliae") and nineteen Chancery documents to Richard Sotheworth, whose will records the earliest known ownership of a CT manuscript. Uses these and related documents to…
Fisher, Ruth M.
Notes and Queries 210 (1965): 168-70.
Adduces precedents in French for Chaucer's punning in ShT on "cosyn" and its derivatives to mean "harlot" as well as "prospective victim," part of a larger pattern of "mocking irony" in his various uses of the words.
