Burrow, J. A.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1971.
Proposes the label "Ricardian" for the late fourteenth-century period of English literature and "looks at the four chief poets of the time . . . as a group," identifying their common stylistic features, rooted in earlier English tradition of…
Burrow, J. A.
Dyson, A. E., ed. English Poetry: Select Bibliographical Guides (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 1-14.
Discursive bibliography of Chaucer studies, including subsections on texts, critical studies and commentary, biographies, bibliographies, and background reading.
Berndt, David E.
Studies in Philology 68 (1971): 435-50.
Reconciles an apparent discrepancy between teller and tale in Chaucer's depiction of the Monk, arguing that the worldliness of the GP description, the exchange in MkP, and the concern with fall through Fortune in MkT are unified by the "common,…
Benson, Larry D., and Theodore M. Andersson, eds.
Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.
An anthology of sources and analogues of MilT, RvT, MerT, and ShT, with more limited analogous materials for SumT, ManT, and FrT, in all cases providing facing-page translations of non-English materials. Each section includes an introduction that…
Anderson, Judith H.
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1 (1971): 89-106.
Gauges the influence of NPT on Edmund Spenser's "Muiopotmos," considering details of plot, tone, and the relative freedom of the protagonists of the two poems. Spenser emphasizes Clarion's freedom more than Chaucer does Chauntecleer's, but the…
Van, Thomas A.
Studies in the Literary Imagination 4.2 (1971): 83-100.
Assesses Theseus in KnT as a character who is capable of anger, self-centeredness, pity, reason, restraint, and charity, considering him in light of Boethian philosophy and Boccaccio's characterization of Teseo in the "Teseida." Central to Chaucer's…
Robbins, Rossell Hope.
Studies in the Literary Imagination 4.2 (1971): 73-81.
Comments on the conventional nature of the imagery and diction of Ros and argues that the poem was composed to "compliment" and "delight" the child-bride of Richard II, Princess Isabelle of Valois, on the occasion of "her entry into London in 1396."
Explores the complementary relations between two "fantasies" about women that underlie Chaucer's Marriage Group: clerkly abuse rooted in patristic tradition (particularly Jerome) and courtly idealization rooted in "fin amour" (especially Jean de…
Moorman, Charles.
Studies in the Literary Imagination 4.2 (1971): 61-71.
Interprets TC as a work in which "Courtly Love and Fortune" operate as "complementary powers," two forms of determinism, social and cosmic respectively, inflected in equal part by the characters or personalities of the three central figures.
Isaacs, Neil D.
Studies in the Literary Imagination 4.2 (1971): 11-27.
Challenges D. W. Robertson's moral condemnations of the major characters of TC, and justifies personal affection for the character of Criseyde; presented in the pose of a legal defense against prosecution.
Observes that the "primary fiction" of CT is the narrator's "remembered personal experience," established in the GP and providing "the principle of form" for the entire work: a "pervasive sense of obsolescence, the passing of experience into memory."…
Identifies in KnT a "series of metamorphoses that expose the dehumanizing force of Venerian love," arguing that Chaucer converted Boccaccio's "random collection" of animal images into a "formal pattern" and obliquely affirmed the Boethian notion that…
Eddy, Elizabeth Roth.
Review of English Studies 22 (1971): 401-09.
Gauges the nature and extent of the influence of Tho on William Dunbar's parodic romance, "Sir Thomas Norny," commenting on various devices of literary and social satire.
Delasanta, Rodney.
Studies in the Literary Imagination 4.2 (1971): 1-10.
Assesses the pros and cons of applying patristic criticism to the study of Chaucer, arguing for typological rather than allegorical (or tropological) analyses and discouraging limited readings.
Burrow, J. A.
Review of English Studies 22 (1971): 54-58.
Adduces textual and rhetorical evidence to show that Tho divides into three fits of proportionately diminishing size: eighteen stanzas, nine stanzas, and four and one-half stanzas, achieving a "mathematical harmony of form."
Rosenberg, Bruce A.
Chaucer Review 5.4 (1971): 264-76.
Tallies similarities between the pear tree episode in MerT and the cherry tree account in an apocryphal narrative about the pregnancy of Mary, mother of Jesus. Explores parallels among various analogues, and explains how the parallels capitalize on…
Paull, Michael R.
Chaucer Review 5.3 (1971): 179-94.
Shows how Chaucer's changes to Nicholas Trevet's version of the Constance narrative are influenced by the conventions of hagiography, including a tendency to allegory and heightened rhetoric. Assesses MLT as melodrama.
Otten, Charlotte F.
Chaucer Review 5.4 (1971): 277-87.
Analyzes the "comic unity" of the Pluto-Proserpine episode of MerT with the four biblical accounts women to: Rebecca, Judith, Abigail, and Esther (4.1362-74), all figures of deliverance rather than deception. By association, Proserpine should be read…
Von Kreisler, Nicholai.
Chaucer Review 6.1 (1971): 30-37.
Traces the allusion to a "panyer ful of herbes" in MerT (4.1568) to an oral version of the apocryphal "Life of Aesop," commenting on the implications of this source for the tale.
Uses WBT to exemplify Chaucer's combination of narrative devices characteristic of the rhetoric of oral persuasion: plot combined with exemplary materials and "direct statement" of theme or moral directive. WBT concerns human willfulness, evident in…
Hogan, Moreland H. Jr.
Chaucer Review 5.3 (1971): 245-46.
Identifies a version of the "Lover's Gift Regained" plot in a modern oral narrative recorded in South Carolina; comments on particular parallels with ShT.
