Disbrow, Sarah.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 8 (1986): 59-71.
Arthurian romance in Chaucer's WBT becomes analogous to "old wives' tales" denounced by Scripture, Augustine and other patristic writers, and ParsT. The Wife's telling such a romance undermines her claim to be a notable preacher and associates her…
Fleming, Martha (H.)
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 151-61.
Prologues are simply framing devices. WBT is not a device to explicate the Wife's character; it amplifies and creates variations on a theme in KnT.
Grennen, Joseph E.
Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 7 (1986): 41-48.
Draws upon theories of Aristotle, Bradwardine, Aquinas, and the scholastics on action ("operatio") to explain the complexities of the Wife's character and the nobility of the hag's lecture--through the Wife's competence in "scholastic give-and-take."
In WBP, Alison asserts the primacy of "experience" but is challenged by Jankyn's "authority." Alison's greatest enemy is Heloise, whose arguments against marriage inspired Abelard to make the first antigamous collection, prototype of Jankyn's book…
Knapp, Peggy A.
Philological Quarterly 65 (1986): 387-401.
Discusses four readings of WBP: (1) Alison as a shrewd, aggressive entrepreneur, (2) Alison as a feminist in a society that constantly maligns her, (3) Alison as an archteypical Eve guilty of the sin of pride, and (4) Alison as a sociopath. These…
Paige, Linda Rohrer.
Tennessee Philological Bulletin 23 (1986): 22 (abstract).
The progress of the Wife in the battle of the sexes illustrates progressive development of selfhood. Older and wiser, she sees that sovereignty mishandled has negative results. WBT shows that a woman must make concessions to make a marriage…
The Wife's remedies are sometimes equated with cures or seen as a reference to Ovid's "Remedia amoris." The allusions in WBP to erotic magic indicate, however, that they are erotic stimulants.
Rowland, Beryl.
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 137-49.
Interpretations of the Wife of Bath through socioeconomic readings work less well than symbolic-aesthetic readings. The Wife's weaving reveals her less a businesswoman than an archetypal woman such as Eve or Mary, both portrayed as weavers of life.
Aers, David.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 58-73.
Reacting to critical theorists--Bakhtin, Derrida, De Man, Eagleton, Lentricchia, and others--Aers writes an essay as a meditation on "glosynge" in SumT 1788-96.
Gallacher, Patrick J.
Chaucer Review 21 (1986): 200-12.
From Greek medicine, the concept of the six "non-naturals" intensifies and clarifies the relationship between the friar and Thomas and throws light on the summoner in FrT. The "non-naturals" are circumstances that affect health: air, sleep and…
Both narrators and tales (WBT, ClT) owe much to the traditional portraits of rhetoric and dialectic (logic, philosophy), e.g., in Martianus Capella and Alan of Lille. The pilgrims are composites not of "estates satire" conventions but of details…
The two modes of ClT must not be confused. The allegorical mode culminates in the Clerk's moral of Griselda as an example for all Christians, male or female; the literal mode culminates in the Clerk's implicit criticism of Walter's imperiousness as…
Levy, Bernard S.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 385-409.
At the literal level, Griselda is subservient, loving, obedient, and patient; at the spiritual level, she emulates Christ, while Walter is a servant of God.
McClellan, William T.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3361A.
Instead of the single and individual voices that Kittredge found in CT, several voices may appear in a single tale. When analyzed by Bakhtin's discourse theory, ClT reveals not one but three distinct contending voices.
Discusses the meaning of "woe that is in marriage" and the antifeminist attitude of the Clerk in ClT, juxtaposed to the Wife of Bath, and shows that the Clerk preaches skillfully about the abnormal relationship between man and wife.
Arrathoon, Leigh A.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 385-409.
MerT is an ethical narrative in which the aenigmalogue (puzzling narrative surface) is blended with the apologue (Augustinian "oversense"), thus revealing the Merchant as a Manichean and January as a parody of Jovinian. The apologue is signaled by…
Apocryphal traditions surrounding the Annunciation and Joseph's doubts impart complex depths to the scene in the pear tree and its aftermath, including Joseph's (January's) weak sight and his comforting of Mary (the womb patting).
Brown, Emerson,Jr.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 63-84.
The Merchant's comparison of May to "Queene Ester" (MerT 1744) indicates the terror, treachery, and hatred that lie beneath a demure exterior; the Prioress's response to trapped mice (PrT 144-45), which figure Christ ensnaring the devil, reveals a…
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 35-62.
The complex meanings of the pear tree are achieved by means of a pervasive ironic technique whereby material with favorable connotations is introduced only to be qualified and undercut at a later stage. Treats biblical and classical sources, lust,…
Conner, Edwin Lee.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 534A-535A.
A study of appropriate "medieval traditions of mythography, symbolism, iconography, religious devotion, and textual exegesis" demonstrates the coherence of GP portrait of the Squire and SqT.
Miller, Robert P.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 219-40.
Apparent artistic infelicities and a concern with surface style reflect the Squire's immature mind, unformed tastes, and youthful impatience. SqT is not badly written or unfinished.
Seaman, David M.
English Language Notes 24:1 (1986): 12-18.
The common assumption by critics that the Franklin purposely interrupts the Squire's tale is justified neither by context nor by rubric. Critics often attribute to CT a state of completion it does not have.
Burger, Douglas A.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 165-78.
Compared with Boccaccio's "Il filocolo," Chaucer's innovations--evident in his treatment of the black rocks, the heroine, magic, and the love of Dorigen and Arveragus--create broader contexts: marital love, courtly love, magic,and the theme of…
