Ferster, Judith.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986), pp. 148-68.
Modern phenomenological hermeneutics offers a profitable method for interpreting Chaucer. Five basic hermeneutical principles can be illustrated by a close reading of FranT, including the imitation in real life inspired by the tale.
If we recall the Thomistic distinctions among vows, oaths, and promises and if we focus on action rather than on character, the long complaints in FranT can be seen as essential to the structure rather than as excrescences.
Behind FranT is the "Inferno," cantos 9-10--the cantos of the heretics, especially the Epicureans, and of Medusa. The teller's epicureanism prevents him from probing beneath the letter to the spirit. Likewise, his Dorigen is "astoned" (astonished,…
Braswell, Laurel.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 8 (1986): 145-56.
A survey of medieval medical documents indicates that GP's Physician conforms accurately to expected medical practice; the astronomical position and astrological meaning of the moon provide a basis for medieval medical theory and practice.
Kupersmith, William.
English Language Notes 24:2 (1986): 20-23.
Chaucer quotes Juvenal's Tenth Satire in TC and WBT. The satire also provides suggestions for the three substantial additions he made to PhyT--on Virginia's beauty, her chastity, and the duty of governesses.
Bixler, Frances.
Papers of the Arkansas Philological Association 12 (1986): 1-12.
Deals with the order of CT in group C. Establishes parallels,antitheses, and thematic similarities regarding morality, sacrifice, and characters in PardT and SNT.
Minnis, A. J.
Piero Boitani and Anna Torti, eds. Intellectuals and Writers in Fourteenth-Century Europe (Tubingen: Narr; Cambridge: Brewer, 1986), pp. 88-119.
Focusing on authority, knowledge, and character, Minnis argues that Chaucer was aware of the fourteenth-century theological debate on the validity of a moral tale told by an immoral man.
Richardson, Janette.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 85-95.
Rhetoric is the Pardoner's mode of existence, but, despite his success with rural audiences, evil intentions negate his moral persuasiveness in the eyes of the pilgrims and the modern reader.
Hahn, Thomas.
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 235-49.
Textual evidence and historical information suggest that the Merchant of ShT is a money changer involved in usury. Usury was a sin equivalent to adultery. Love of money was more than simple "cupiditas"; because of his usury, the Merchant's wife…
Rex, Richard.
Studies in Short Fiction 23 (1986): 1-8.
The Prioress's childishness places her among the "children of a hundred year" who live in folly and are cursed by God. Her tale is a pastiche, its ironies reflecting the teller's false humility and lack of charity even as she extols charity as a…
Rex, Richard.
Papers on Language and Literature 22 (1986): 339-51.
The reference at the end of the tale to the offending Jews being drawn by wild horses and hanged (not in the tale's analogues) points out the cruelty of the Prioress. Reserved for traitors, equine quartering was rare in England.
Matthews, Lloyd J.
Chaucer Review 20 (1986): 221-34.
Chaucer's acquaintance with Dante and his return from the Italian journey in 1373 provide termini of 1372-74 for Mel. Later, Mel was included among the CT to be narrated by the Man of Law. Finally, it was moved to its place in fragment 7 or B2.
Kittredge's argument that Chaucer's reference to "Trophee" (MkT 2117) is due to a misreading of Latin "tropaeum" is indirectly supported by difficulties with the Latin word in a Middle English translation of the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle.
Horvath, Richard P.
English Language Notes 24:1 (1986): 8-12.
The Host's comment to the Monk about his tale, "For therinne is no desport ne game," has a significant variant that should be recorded in editions: "Youre tales don us no desport ne game," attested to in several manuscripts, including Hengwrt.
The reference to Rochester just before MkT helps explain the choice of teller, the nature of the tale, and the narrator's refusal to "pleye" when he is interrupted. Rochester Cathedral included a monastic house; it contained a mural of Fortune's…
NPT reveals "the dangerous nature of signs" and offers a view of signification that looks forward to Derrida. The many oppositions foregrounded in the poem (truth/fiction, "confusio"/"blis," predestination/free will, etc.) point to the inscription…
Burrow, J. A.
Essays in Criticism 36 (1986): 97-119.
ManP reveals Chaucer's art at its most assured. The Host, Manciple, and Cook are united by their role in London's catering trade, and their exchange in the passage shows the Manciple as a blend of malice and circumspection, the Cook as a carnival…
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
Medievalia et Humanistica 14 (1986): 81-101.
In the contexts of medieval misogyny and penitential manuals, Braswell examines Chaucer's treatment of the sins of women in ParsT. The Parson denounces excess in dress among lords more severely than among ladies.
McDonald, William C.
Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 60 (1986): 543-71.
ParsT's statement of the medieval idea (of Peraldus) that true virtue derives from nobility of the spirit rather than from nobility of birth is examined in relation to its treatment by the late-medieval German authors Heinrich von Langenstein and…
Donner, Morton.
Mediaevalia 9 (1986, for 1983): 125-44.
Chaucer was not an inept translator in Bo, as some contend, but an innovator who expanded the vocabulary of English ideological writing by some 500 constructions, anglicizing new Latin and Romance terms and extending the meanings of existing English…
Ono, Mana.
Studies in Medieval Language and Literature (Tokyo) 1 (1986): 93-105.
Comparing the use of "gentil" and "gentilesse" in Bo 3, pt. 6, 9, with Latin and French texts shows that Boethius had a great influence on Chaucer through Jean de Meun and that Chaucer uses the words in his own skillful way, as seen in works such as…
The textual tradition shows that the major and perhaps sole manuscript used by Thynne lacked lines 31-96. The borrowings from the French alleged by Helen Phillips for this passage are commonplaces. No reliable evidence proves that Chaucer composed…
Burnley, David.
English Language Notes 23:3 (1986): 15-22.
Offers more adequate definitions than previously suggested of psychological terms Chaucer derives from his French sources for BD, particularly "turnen into malice," "to mochel knowlechyng," "wyt so general," "pure suffraunt...wyt."
Eales, Richard.
Christopher Harper-Bill and Ruth Harvey, eds. The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood (Wolfeboro, N.H.: Boydell & Brewer, 1986), pp. 12-34.
Historical background of the chess game in knightly culture with a reference to BD.
Hanning, Robert W.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 121-63.
In BD, the "Metamorphoses" provides a positive paradigm for exploring the relationships of grief and poetry, whereas Ovid's work yields a negative paradigm for the representation of Fame in HF. Deals with the creative process in dream visions; and…
