Glover, Kyle Stephen.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3346A-3347A.
Covenants, a pervasive theme in CT, may bind guest and host, ruler and subject, spouses, kin, or God and humanity. The covenant supports a willingly assumed hierarchy, a model for order; yet these bonds may be reversed.
Green, Donald C.
Modern Philology 84 (1986): 18-23.
Distinguishes among "maistrie," "soveraynetee," "servage," "servyse," "governance," and "assente" in CT. These words thematically link WBT and ClT: individually defined relationships are signaled by "maistrie" and "servyse"; role-defined…
Halliburton, Thomas Laughlin.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3027A.
In attempting to make of literary criticism a science, the profession falls into illogic and absurdity. Readings of KnT and MerT differ wildly. From Kittredge to 1980s, critics have been self-deluded.
Kamowski, William.
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 193-207.
CT entails two levels of reader response: the fictional listeners on the road to Canterbury and the reader audience. The reactions of the pilgrims warn the reader not to misinterpret the tales by responding to them uncritically, as many of the…
Knight, Stephen.
Gregory Kratzmann and James Simpson, eds. Medieval English Religious and Ethical Literature (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1986), pp. 156-66.
As early as the fifteenth century, two views of CT prevailed: (1) the entire CT is a religious work, and (2) only ClT, PrT, MLT, MkT, ParsT, and SNT are religious. In arguing the first position, Knight addresses difficulties arising from the Hengwrt…
Lomperis, Linda Susan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2688A.
CT is read as an experiment in allegory in the sense of Isidore of Seville's "alieniloquium." The School of Chartres, the "Cosmographia" of Bernardus Silvestris, and Guillaume de Lorris contribute to the techniques of tension between rhetoric and…
Olson, Paul.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.
CT reflects the social, political, economic, and intellectual milieu of the late fourteenth century: the tales arise from Chaucer's deep concern about contemporary crises and his conviction that the "parlement"--all levels of society engaged in…
Owen, Charles A.,Jr.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 179-94.
Portraying himself as a participant in a supposedly actual pilgrimage, Chaucer freed his characters from his control and avoided predetermining the meaning of their tales.
Pearcy, Roy J.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 329-84.
The comic, satiric, and philosophic sophistication in Chaucer's narratives has no precedent in the fabliaux, but there are models in twelfth-century Latin comedy--notably for MilT (Geta) and MerT (Lidia). Also discusses the theories of Northrop…
Pearsall, Derek.
Piero Boitani and Jill Mann, eds. The Cambridge Chaucer Companion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 125-42.
Treats setting, tone, and structure of the six comedies in CT: MilT, RvT, ShT, MerT, FrT, and SumT. Discusses the first four as fabliaux, the last two as "masterpieces of satirical anecdote" that do not deal with sex and marriage.
Rogers, William E.
Victoria: University of Victoria, 1986.
Manuscript evidence is inconclusive in discovering Chaucer's intention or the coherence and unity of CT. Chapter 2 reacts to D. Howard, "The Idea of the 'Canterbury Tales'," in the concern for genre, text, and reader.
In CT, sentences are interlinked. Structures are repeated: MilT is a bawdy version of KnT; RvT, a nasty version of MilT. The structure may reflect interlinked concepts in the Great Chain of Being.
In WBT, PardT, and NPT, Chaucer exploits many facets of medieval dream and fable lore, including the ambiguous situation of a dream within a fiction and the Augustinian motif of the liar who tells the truth in order to deceive. Shakespeare pushes…
Wall, John.
Gregory Kratzmann and James Simpson, eds. Medieval English Religious and Ethical Literature (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1986), pp. 179-91.
Examines penance in poems of the "Pearl" MS, "Piers Plowman," and CT. Neither a collection of disparate stories nor an illustration of one theme, CT reflects the "quarternity or reality" in which penance, though not the chief theme, is yet a…
Bennett, Matthew.
Christopher Harper-Bill and Ruth Harvey, eds. The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood (Wolfeboro, N.H.: Boydell & Brewer, 1986), pp. 1-11.
Historical background: assesses the "social and military role of the squire" in England and northern France.
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Papers on Language and Literature 22 (1986): 322-25.
Several of Chaucer's worldly pilgrims (the Yeoman, the Man of Law, the Franklin, and the guildsmen) wear girdles, belts, or cords as symbols of wealth and opulence. None of the religious figures, however, is portrayed with a girdle. Since…
A subgenre of estates portraits, not touched on by Mann, includes "tarocchi," the richly illuminated playing cards of fourteenth- and fifteenth- century Italy that developed into tarot cards and modern playing cards. The four suits represent the…
Daichman, Graciela S.
Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986.
Examines the medieval nunnery as an institution and the records of indecorous behavior of medieval nuns. A stock character of medieval literature, the "profligate nun" is seen in Chaucer's Madam Eglentyne and the Archpriest of Hita's Dona Garoza.
Fredell, Joel Willis.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 895A.
Both the portraits of GP and the representations of the Deadly Sins in "Piers Plowman" (B text of "Visio") achieve a new form, combining the traditional with "individualized details." Such a pattern is analogous to the development of late-Gothic…
Though evidence is inconclusive, it seems likely that Chaucer's Friar was named for Saint Hubert, whose legend and confusion with Saint Eustace give characteristic resonances to the name and its bearer, particularly in his relationship with the Monk…
Though the antipoetic and devoutly Christian voices of ParsT and Ret conclude CT, Chaucer assumes three voices in GP: a "clerkly" and rhetorically trained voice for the opening, Chaucer the Pilgrim's voice reporting on the group, and Harry Bailly's…
