The three Aristotelian modes of persuasion are ethos (character), pathos (emotion), and logos (reason). In his long poem, Chaucer fails as narrator-rhetor (ethos, logos) but succeeds as human (pathos) and is himself a rhetorical solution to a…
Evans, Murray J.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 87 (1986): 218-28.
An "ideological approach" to TC demands the appropriation of discordant elements by a single dominant principle; a rhetorical analysis of the ending of TC, when combined with structuralist categories, suggests that Chaucer engaged in a multiple…
Fleming, John V.
Chaucer Review 21 (1986): 182-99.
The rich Virgilian background of TC brings into focus Hector and Deiphoebus--bound to Troilus by brotherly love and manipulated by Pandarus--and the parallel perfidies of Helen and Criseyde. In TC, the betrayal of Deiphoebus is "a feminist…
Fleming, John V.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 1-21.
TC 3.638 is a "translation" of the Virgilian rainstorm in bk. 4 of the "Aeneid" and of the emanations of Genius's aphrodisiac candle ("Roman de la Rose" 20638-48), and as such is symptomatic of Chaucer's tendency to follow Jean de Meun in providing a…
Frantzen, Allen J.
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 105-19.
Four dreams help structure TC: Criseyde's about Pandarus and about the eagle; Troilus's about his fall and about the boar. The dreams reveal character: Criseyde's dreams cause no narrative conflict; Troilus's become an essential part of his story.
Grennen, Joseph E.
Medievalia et Humanistica 14 (1986): 125-38.
Chaucer's concept of "fyn," or end, is illuminated by the "Nicomachean Ethics" of Aristotle, which is more important as a source for Chaucer than has been recognized.
Chaucer uses "ingenu" irony (Muecke's term) in TC. Pandarus, the most prodigious user of proverbs, demonstrates the illusiveness and unreliability of proverbs. For all his proverbial wisdom, Pandarus, like the narrator, is inept in love. Proverbs…
Holley, Linda Tarte.
Chaucer Review 21 (1986): 26-44.
Optics as expounded by Roger Bacon provided the theory of perspective and radiating lines; architecture and manuscript illumination provided the technique of viewing scenes and personages through a frame. In TC, there are physical, verbal,…
Jennings, Margaret, C.S.J.
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 175-91.
The variations in scribal changes to Chaucer's text portray the various scribes' attitudes not only toward the subject matter of TC but toward the tale's central characters as well.
The crux may be explained by reference to Canticles 3:11 and the medieval commentators (e.g., William Durandus in his "Rationale divinorum officiorum"). The first crown is Criseyde's virtue; the second is the pity that Pandarus asks her to show…
Lambert, Mark.
Piero Boitani and Jill Mann, eds. The Cambridge Chaucer Companion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 59-73.
The "texture" of TC--its nuances and suggestive detail--both enriches and "interferes with" the meaning conveyed by theme and structure. Thus, by the end of TC readers may both admire and dislike the "trouthe" of the hero and heroine. Overtly, TC…
The allusion to Thesiphone (TC 1.6) may resonate with passages in Statius and Boccaccio that connect the Fury with "discordant, perverse, sterile, potentially demonic sexuality" (p. 561). The allusion in TC links Criseyde's possible childlessness…
In TC 5.1095, "publisshed" (contained in five manuscripts) is preferable to "punisshed" (in fourteen manuscripts) because the fourteenth-century sense of "denounced publicly" better suits the immediate context in the poem and the widespread bad…
Otten, Charlotte F.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 23-33.
Troilus's disease of erotomania is gluttonously lustful, irredeemably egocentric, and life-denying--an example to be shunned in favor of Christian love.
Sanderlin, George.
USF Language Quarterly 24 (1986): 47-48.
Contrary to contentions of A. C. Spearing and others that Criseyde is a passive heroine "at the mercy of events," Criseyde is a decisive figure who actively takes charge of her own destiny. She is representative of emerging "scientific" intellectual…
Sigal, Gale.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3348A.
In a remarkably innovative use of received tradition, the aubades in TC reveal personalities, adumbrate the end of the story, and inspire a fresh aubade tradition in English poetry.
Slocum, Sally K.
Neuphilolgische Mitteilungen 87 (1986): 365-74.
Despite previous treatment by critics, Criseyde is a pitiable character and a "good citizen of Troy." The treatment she receives at the hands of her own relatives, the Trojans, and the Greeks justifies her unfaithfulness to Troilus.
Stielstra, Diane.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3715A.
Examines psychological portrayals in TC, inner monologues, and audience response as compared to sources in Benoit, Guido, and Boccaccio. Compares Criseyde's inner monologues with Troilus's.
Wejksnora, Louise R.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 1317A.
Examination of all references and allusions to the Christian God and pagan gods in TC reveals that Chaucer works within a broad spectrum of tonal variations in the classical and medieval traditions. The poem carries simultaneously two opposing yet…
Form Age, For, Sted, Gent, and Truth show a progression from a strict Boethian adaptation to a more Christian or specifically Augustinian view. The tension appears in the pervasive irony.
The introduction treats contents, date, material and structure, ruling, layout and presentation of texts, handwriting, punctuation, correction and annotation, decoration, binding, and the history of the volume bequeathed to Magdalen College by Samuel…
Brackets, linking rhymed lines, together with the position of tail rhyme and bob phrases, show how scribes in these authoratitative manuscripts perceived this drasty rhyme. Includes photos of folio from Ellesmere manuscript.
