Browse Items (16381 total)

Examines the meaning of "let see" in HF 1623, "nothing lyk" in BD 1085, and the "God toforn" in TC 5.963.

Examines the Host as the "unifying feature of the whole pilgrimage fiction." Chaucer's "revisions" of the character and function of the Host increase his "realism" and serve as a structural device.

Contrasts Dante's clarity and order in the dead world of the "Commedia" with Chaucer's living world of CT, seen "in a glass darkly." Discusses Chaucer's appropriations from Dante: passages, images and ideas, and subtle influences--how the "living…

Constance is not the passive ninny she has been accused of being. She possesses a presence which demands and receives forcible response; she moves in her world with self-sufficiency; her virtue is heroic; her ability to accept what God sends gives…

Although giving the impression of belonging to the world of courtesy, "deerne love" is actually more pertinent to the activities detailed in fabliaux. But secrecy, even when it would appear to be taken seriously, causes destruction of love and…

The story of Constance is not especially appropriate to the Man of Law. Chaucer was attracted to it because it is a good piece of fiction and because it gave him the perfect opportunity to set forth and justify his belief in astrology. The story…

Glosses in Class Alpha mss of Claudian's "De Raptu Proserpinae," which Chaucer could have used at school, explain his description of Pluto and Proserpina as Fairies, his "many a lady" following Proserpina, the terrifying tone of Pluto's "grisely…

"Clericus Adam," a short anti-feminist poem from the twelfth century, makes one wonder whether Chaucer may not be playfully saying, "Look here, 'Clericus Adam', you little bungler, don't you disfigure my handiwork the way your namesake disfigured…

From BD at the beginning of his career to Sted at the end, Chaucer made use of Machaut's ballade, "Il m'est avis." He drew on it for the translation of Bo, for MerT, and for For. Its images appear especially in BD and in MerT, its philosophical…

Reconsideration of passages not sufficiently considered in his 1957 edition of PF has led Mr. Bennett to comment on Chaucer's deep and searching study of the "Somnium Scipionis"; the structure of the main part of PF; the central sequence of the three…

TC reveals on a serious level a sexual pattern similar to that of the ludicrous MilT. In spite of disparity of social status, Alisoun and Criseyde offer the same promise to a would-be lover; Absolon and Troilus suffer in similar ways; the same kind…

Recognition of the arming of the warrior "topos" guides us to many formal arming passages: in the Babylonian epic, the "Iliad," The Bible, the "Aeneid," Irish literature, "Beowulf," the "Chanson de Roland," "Erec et Enide," the Arthurian series,…

An important immediate source of Chaucer's work is in the Latin "Lamentations of Matheolus," a thirteenth-century French cleric, whose work Jean le Fevre translated into French and expanded in the fourteenth century. In excess of one hundred…

Other enduring attributes of the Criseyde character complicate and perhaps mitigate her infidelity. From the start, as Homer's Briseis, she engages sympathy as a woman unwillingly transferred from one man to another. Dares made Briseida attractive;…

Generically and rhetorically NPT is a fable devoted to the teaching of wisdom, undercut by its mock quality, by its characterization, by its scholastic reasoning; but finally leading us back, on a higher level, to its original didactic purpose. NPT…

Chaucer gives large emphasis and exaggerated length to the didactic. Mel and ParsT are so solidly "there" in the structure of CT that we would not understand the dynamics of the poem if we did not take them into account. Chaucer vies with Dante in…

The speaker of Ros appears to be the earliest instance of the "persona" whom Chaucer presents in full dress in BD and develops in all subsequent major works. This early conception is already so complex and original as to justify the scribe's…

English fifteenth-century court verse, comprising formal lyrics and Chaucerian apocrypha, has been neglected because it is not major, not easily accessible, and lacks appropriate criticism. Bases for a critical rationale include awareness of its…

Food and eating provide central images and activities in Chaucer's poetry. Misunderstanding the foods mentioned, Chaucer's readers may miss points essential to their comprehension of his poetry. The revolution in tastes and eating habits may be…

Chaucer's pilgrims agree that "the pleasure and the use of literature are one thing," that the utility of literature lies not only in the kernel of its theme but in the felicities of its style and the pleasure of its audience as well. In this view,…

Essay not located; reported in the MLA International Bibliography, with the following note: "Proceedings of the Northeast Region Conference: Voices Far and Near: Myth, Legend, Folktale, Fantasy, Held Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26,…

Extant manorial accounts representing over two hundred different demesnes in Norfolk (from the period 1250-1449) suggest that Oswald the Reeve's dwelling and husbandry were based on a specific landscape and rural economy that would have been…

Reads the Wife's comments on her constellation (WBP 3.609-23) in light of late medieval pastoral commentary on astral determinism as an excuse for sin. The Wife mocks male-authored confessional speech but embraces male-authored astrological discourse…

Prints the inventory of books found in Purvey's residence upon his arrest in 1414, which were assessed at £12-18s-8d, and analyzes what the titles and their value imply.

In 1397, Richard II's rule became more tyrannical, a fact reflected, some chroniclers report, in more elaborate forms of address that were more appropriate for God than for a king.