Friedman, John Block.
Studies in Philology 78 (1981): 138-52.
As contrasted to W. C. Curry's "humoral physiognomy," another type, "affective physiognomy," involving such details as movement of eyes or eyebrows and color of cheeks, is restricted in use to aristocratic or courtly characters, not those of the…
Friedman, John Block.
Viator 38.1 (2007): 289-319.
Friedman argues that French comic "trade" literature is source material for PardP, identifying parallels in details and in the hucksterish rhetoric of the works. He suggests that the Pardoner's sexuality may have been influenced by discussion of the…
Friedman, John Block.
Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2010.
Studies the iconography of nonaristocratic, nonclerical dress in late medieval literature and art. Considers aspects of dress as they distinguished peasants and gentry in the Old French pastourelle and its descendant, the bergerie, and follows this…
Friedman, John Block.
Chaucer Review 7.3 (1973): 250-66.
Surveys approaches to NPT, and discusses its appropriateness as a homiletic exemplum to the Priest as narrator, discussing its rhetoric, its misogynistic depictions of females, and its allusions to mermaid song and Physiologus (7.3270-72)
Friedman, John Block.
Emma Cayley and Susan Powell, eds. Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe 1350-1550: Packaging, Presentation, and Consumption (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), pp. 169-86..
Analyzes Chaucer and Wittenwiler from the "perspective of anxiety at the table." Explores how "food- and drink-conveyed class anxieties are used as plot devices" to develop action in MlT, RvT, and "Der Ring." Also mentions possible connections…
Describes the associations of coral with apotropaic power in medieval lapidaries, and suggests that the Prioress's rosary of coral in GP (1.158) ambiguously may signal religious intent as well as courtly luxury.
Friedman, John Block.
Chaucer Review 3.3 (1969): 145-162.
More than merely consolation for John of Gaunt, BD conveys the "more universal theme" of "personal loss and its effects on man's physical and psychic condition." Traditionally associated in various sources with leading, with healing, and with…
Friedman, John Block.
Chaucer Review 2.1 (1967): 8-19.
Examines animal, costume, and color imagery in RvT to show that Chaucer adapted his source by increasing and specifying such imagery, lending moral dimension to the fabliau plot and offering an exemplary illustration of the "sins of pride, wrath and…
Friedman, John Block.
Chaucer Review 54.2 (2019): 119-40.
Focuses on a study of status in MilT and traces the positioning of Nicholas and Alisoun and their displays of their buttocks in the window toward Absolon. Fleshing out the context and history of bottom-kissing as well as the averting of demons by…
Friedman, Sarah.
Essays in Medieval Studies 37 (2022): 65-79.
Focuses on two texts that feature violence against women to examine how the violated woman functions as a tool for political change. Both Chaucer and Gower foreground the suffering that men experience in response to the violated female body, leading…
Friedman, William F., and Elizebeth S. Freidman.
Philological Quarterly 38 (1959): 1-20.
Introduces literary acrostics and anagrams as examples of "unkeyed" transposition ciphers, clarifying some terminology of cryptography, and applying technical analysis to invalidate Ethel Seaton's claims (1957) about "so-called double acrostic…
Friedrich, Jennie Rebecca.
Dissertation Abstracts International DAI A77.01 (2015): n.p.
Considers Chaucer as part of a larger discussion of medieval ideas of the physical damage that accrued from travel, both in the sense of a literal pilgrimage and in tropes including the "wandering heart."
Friedrich, Jennie.
In James L. Smith, ed. The Passenger: Medieval Texts and Transits ([Santa Barbara, Calif.]: Punctum, 2017), pp. 35-52.
Explores relations among imagery of hearts, transplanting, "bodily estrangement," and travel in TC, focusing on Criseyde, her brooch, her dream of the eagle, her departure from Troy, and how she "begins to embody foreignness by the end of the…
Friend, Albert C.
Medievalia et Humanistica 1 (1970): 57-65.
Late twelfth-century English stories by Alexander Nequam and Berechiah haNakdan provide context for the caged bird episode in SqT, indicating that Chaucer may have intended to complete the episode with the falcon reuniting with her own kind. Also…
Friend, Albert C.
Modern Language Quarterly 18 (1957): 305-08
Suggests Chaucer "was walking on dangerous ground" in choosing 1Timothy 6:10 ("Radix malorum . . .") as the theme of the Pardoner's sermon, adducing a Latin sermon by Oxfordian Robert Lychlade on the same theme that led to him being brought to trial…
Friend, Myrna M.
Open accessPh.D. Dissertation. McGill University, 1961. Accessible at https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/kh04dt074; accessed November 15,2021.
Examines the "process whereby realism evolved in Chaucer's work," particularly the "stylistic devices by which it was secured," considering Anel, TC, and various aspects of CT: early and late tales, the frame, and fabliaux.
The occasions, imagery, and verbal play of the lyrical interludes in TC clarify Criseyde's role as a Christian archetype, one who leads Troilus from self-absorption to transcendence but who nevertheless remains ambiguous in her own silence and her…
Fries, Maureen.
John F. Plummer, ed. Vox Feminae: Studies in Medieval Woman's Songs (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 1981), pp. 155-78.
The vernacular "woman's song" focuses passively on the beloved (not the speaker's feelings), powerless to control the beloved. Such features serve as a context to analyze the "comic sex- and/or class-role reversal" in RvT, MerT, and Antigone's Song…
Fries, Maureen.
Arlyn Diamond and Lee R. Edwards, eds. The Authority of Experience: Essays in Feminist Criticism (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977), pp. 45-59.
Although the heroine speaks bravely in TC of being her "owene womman," Chaucer's "would-be feminist" is continually victimized by the male-dominated society largely responsible for her limited views about sexual roles.
Suggests that details of ShT may reflect historical incidents involving Pedro I ("the Cruel") of Castile, his various marital scandals, and a Spanish-English naval battle near Bruges. Comments on Chaucer's connections with Spain.
The friendship-brotherhood motif plays a significant role in Chaucer's poetry. A survey of this theme suggests that friendship between men, whether genuine or simulated, has a negative and even destructive influence on the characters.
A large-format art-book version of the Nevill Coghill translation of the poetic portions of CT, with illustrations of the tales (rather than the pilgrims) by Frink and a brief introduction by Coghill that comments on the contemporary vitality of the…
Fritz, Donald W.
Chaucer Review 21 (1987): 338-59.
The Jungian "puer aeternus" concept clarifies the relationship between the Pardoner and the Host, who fills the role of "senex." The Knight's (negative) intervention reveals him as a positive "senex" figure.
