Browse Items (16381 total)

Characterizes the Wife of Bath as "an ecclesiastical camp follower" who tellingly misuses her familiarity with Scripture and liturgy, exemplifying this tendency through her blasphemous use of the term "quoniam," which is the "opening word of the…

Argues that the obtuse narrator's misreading of the Ovidian story of Ceyx and Alcyone in BD misleads him and underlies the poem's general encouragement that people must accept misfortune. The narrator within the dream is not obtuse, but he does not…

Describes the verbal and visual records of Parisian court entertainments which have parallels with Chaucer's description of visual spectacle putatively produced by magicians ("tregetours") in FranT 5.1139-51,

Surveys the iconographical tradition of "Venus-of-the-Seashell" ("Aphrodite Anadyomene") as background to assessing why Chaucer depicts Venus carrying a citole in KnT (1.1959) and carrying a comb in HF (line 136). Explores the images in Chaucer's…

Social history of late-medieval London produced to accompany an exhibition at the London Museum "concerned with life in London" during Chaucer's time. The text comments on Chaucer's life and on social, political, mercantile, and ecclesiastical…

Argues that several French works are clear sources of NPT: Chaucer's poem is based on Marie de France's fable "Del Cok e del Guple," but also has significant parallels with Pierre de St. Cloud's Branch II of the "Roman de Renart" and the anonymous…

Considers the appropriateness of ParsT to its narrator, examining the Tale as an example of the sermon genre ("ars praedicandi"), particularly its structural features that reflect a rational aesthetic.

Surveys the tradition of a "fantasy of ritual murder" of a Christian boy by Jews, focusing on its manifestations in accounts of the death of Hugh of Lincoln and various sources and analogues, both historical and literary, including PrT and later…

Describes various features of Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury as recorded in Erasmus's satiric "Peregrinatio Religionis Ergo," focusing on its account of Becket's "hair breeches" and suggesting that this relic underlies the Host's…

A selection of poems by various authors from Virgil to the twentieth century. Includes a selection from SNP (8.36-56) and its source, i.e., a facing-page selection from Dante's "Paradiso." Illustrated by José Erasto. Selection slightly revised from…

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…

An anthology of English and American literature arranged by mode (Romance, Tragedy, Comedy, and Irony, with various sub-categories), designed as a textbook for college-level study. Each section is introduced by discussion of constituent features of…

A selection of excerpts from Chaucer's verse with facing-page translations, arranged topically in several categories: "Golden World"; Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory; Dreams; Portraiture; Students; Science; and Matrimony. The excerpts (many with passages…

Studies the "embodying [of] visual experience in poetic language," comparing Spenser's uses of various devices with those of other poets, Chaucer among them. Contrasts the "embellished and incrusted imagery" in Spenser's characterizations with…

Assesses modern "unease" with Chaucer's "pathetic" tales, focusing on the combination of the "superficially tragic and the slightly comic" aspects of MLT in which the subject matter invites audience sympathy or empathy while the style encourages…

Argues that Troilus "establishes the meaning of the events" in TC by "contemplating and exposing" their inner significance. His thoughts convey the "theme of bondage" through the imagery and language of constraint (prison and confinement, snares and…

Sendup of the Watergate political scandal in pseudo-Chaucerian rhymed couplets, based on GP descriptions. Includes comic foonotes. Reprinted in "Time" 102.13 (1972): 20, with a brief introduction.

Analyzes narrative aspects of CT and the readers' role in understanding the functions and significance of various structural features, the pilgrimage frame, and point of view; uses late-medieval illustrations to explore and illuminate reader…

Textbook anthology of Old and Middle English literature that includes selections from Chaucer (pp. 119-283) in Middle English with glosses, notes, and introductions to Chaucer's life, works, and language. Selections include GP, MilPT, NPPT (with two…

Introductory study guide to PrPT, WBPT, and the accompanying GP descriptions, focusing on the ambiguity of the Prioress and the "moral incoherence" of the Wife of Bath. Includes questions for discussion but no text of the poetry.

Describes the history, procedures, and practices of editing volumes for the Chaucer Library which was created in 1945. Comments on how to select texts, editorial responsibilities, and preparation of typescripts. An appendix provides four pages of…

Biography of Chaucer written for a juvenile audience, with emphasis on social history. Illustrated by Robert Micklewright.

Textbook edition of FranPT and the GP description of the Franklin, with text in Middle English, notes and glossary, and discussion of the Franklin's character, possible sources of FranT, and Chaucer's "inventiveness." Includes several appendixes:…

Illustrated social history of late-medieval England, with literary examples drawn from CT and contemporaneous literature, with visual reproductions from various manuscripts, including the Ellesmere manuscript and printed facsimiles. Arranged…

Argues that Chaucer's Physician is idealized, "a splendid representative of both medieval physician and medieval surgeon." Uses evidence from medieval malpractice cases, and comments on various "transportable medicozodiacal instruments."