Browse Items (16381 total)

Suggests that the mechanical aspects of the Trojan Horse in Lydgate's poem were influenced by the steed of brass in SqT.

The original audience of TC would have read the decision of the Trojan Parliament in light of the 1385 Durham Ordinances, clause 3. Since this clause explicitly prohibits the imprisoning of unarmed women, the parallel suggests Criseyde's status as a…

Suggests that SqT may have influenced the narrative techniques of Philip Sidney's Arcadia, specifically its "interlocking structure."

In calling the GP Miller a "knarre," Chaucer probably draws on an iconographic tradition illustrated in a pilgrim badge depicting a boar playing a bagpipe and inscribed "Laet knorren."

Assesses examples from GP, KnT, MilPT, WBPT, and SNPT, deducing that medieval metaphors of emotion are similar to modern ones, although they depend more closely upon social categories, with negative metaphors typical of middle-class speakers, and…

Draws examples and discussion from Astr to argue that modern teachers of literature should "look to history, cross boundaries between academic fields, and use practical, as well as theoretical,teaching methods" (quotation from abstract at …

In her poem "The Author's Dreame," Lanyer uses the medieval dream vision, allusions to Chaucer (HF) and other poets, and Renaissance and biblical tropes to criticize as well as praise her patrons; however, her authority is threatened by the use of…

Classical and medieval allusions in Jonson's masque, particularly to Chaucer's HF, suggest a complicated, ambivalent understanding of fame.

Analyzes the role of Iberia in Constance narratives by Trivet, Chaucer, Gower, and the Portuguese and Castilian translators of Gower's version. Accepts that the Anglo-Castilian politics of John of Gaunt's marriage to Constance of Castile undergird…

Legal diction and references in KnT reflect concern in the 1380s with the growing influence of the Court of Chivalry and the revival of trial by battle.

MLP "stages a confrontation" between the legal and the poetic that reveals the "degree of Chaucer's investment in the latter as well as his need for the former." The textual uncertainties of MLE and the Host's appropriation of legal language reflect…

Considers the appearance of the "mysterious inscription 'Ch'" beside several poems in MS Codex 902 in the University of Pennsylvania Libraries collection. Scholars have assumed that the "Ch" stands for Chaucer, but Strakhov argues that the poems are…

Analyzes woodcut of pilgrims seated at table in Caxton's second edition of CT. Argues that "early editors' interpretations of given literary works are thus reflected in their editorial choices."

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…

After a short survey of France's discovery of medieval English literature, especially Chaucer, in the nineteenth century, Dor describes the main features of Chatelain's first complete translation of CT into French, published in London from 1857 to…

Risden explores how several medieval narratives "subvert" readers' expectations and "hint at the loneliness of the moral act." Includes comments on WBP, as well as on "Beowulf," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "Piers Plowman," and other works.

Intertextual relationships among MerT, SqT, and FranT indicate differing attitudes toward perception, loyalty, and treason, particularly focused in the depictions of squires. Chaucer's Squire condescends to the lower classes and their ignorance of…

Surveys classical uses and techniques of ekphrasis and explores how Chaucer uses it in HF to comment on the shifting nature of communication. In descriptions of the House of Fame, House of Rumor, and especially the House of Glass (Aeneas and Dido),…

Storm surveys the debt to Chaucer's KnT in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," focusing on the works' mutual concern with hierarchy and order. In both works (and elsewhere in the authors' works), the figure of the Minotaur (parodied in…

Comments on Chaucer's reputation as a Wycliffite reformer or Lollard that resulted from his depictions of clergymen (especially the Parson) and from apocryphal tales attributed to him. Edits and assesses a 1641 pamphlet that includes two poetic…

Surveys historical and literary evidence that deer were kept as pets in the Middle Ages, including discussion of deer parks and Nature's garden in PF, which "Chaucer's audience would almost certainly have understood as a deer park."

Argues that MLT and MLE are "fundamentally concerned with the transmission of affect." The tale "dramatizes how affect operates as a physical force that realigns individual and collective identities," while the narrator's style, combined with…

Assesses ClT in comparison with its sources to argue that Chaucer's version critiques Griselda's complete submission of her will to Walter's, disclosing its ethical invalidity as lacking right reason.

Focuses on Pynson's woodcuts in his 1526 editions of CT, TC, and an anthology headed by HF, assessing them and other paratextual materials (table of contents, incipits, etc.) for the ways they pose a variety of reader strategies. Contrasts Pynson's…

Examines the "embodiment of language" in HF and argues that it displays epistemological "confidence in the ability of the textual word/body to communicate accurately to the reader's imagination in a synesthetic experience." Focuses on how Chaucer…