Browse Items (16382 total)

Argues that the image of the "citole" in KnT 1959, instead of a "concha" also found in traditional sources, contributes to the theme of "harmonious order" in the poem that is temporarily disrupted by the Venus/Mars strife.

Comments on aspects of convention, generic variety, and characterization in BD, PF, HF, LGW, and TC as evidence of Chaucer's status as a "great representative of the mediaeval culture and a pioneer of Renaissance art." In Russian, with Lithuanian and…

Considers the ambivalent treatment of fame in HF: as a sinful desire, as a goal for poets, and as an "amoral record of the past." Argues that this ambivalence is rooted in Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and that it reflects Chaucer's…

Shows that "The Plowman's Tale" was published (ca. 1536) by Thomas Godfray with a "calculated and propagandist purpose," part of Henry VIII's "propagandist organization" affiliated with Thomas Berthelet, Henry VIII's "official printer." Demonstrates…

Reads the depiction of Troilus in TC in light of Gower's castigation of knightly love in "Vox Clamantis," arguing that both poets critique immoral love, even though Chaucer's poses ironically a "sentimental" view of his protagonist.

Argues that the theme of idleness and the triads of characters in PardT and SNT encourage us to read these tales in sequence--a feature of the ordering of the fragments of CT proposed by Henry Bradshaw.

Identifies details in TC and KnT that reflect the influence of the version of the Thebes legend found in the "Ovide Moralisé."

Comments on the possible meanings of the phrase "in worth" in the apostrophe to Venus in the Proem to Book 3 of TC.

Surveys medieval understandings of Rome and its history as background to understanding Chaucer's allusions to Rome and Romans, especially his treatments of them in PhyT, SNT, the Caesar and Nero accounts in MkT, and the Lucrece legend of LGW.…

Surveys the interrelated astrological, mythographical, and allegorical traditions of Mars in the Middle Ages, and focuses on the myth of his adultery with Venus and its representations in the plots and allusions of Chaucer's Complaint of Mars, KnT,…

Assesses ambivalence, conventional morality, and the functions of art in CT and in Juan Ruiz's "Libro de Buen Amor," commenting on the role of the narrator in Chaucer and the "staging" of multiple views on "caritas" and "cupiditas" in both works.

Surveys criticism that considers the Ceyx and Alcyone story in BD, exegetical readings in particular, and edits a version of the tale found in fourteenth-century Ovidian manuscripts available in Chaucer's England, with full apparatus and with…

Explores Chaucer's rhetorical, "inorganic," "non-narrative" structuring devices in various works: BD, Anel, selected lyrics, and TC, with comments on aspects of LGW and CT, especially Part 7 and ManT.

Argues that Thop can be read as a didactic narrative that breaks off at the "point most effective for developing the theme of salvation" which is brought to conclusion in Mel. The tales share similar concerns with vice and with the world, the flesh,…

Surveys two medieval attitudes toward marriage (pro-matrimonial [Aquinas] and anti-matrimonial [Jerome] and their depictions in various tales of virgin martyrs, analyzing SNT most extensively.

Surveys rhetorical traditions in fourteenth-century England and assesses the impact of "artes poetriae," "grammaticae," and "praedicandi" on Chaucer's poetry generally and on NPT in particular. Includes appendixes of medieval rhetorical terms (with…

Reads LGW, MkT, and HF as structurally successful works when viewed in light of medieval "Gothic" aesthetics of "inorganic" structure, derived from visual tradition.

Explores the influence of CT on Spenser's "Faerie Queene," especially the Renaissance version of Chaucer's work available to Spenser in Thynne's edition. Includes a list of Spenser's references and allusions to Chaucer.

Considers the depictions of poverty in the opening of NPT (7.2821-46) in light of the apparently contradictory attitudes expressed in MLP (2.99-133) and the gentility speech of WBT (3.1177-1206), finding "contextualized" truths. Also considers…

Summarizes the four papers included in this volume, with emphasis on how well they cohere.

Panelists include Norman E. Eliason, Robert E. Kaske, Edmund Reiss, and James I. Wimsatt, exchanging views on Chaucer's love poetry and fielding questions from the audience at a symposium held at the University of Georgia, 1971. Recurrent concern…

Surveys the uses of the biblical Song of Songs in medieval secular love poetry as background to exploring Chaucer's uses of it in BD and TC, and his comic adaptations of it in MerT and MilT.

Restricts the "marriage group" to the four components originally proposed by George Lyman Kittredge (WBPT, ClT, MerT, FranT), disclosing the intricacies of their interconnections and considering in turn their various attitudes toward sex and mastery…

Treats parody as a technique that expresses the inadequacies of a given topic but also evokes its ideals, exemplifying how Chaucer achieves this dual perspective in BD, PF, TC, and Part 1 of CT.

Comments on the varieties of love in Chaucer's poetry (Christian, philosophic, courtly, and allegorical) and focuses on "ordinary" love in TC, where the personal experience of love is "not merely displayed" but probed with thoughtfulness, honesty,…