Browse Items (16381 total)

The appearance of Mercury in Arcite's dream is usually thought to be derived from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', I. A more probable source, however, is Virgil's 'Aeneid', IV, where Mercury commands the hero to hasten on to Italy, just as in Chaucer Arcite…

Nicholas' seduction of Alisoun is an impudent parody of the Annunciation, of which he sings in the "Angelus ad virginem." Absolon is clad "ful smal," i.e., in a tight-fitting garment, as a sign of his lechery and vanity.

Gower's tales of Lucretia and Virginia in "Confessio Amantis" VII are exempla of the fates of lecherous rulers; however, Chaucer's versions of these stories (in LGW and PhyT, respectively) focus, not on the villains, but instead on the admirable…

Readers err in trying to define the time-scheme of TC too closely, since only a few days of the story's three years are narrated in detail. One must distinguish, therefore, between historical and dramatic chronology, noting Chaucer's emphasis more…

In Chaucer's age, the image of the butterfly primarily suggested the self-destructive nature of human sinfulness. This aspect of butterfly symbolism occurs in MkT (B2.3978-81), MerT (E.303-04), and possibly ShT (B2.1360-61).

Various medieval sources establish the image of the tiger as a figure of hypocrisy. Chaucer's description of the tercelet as a "tiger, full of doublenesse" (5.543) is no accident.

The squire in GP wears red and white apparel which critics generally associate with springtime and fashionable dress. Because soon-to-be knights wore these colors in the medieval knighting ritual, this chivalric association of the colors further…

Robinson glosses Justinus' words "er ye have youre right of hooly chirche" (MerT, 1662) as "before your wedding is really solemnized." This should read "before your funeral is really solemnized."

The point of the proverb that a man may not sin with his own wife or cut himself with his own knife is reversed in MerT. Chaucer intends the effect of surprise to create a sense of the nature and significance of January's wrong headedness.

The short verse argument to the "Thebaid" prefixed to most manuscripts of TC had probably been memorized in Chaucer's youth and was used for the later books of TC. While the siege of Troy continues, Cassandra completes the story of the siege of…

Though "the rede" may be taken as referring to either Phaethon or his father Phoebus, Phaethon is in Ovid the red-haired boy burning in the sky, who falls to earth as a human torch;"rede Phaethon" shows fidelity to Chaucer's source and intensifies…

MilT's reference to Absalom's "having moore tow on his distaf" (I, 3774) adds another significance to its long recognized proverbial one when we realize that carrying a distaff with tow on it to the pillory was statutory punishment in Chaucer's…

The alliterative phrase "here and houne," usually related to "hare and hound," may derive from an unattested OE formula meaning "the host and the household," an interpretation consistent with the context.

Archer Taylor's account, in "Sources and Analogues," of the analogues to FrT is incomplete and misleading. Exempla from two fourteenth-century English manuscript collections show that it is possible to be much more precise about Chaucer's…

Although the tree-vine "topos" with which Chaucer describes the embrace of Troilus and Criseyde is a literary commonplace, it usually describes a relationship that is either destructive or supportive. In TC the "topos" is ambiguous and highlights…

Chaucer's digression from Boccaccio concerning Arcite's career at court should be interpreted not biographically but rather in the context of the career of Havelock the Dane. Both tales show the social stigma of being a page; Arcite's role…

As a number of bawdy lyrics attest, the comparison of the Wife's hat in GP (1.470-71) to a "bokeler" and "targe" suggest sexual and martial overtones. Through the intervening metaphor to joust/to have intercourse, both buckler and target signify what…

Five patristic quotations in ParsT have not been noted: one originates in Pseudo-Augustine, a second in Isidore of Seville, another in St. Jerome, and two others can be traced to St. Gregory.

Despite recent scholarship of MilT that equates Alison's "pa" (line 3709) with the Wife of Bath's "ba" (WBT, line 433), the two words should be distinguished. "Pa" seems to be a shortening of "pax," the liturgical embrace of Christian love. In…

Identifies several similarities and complementarities between Joyce's "Araby" and PrT, focusing primarily on the protagonists of the two narratives.

Posits that John of Salisbury's "Policraticus" is the source of the closing comment of the GP description of the Clerk (GP 1.308); "gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche."

Exploring the "bukke and hare" of Th 7.756 for their "traditional attributes" rather than as suggestive game animals, documents that their associations with timidity and, reading "bukke" as "goat rather than "male deer," sexual pursuit.

Describes the involvement of Thomas Chaucer and Thomas Swynford in matters related to the deposition and death of Richard II, suggesting that they help to account for the tone and perspective in Purse (especially the Envoy) and Henry's swift and…

Explores the "appropriateness" of Chaucer's "only original and direct reference to St. Anne," in FrT 3.1613. Mentions Chaucer's two other references to St. Anne, derived from Dante, and offers evidence that Anne of Bohemia was associated with St.…

Identifies in NPT echoes of the "Roman de la Rose," particularly in the characterizations of Chaunticler and Pertelote.