Correale, Robert M.
English Language Notes 2.3 (1965): 171-74.
Identifies influences of St. Jerome's "Epistola Adversus Jovinianum" 2 at the end of FrT, particularly the imagery of lion as hunter equated with Satan and juxtaposed with Biblical allusions.
Hoffman, Richard L.
English Language Notes 2.4 (1965): 252-57.
Identifies Ovid as the ultimate source of Chaucer's references to the friendship of Theseus and Piritheus in KnT, perhaps mediated by the "Roman de la Rose 8148-54 or moralizations of Ovid's works.
Boenig, Robert.
English Language Notes 21 (1983): 1-6.
The medieval bagpipe was featured in Nativity scenes, depictions of angels, and royal occasions. The Miller's bagpipe was a soft, pleasant, courtly, even celestial instrument--in subtly ironic contrast to his character.
Shaw, Judith.
English Language Notes 21:3 (1984): 7-10.
Augustine's commentary on Matt. 7:3-5 provides context for the discussion of wrath in ParsT. Chaucer uses Augustine's distinction of the false judge, who sees his own faults mirrored in the eyes of another, to show how several of the pilgrims commit…
Carruthers, Mary (J.)
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 11-20
"At hom" referred to "one's native dwelling," while "bord" signified "meals." "Gossib" referred to the baptismal sponsor and suggests that the Wife may well have had children. Jankyn's being "At hom to bord / With my gossib" implies that he lived…
Orton, P. R.
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 3-4.
"Burdoun" as an obscene pun in Chaucer's description of the Pardoner in the GP is supported in Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and even more strikingly in Wyatt's poem "Ye Old Mule". The latter shows the ribald possibilities of the word as…
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 55-70.
Chaucer's influence on Faulkner is evident in the similarities between PardT and "Lizards in Jamshyd's Courtyard." Both stories concern three treasure seekers who make an ironic vow of loyalty and are guided in motion by a figure who represents…
Miller, Robert P.
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 71-72
In the GP portrait Chaucer uses the metaphor of food that "snewed" to make an ironic comparison between the Franklin's epicureanism and the spiritual life represented by scriptural manna.
Jones, Alex I.
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 9-15.
The Harley scribe preserved the structure of Chaucer's original, revealing Chaucer's intent to structure CT according to a numerical series that the thirteenth-century Lombard mathematician Fibonacci used to describe the geometrical increase of a…
Burnley, David.
English Language Notes 23:3 (1986): 15-22.
Offers more adequate definitions than previously suggested of psychological terms Chaucer derives from his French sources for BD, particularly "turnen into malice," "to mochel knowlechyng," "wyt so general," "pure suffraunt...wyt."
Seaman, David M.
English Language Notes 24:1 (1986): 12-18.
The common assumption by critics that the Franklin purposely interrupts the Squire's tale is justified neither by context nor by rubric. Critics often attribute to CT a state of completion it does not have.
Horvath, Richard P.
English Language Notes 24:1 (1986): 8-12.
The Host's comment to the Monk about his tale, "For therinne is no desport ne game," has a significant variant that should be recorded in editions: "Youre tales don us no desport ne game," attested to in several manuscripts, including Hengwrt.
Fletcher, Alan J.
English Language Notes 24:2 (1986): 15-20.
The many appearances of the name Malkyn in medieval English texts do not support the common assumption that the name suggested a woman of loose morals but rather indicate that it evoked a woman of the lower classes.
Kupersmith, William.
English Language Notes 24:2 (1986): 20-23.
Chaucer quotes Juvenal's Tenth Satire in TC and WBT. The satire also provides suggestions for the three substantial additions he made to PhyT--on Virginia's beauty, her chastity, and the duty of governesses.
Green, Richard Firth.
English Language Notes 24:4 (1987): 24-27.
A late-fifteenth-century French collection of riddles (Musee Conde Bibliotheque MS 654) may point to an origin of SumT in a familiar riddle rather than in the iconography of Pentecost.
Grennen, Joseph E.
English Language Notes 25:2 (1987): 18-24.
The potential medieval etymologizing of "envoluped" and the association of "fundament" with Christ and his Church deepen the significance of the exchange between the Host and the Pardoner.
Crane, Susan.
English Language Notes 25:3 (1988): 10-15.
No case can be made that the Wife of Bath murdered her fourth husband. Such claims are made only by readers who invent for her an extratextual history and psychology or who believe that she "merely fulfills antifeminist expectations rather than…
Nicholson, R. H.
English Language Notes 25:3 (1988): 16-22.
The reference to the slaughter of Antonius in KnT 2032 is not to Mark Antony, as is commonly believed, but to Antonius Bassianus. Usually known as Caracalla, Emperor Antonius was betrayed and murdered--a reference far more suitable to Chaucer's…
Laird, Edgar S.
English Language Notes 25:3 (1988): 23-26.
The use of the word "proportionals" by the Clerk of Orleans in FranT shows "how very up to date" Chaucer was in astronomy. Corresponding to the Latin "minuta proportionalia," proportionals were a measure for calculating celestial positions in the…
DiMarco, Vincent.
English Language Notes 25:4 (1988): 15-19.
Behind the mysterious "vitremyte" that Zenobia is forced to adopt in MkT 2372 lies the Maeonian mitra, a cloth cap worn by Greek women. As a symbol of effeminacy, it is used in Boccaccio, for example, in the humiliation of Hercules. In Zenobia's…
Edwards, A. S. G.
English Language Notes 26:1 (1988): 1-3.
The emendation of HF texts F and B, line 1709, to "for no fame nor (MSS "for") such renoun" may be preferable to Skeat's now-standard reading, "For fame ne for such renoun." Similarly, emendation of MSS "loo" (line 1909) to "looth" gives the line…
Wright, Stephen K.
English Language Notes 26:1 (1988): 4-7.
Jankyn's scheme for the equal distribution of the fart in SumT may be derived from Boethius's theory of the propagation of sound waves in "De musica," a Boethian passage also echoed in HF.
Zhang, John Z.
English Language Notes 26:4 (1989): 1-5.
The inconsistencies of voice (Palamon, the Knight, or Chaucer?) in KnT 1303-27 indicate that the poet is manifesting his own artistry in the poem; writing is not merely an imitation of speaking.
