Browse Items (16381 total)

The eight-line rhyme scheme of MkT, with the prosodic climax situated in the middle of the stanza, suggests Fortune's wheel.

The "De re militari" of Flavius Vegetius Renatus--translated three times into Middle English-condemns poorly kept armor. This passage supports the argument of Terry Jones ("Chaucer's Knight" SAC 5 (1983), no.137) that the physical deterioration of…

A comparison of TC 4.897-98 with Boccaccio's Italian suggests that more of the clause is Criseyde's quotation than is usually punctuated as such. Also, "sighte" may be a copying error for "right." The resulting text, corrected and repunctuated,…

Suggests that the prison window in KnT "alludes to certain medieval paintings that reveal the meaning of the scene"; also discusses symbolism and allegory in KnT.

The wife's attack upon her husband Symkyn at the end of RvT is not an accident as commonly believed. Rather, the action is a deliberate attempt to conceal her adultery.

The Wife's astrological sign of Taurus suggests a tendency to prostitution.

RvT is a denunciation of the university system and its participants. The two clerks abandon their learning and stoop to the anti-intellectual level of the miller.

Medieval convention and iconography support the view that the rebec is associated with the female voice (and thus suited to Absolon's effeminate character). It is implied that Absolon neither sings nor plays very well.

When the old man of PardT quotes Leviticus in his reproof of the three rioters, he omits the penultimate clause, "and fear the Lord your God." The omission suggests an Augustinian doctrine that the damned are unmindful of God.

A discussion of doubtful relics in CT, with emphasis on the skepticism of both the Pardoner and the Host.

Discusses similarities between Chaucer's WBT and the French farce "Les deux maris et leurs deux femmes" and suggests that the loathly lady's riddle at the end of WBT "might be drawing on a less recherche tradition than that of Latin rhetoric."

John's Oaths to St. Thomas may refer to the apostle as well as to Becket.

Carl Lindahl's hypothesis (Earnest Games, SAC 11 [1989], no. 135) of folkloric approaches to Chaucer oversimplifies and stereotypes the poet's art. Such readings, which detract from close reading, "have a potentially distorting effect."

A brief history of private rooms in fourteenth-century England and an explanation of the significance of Nicholas's desire for privacy in MilT.

Explains the sexual resonances latent in the reference to Priapus in MerT 4.2034-37, citing tales in Ovid, the commentary tradition, and PF. January's statue of Priapus "constitutes a kind of devotion to the obscene god who was the true patron saint…

Explores the implications of three interrelated allusions in Chaucer's works (TC 2.55ff., KnT 1.1462ff., and NPT 7.3187ff.), observing connections "between Friday, May 3, Venus, the May festival season, and the Invention of the Cross," connections…

Attributes the reference to Taurus in NPT 7.3194-95 to the medico-astrological tradition of associating Taurus with necks and throats, part of a pattern of imagery in the Tale that may reflect the influence of Bartholomeus Anglicanus's "De…

Suggests that the "fatal treasure" of PardT gains ironic dimension when seen in light of the theory of the "treasury of merits," used to explain or justify the sale of indulgences.

Argues that the phrase "been lyk a cokewold" (MilT 1.3226) means that John fears he is a cuckold, not that he will be a cuckold, observing misconstruals in editions and translations of the Tale.

Observes similarities in the parallel lists of Biblical women in MerT 4.1362-74 and Mel 7.1098-1101, and argues that their presence is "ironical" in the former but not the latter: "by the time" Chaucer wrote MerT he saw "both sides to the characters…

Criseyde's niece Flexippe is named after Plexippus in Ovid's story of Meleager. The reference to Flexippe in TC 2 is clarified in TC 5 by Cassandra's relating this very story and giving it an allegorical interpretation.

Discusses several possible influences and prototypes for Chaucer's Chauntecleer in NPT.

The "viritoot" of MilT 3870 is probably a top used in a game. The word caused Chaucer's scribes considerable difficulty and might be a nonce-word. The image conveys Absolon's mental and physical energy.

The lord in SumT speaks of "the salt of the erthe and the savor," usually taken as a reference to Matthew 5.13. Yet no Bible known to Chaucer uses the word "savor" (Latin "vapor") in this passage. Instead, Chaucer may have drawn the phrase from…

Chaucer's phrase is traditionally interpreted, "Yet for all the oxen in my plough, I would not take upon me more than enough (i.e., be overly suspicious)." A more accurate reading, however, is "I would not take upon me more than the oxen in my…