Browse Items (16381 total)

Studies the grammar and usage of non-finite clauses in five samples from Chaucer's works (GP, Mel, PF, Bo, and TC), each approximately 500 lines long. Focuses on the "conditioning" factors of grammatical function, source material, and elements that…

Considers Chaucer's alterations to the source passage in "Roman de la Rose" for the GP description of the Squire, apparently modified by a sequence of details found in Henry of Lancaster's "Livre de Seyntz Medicines."

Suggests that the Dreamer in BD is "on a kind of hunt," knowing all along the cause of the Black Knight's grief but seeking to "draw him out." His hunt joins with the "forest chase," the love quest, and "Fortune's stalking of Blanche," so that…

Reconsiders relations among ShT, Sercambi's "Novelle" no. 31, and Boccaccio's "Decameron" nos. 8.1 and 8.2, suggesting that it is "not unreasonable" to think that Chaucer "might have known all three of the analogues."

Critiques editorial decisions in punctuating and glossing TC 3.1751-57, comparing the passage with its original in Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy."

Suggests that Dante's account of Paolo and Francesca underlies the reference to the book of Lancelot in NPT 7.3212.

Attributes the metaphors of blindness and light in TC to the direct influence of Statius's "Thebaid" (unmediated by the "Roman de Thébes"), suggesting that the pattern of imagery culminates in Troilus's comparison of himself to Oedipus (TC 4.300).

The name "Lollius" (from "loll" "to hang out the tongue") is Chaucer's punning attempt to imitate Boccaccio's name in English ("boccaccio" "ugly mouth"), as well as to create a plausible sounding Latinate name for his supposed author.

The portraits in GP cannot be at once individual and typical. The details cannot be taken as individual because they have been determined by the general conception. Recognition of the reality of the universal is necessary for an understanding of the…

Since in his most carefully completed poems Chaucer avoids or undercuts any full thematic resolution, it is unlikely that the missing conclusion of HF would explain away the dynamic tensions of the poem. Probably the most inconsequential of the…

Troilus's "kankedort" is an Anglo-Norman equivalent of the proverbial "chien qui dort" (sleeping dog); Troilus expects a rude rebuff, ending his love affair.

The reference in WBT to the husband who "pissed on a wal" recalls similar phrases in an oath of King David (1 Kings 25:22, 34). The Biblical allusion is ironic, occurring in the context of the story of Abigail, a model of forebearance in dealing…

GP is a coherent structure indicating a subtle spiritual reality coinciding to Christian doctrines. It is not seen simply as a social vision, but as encircling both moral and spiritual truths which match: generosity to "gentils," materialism to…

Zephirus' breath in GP contrasts the parody of divine inspiration in CYT, and CYP to the piety of SNT. CYT stands in relation to SNT as MilT stands to KnT. Both CYT and SNT exploit the metaphor of creative breath.

In most of his poems Chaucer exploits the traditional material to create a double view, one inherent in the material and the other produced by his handling of them. He inherited this technique from Jean de Meun; in BD and the "Roman," for example,…

Nothing in the textual tradition of the three MSS of BD supports a thesis of differing exemplars. The lines of BD that are found in Thynne's edition but not in the MSS--lines 31-96, 288,480, 886--should be considered spurious until convincingly…

The portraits of GP, which depict types, belong to the tradition of rhetorical description, not of satire. Epideictic rhetoric provides for representation of virtue and vice alike and aims at the unity of perspective that we find in the descriptions…

The use of regional dialects in RvT and the "Second Shepherd's Play" indicates a sporadic literary exploitation of dialect differences in the fourteenth century and implies an ability, at least among the educated, to classify the different dialects…

Chaucer often used the horse-and-rider image as a metaphor for sexual "maistrie." In Anel the image illustrates Arcite's failure to exercise mastery over either of his ladies, chafing like a restless horse in the service of Anelida while playing the…

Language is used to reveal or conceal. Warping his own beliefs, Pandarus in his speech redefines or avoids moral issues; duplicitous Diomede thinks like Pandarus, speaks like Troilus; Troilus's speech is forthright, literal; Criseyde is capable of…

Discrepancy between intention and outcome is a theme of CT, especially in KnT, WBT, and MerT. Pilgrim narrators produce unintended effects in listeners especially in the Host.

On Manly-Rickert's faulty assumptions: prior circulation of individual tales among Chaucer's friends; two archetypes, O and O1; individual lines of textual transmission for separate tales; scribal use of several lost exemplars for some tales. It is…

The Parson offers religious and philosophical consolation by showing how sundered thought, word, and deed are conjoined in the salvific acts of contrition, confession, and satisfaction.

The Hengwrt manuscript omits CYT and CYP, whose authenticity must be determined on critical, not paleographical, evidence.

Distinguishes between vow and boast in literary convention, traced down to the burlesques in "The Tournament of Tottenham" and Chaucer's Th. Considers the role of women as "taunters."