Smith, Jeremy J.
English Studies 93 (2012): 593-603
Discusses Chaucer's use of "this" (e.g., "this carpenter," "this sely man," etc.). Replaces its usual explanation as a colloquialism with a discussion of the changing meaning of demonstrative "this"/"that" from Old English onward and applies this to…
Thaisen, Jacob.
English Studies 95 (2014): 500-513.
Establishes that scribes are less likely than otherwise to introduce their own spellings of words that occur in initial position in verse lines, exploring why in psycholinguistic terms, and suggesting several implications for manuscript study. The…
Stadolnik, Joseph.
English Studies 97.1 (2016): 15–21.
Argues that the Wife's "fyr" and "tow" not only warn against sexual temptation but are also a contemporary "reference to the fatal accident at the "bal des ardents" at the French royal court in 1393, which very nearly took the life of Charles VI."
Analyzes parallel sections of text from William Caxton's two editions of CT set by the same compositor--Mel and ParsT, NPT and ManT--comparing practices in prose tales and verse tales, and also comparing the practices of the compositor of Richard…
Examines the "rhetoric of pestilence" as a "powerful contemplative tool" that urges readers to "self-examination, penitence, and a more active, strategic approach to death" in five texts: PardT, John Lydgate's "Danse Macabre," "The Castle of…
Amoils, E. R.
English Studies in Africa 17 (1974): 17-37.
Explores the complementary thematic interconnections of PhyT and PardPT (integrity and fraudulence, spiritual fertility and sterility, virtue and vice, defeat of death), reading their interdependence in light of ParsT and the section of the "Roman de…
Boyd, Heather.
English Studies in Africa 21 (1978): 65-69.
The rhetorical devices disavowed by the eagle in HF are NPT's substance which mocks badly used rhetoric: misapplied or mechanical or out of place. This mockery lies behind the Nun's Priest's anti-feminism, induced by the airs and graces of the…
Hughes, Geoffrey.
English Studies in Africa 25 (1982): 61-77.
The literature of courtly love does not accurately reflect medieval behavior in matters of love and sexual relations. Criseyde's "Who yaf me drinke?" (TC 2.651) derives from the motif of the love potion, which symbolizes "the overwhelming, obsessive…
Brindley, D. J.
English Studies in Africa 7 (1964): 148-56.
Demonstrates the "stylistic virtuosity" of NPT, consistent with its "multiple perspective," commenting on the plain style of the widow frame, "cinematic" details in descriptions, the quality and comedy of direct dialogue, the "graver rhetoric of the…
Rowland, Beryl.
English Studies in Canada (Toronto): 7, 2 (1981): 129-40.
The narrator establishes a relationship with the audience to give the impression that they are jointly and empirically exploring human nature. His continuous presence and the mode of oral delivery enables the narrator to impose his views on the…
Kee, Kenneth.
English Studies in Canada 1 (1975): 1-12.
The Franklin, not to be identified as Chaucer's spokesman regarding marriage, frequently intrudes into his story in order to present a favorable self image before his listeners. His intrusions also divert his audience from serious moral issues his…
Brinton, Laurel J.
English Studies in Canada 10 (1984): 251-64.
Identifies three concerns in Mel: being reasonable in worldly affairs, sovereignty and proper cousel as themes, and the role of the tale in the sentence / solaas dynamic in CT. Includes a survey of criticism.
Arthur, Ross G.
English Studies in Canada 13 (1987): 1-11.
Treats the relationship of the Reeve to the Miller. Comparison of RvT with Boccaccio's "Decameron" and other analogues, including the status and character of their narrators, reveals the Reeve's essential meanness: his identification with the…
Swan, Marjorie E.
English Studies in Canada 13 (1987): 136-46.
In telling his tale, the Clerk gradually abandons his allegorical refutation of the Wife's view of marriage by becoming more critical of Walter and more sympathetic to the human plight of Griselda, whom he comes to regard as an embodiment of natural…
Wurtele, Douglas J.
English Studies in Canada 13 (1987): 359-74.
Arveragus's choice between allowing himself to be cuckolded or making Dorigen break her promise to Aurelius is a false dichotomy: he could have found a "tertium quid" in leaving the choice to her and thereby acting as lover rather than husband, as…
Hieatt, Constance B.
English Studies in Canada 14 (1988): 400-18.
Dreams in medieval literature are conventionally used for foreshadowing, rarely with psychological implications. In TC, however, Chaucer combines the prophetic "somnium coeleste" with the psychological "somnium animale" such that neither can be…
Braswell, Laurel.
English Studies in Canada 2 (1976): 373-80.
Two narratives of the "Legenda aurea" are likely sources for the anti-mendicant satire in WBP and WBT. Imagery in the legends of Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Francis of Assisi parallels the Wife's anti-mendicant satire, and provides a close…
Burger, Glenn.
English Studies in Canada 20 (1994): 153-70.
Queer theory, by emphasizing provisionality, enables us to think of sexuality and culture differently; it provides a means for gay/lesbian/bi- readers to engage Chaucer. Contemporary constructions of sex, gender, and sexuality can be used as…
Jordan, Robert M.
English Studies in Canada 3 (1977): 373-85.
The organic model of unity does not fit discontinuous, dilated, expository, encyclopedic medieval works such as PF. A model more "multiple" deserves hegemony.
Findon, Joanne.
English Studies in Canada 32.4 (2006): 25-50.
Explores relations between medieval romance and medieval religious drama, focusing on the "woman cast adrift" motif in the Digby Mary Magdalene play. Assesses how contrasts between the protagonists' agency in the play and in versions of the Constance…
Gingell, Susan, and Tara Chambers.
English Studies in Canada 40.04 (2014): 79-106.
Analyzes "womanist dubbing" of male-authored texts, including WBP, that represents Afrasporic women's sexuality. Breeze's "sexually frank" poems, "The Wife of Bath Speaks in Brixton Market," and "Slam Poems," are set in the Caribbean, but share…
Crowther, J. D. W.
English Studies in Canada 8 (1982): 125-37.
In spite of many similarities to saints' legends, PhyT does not entirely conform to the genre. Instead of being a tale of faith affirmed, it is one of faith betrayed. Virginius's lack of faith leads him to slay Virginia rather than allow her faith…
Saito, Isamu.
English Studies in Doshisha University 67 (1996): 1-25.
Compares the old man and the three rioters in PardT, reading the old man as an Everyman figure with the problem of old age as he searches for permission from God to be penitent.
