Browse Items (16357 total)

Reads MerT as a composite of "various comic attitudes toward lust and marriage," not as the bitter vituperation of an angry narrator, arguing that the latter, conventional view results from seeking to impose "organic unity" on four "strikingly…

Reviews D. W. Robertson's "A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives" (1962), providing a brief survey of the "prevailing criticism" that challenges the exegetical, patristic, or historicist criticism that Robertson champions, and…

Commends Thomas Warton for his appreciation of Chaucer in his "History of English Poetry from the Twelfth to the Close of the Sixteenth Century" (1774-81), acknowledging that the critic largely ignored Old English, denigrated much Middle English…

Identifies a variety of tones in NPT, identifying interplay among the voice of the "rhetor," a "sermonizing" voice, and the outlook of a "sophisticated fabulist," exploring the "quality of their combination" by observing their relations with…

Surveys the dilemmas experienced by Criseyde, Troilus, Chaucer, and the reader in TC, relating them all to the conflicts between classical beauty and Christian truth.

Argues that the Yeoman attends the Knight rather than the Squire in GP, considering evidence of dress and character, and adducing William Caxton's "The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry."

Interprets Pandarus's reference to "corones tweyne" (TC 2.1735) as "a highly complex symbol of the two main pillars of mediaeval law and authority--the spiritual and temporal powers of the church and the state," forbidding Criseyde from killing…

Argues that members of the "School of Christian Interpreters" err when seeing the transcendent ending of TC as implicit throughout the poem, and evaluates the actions of Troilus and Criseyde in terms of courtly love and the operation of Fortune,…

Argues that in the GP Chaucer offers an "analysis of social rank in terms of economic behavior," consistently evident in the descriptions where a "pilgrim's characteristic behavior is defined in every case in terms of the acquisition and use of…

Interprets Form Age as a topical, even occasional, poem, rather than as a translation from Boethius, investigating its manuscript contexts, identifying echoes from Tibellius, Ovid, Jean de Meun, Eustace Deschamps, and Sted, and arguing that the poem…

Argues that the "static portraiture" in MilT establishes "character traits precisely" for the main characters so that the plot may "punish" these traits and convey "comic moral justice." Explores connections between Carpenter John and Oswald the…

Explores the juxtaposition of the accounts of Lucifer and Adam in the opening of MkT (7.1999-2014), surveying medieval theological and Old and Middle English literary traditions of Adam's time in hell or, alternatively, limbo, and arguing that…

Discusses medieval manuscripts that combine materials from Walter Map's "Valerius," the "golden book" of Theophrastus, and excerpts from Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum," focusing on the seven manuscripts that include the latter two, and showing how…

Offers evidence that the "Ovidius Moralizatus" of Peter Bersuire (Petrus Berchorius) was the source of iconographical details associated with Venus in Chaucer's descriptions of the goddess in HF 131-39 and KnT 1.1955-66.

Presents ClT as an "elaborate academic joke," concerned primarily with proper submission to "God's law," reading Griselda as "pathetic rather than virtuous," satirized by the Clerk for submitting herself and (as she thinks) her children to Walter,…

Identifies associations of the name "Huberd" (Hubert) with the Man in the Moon, the magpie, Cain, and theft, arguing that Chaucer's use of it for his Friar (GP 1.269) reveals the character's "inherently evil nature" and the "incongruity" of Chaucer's…

Explores Ret, the ending of TC, the claims of accurate reporting in GP 1.730-43, and Chaucer's comments on poetry and the rhetorical arts in HF, LGW, and PF, arguing that Chaucer's "seems to have conceived of the poet" as a "moral realist" who writes…

Suggests that "popular superstition" of "ill-luck" underlies the Host's reference to "fynde an hare" in Th-MelL 7.696, supported by his use of "elvyssh" at 7.703.

Explores proverbial implications of the variant readings of KnT 1.1810, "than woot a cokkow or [var. of] hare," and suggests "hare" might be a pun on "whore."

Suggests that the description of Blanche's throat as a round ivory tower may "carry on the idea" of the Duchess being referred to as a "fers," a chess piece, found elsewhere in the poem.

Describes Chaucer's knowledge of and uses of Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum" in CT, as well as his references to the treatise and glosses to his manuscripts that quote it, focusing on the tales of the Marriage Group. Includes an edition of ten…

Compares MerT, MilT, and ShT with works by Moliére, arguing that Chaucer's "dramatic impulse" is clear in light of "Comedy Proper," a dramatic form in which intellectual error leads to folly and just, comic punishment. Both writers succeed through…

Observes that as the patron saint of prisoners St. Leonard was associated iconographically with chains and fetters, and contends that this deepens the irony and ambiguity of the motto on the brooch of the Prioress in GP 1.162, where "vincit" carries…

Analyzes the placement of proper names in the verse lines of Chaucer's CT, tabulating and commenting upon the total number of incidences of names and the numbers of their initial and terminal placements in the verse lines of twelve of the tales. Then…

Evokes the social and cultural conditions of England during Chaucer's lifetime by describing historical events, political circumstances, court life, domestic conditions for all classes, child-rearing, education and literacy, the influence of…