Browse Items (16381 total)

Suggests that "colour" in the description of Chauntecleer (NPT 7.2864) means "coler" or "neck" rather than "color."

Reads "out of towne" in the GP description of the Miller's bag-piping as a play on "out of tune."

Suggests that Chaucer's reference to "Thorus" as a sea-god derives from a misunderstanding of Statius's "theori" in the "Achilleid" and its medieval gloss.

Suggests that when she refers to her "dame" at lines 3.576 and 583 the Wife of Bath is recalling her gossip, dame Alys, identified at 530, 544, and 548.

Argues that the "allegory of the Four Daughters of God" (also known as "The Reconciliation of the Heavenly Virtues" and "The Parliament of Heaven") influenced several details of ABC.

Contends that the WB's reference to grinding at a mill (WBP 3.389) capitalizes on traditional sexual associations of mills with women, anticipated at her reference to "barly-breed" (WBP 3.144).

Suggests that the name "John" links RvT with MilT, claiming that the Reeve "repays the Miller with a tale in which he himself plays a leading part--that of carpenter John.

Contends that the six things that women desire listed by the wife in ShT (7.173-77) align the wife with the fairy-tale victim of marriage to an ogre, ironically helping to characterize her, her husband, and their marriage.

Offers Dante' s use of whips in "Purgatorio" as an analogue to the Wife of Bath's image of "whippe" in WBP 3.175.

Explicates the phrase "withouten coppe" (FranT 5.492) as meaning "outside of the cup," conveying that Aurelius drank his penance to the fullest extent.

Suggests that the phrase "right of hooly chirche" in MerT 4.1662 refers to a funeral rights, rather than a marriage blessing.

Suggests that Pandarus's phrase "ye haselwodes shaken" (TC 3.890) might be paraphrased as "you offer food to pigs."

Describes the sexual nuances of the diction in WBP 3.44a-f .

Comments on the portentousness of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and on the moon as the cause of the rainstorm in TC 3.624-28, when Criseyde decides to stay at Pandarus's home.

Suggests that Mars's rusty sword in Henryson's "Testament" recalls Chaucer's Reeve (GP 1.618).

Considers Troilus' allusion to Oedipus at 4.300, and rejects the suggestion that it reflects psychological understanding; Troilus refers to Oedipus as an exemplar of someone victimized by Fortune.

Observes sexual associations of the names "Thopas" and "Olifaunt" and in this light glosses "drasty" (7.923 and 930) as "filthy."

Comments on the punning and aural effects of Chaucer's use of "quoniam" in WBP 3.608 and cites similar verbal play in RvT 1.3973-76.

Exemplifies Chaucer's "control of proportion" of details in GP, observing a "middle-class tendency to conformity" in the generalized description of the Guildsmen.

Comments on the comic and aural effects of the allusions to Hasdrubales's wife and to Nero in NPT (7.3362-73), focusing on Pertelote and the other female chickens.

Treats the allusion to Jason and Medea in BD 330 as a "subliminal" anticipation of lines 722-27.

The labors of Hercules, employed by Boethius to show how man may determine his own fortune, are misused by the Monk, who sees the "Consolation" only as a source for secular tales.

Explains that Chauntecleer is motivated by lust when he flies down from the beam after his dream of danger.

The term "rebec" or "ribib(l)e", used by the Summoner to insult the old woman, meant fiddle, and then a woman with a shrill voice.

Through his poetic wit Chaucer makes Criseyde resemble a religious, even Christ. These suggestions add to the irony of the love.