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The botanical-physical sense of May's appraisal of January's sexual "playing" as "nat...worth a bene" (E 1854) indicates that January has not impregnated May. May's expectancy of impregnation by Damian is frustrated when January interrupts…

That the passage describing the Prioress's habit of wiping her mouth clean (GP, 133-36) has been misunderstood is shown in the translations by all modern translators, except Coghill, of "hir" in the phrase "hir coppe: (133) as "her" when it should be…

The proverb "to be as glad of something as 'fowel of day'," or variant, is used in KnT, CYT, TC, and ShT. The character associated with the fowl is deceived by appearances or by another character. In ShT Don John represents the fowler interpreted…

As Meyer Schapiro has noted, the mousetrap, associated with the Prioress in GP 145, is used by Augustine as a symbol of the cross that entraps the devil with the bait of Christ's flesh. The same allegory is found in Peter Lombard's "Sentences."

Following the contention that the name "Pertelote" means "one who confuses someone's lot or fate" (R. A. Pratt, "Three Old French Sources of NPT," Speculum 47 (1972): 655), the author suggests that Pertelote tries to effect a change in Chauntecleer's…

Suggests that GP 198-200 alludes to Matthew 6.16-18 and helps to characterize the Monk as "contemptuous of fasting."

NPT's "my lord" (VII, 3445), generally taken as referring to a bishop or archbishop (by J. H. Fisher to Jesus or God) may refer to St. Paul, thus resembling the conclusion of a homily for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul in the 15th-century…

To describe the arming of Sir Thopas, Chaucer employs a repetitive style that parodies that of arming scenes in Middle English romances.

Calchas's speech at the beginning of book 4 extends and enlarges the perspective of the narrative grown increasingly narrow during the course of books 1-3. Whereas in TC 1-3 the lovers are portrayed as increasingly confined--both spatially and…

Criseyde's garden and Pandarus's home are integrated symbolically with the theme of mutability in TC. Both sites display Pandarus's dream of circumventing mutability and figure his attempts as a go-between to shape an unchanging earthly union in the…

The yeoman's discourse on alchemy is carefully crafted by Chaucer: each "occupatio" is followed by a catalogue ("descripcio") and "poynt" ("sententia"). The technique enables Chaucer to establish the rambling character of the yeoman.

"Toune" in line 17 of the poem means "predicament," not a literal place, just as it stands for an abstract condition in the Harley lyric, "Lenten is come with love to toune."

Four puns not previously uncovered in the poem are "astoned" (5.1728), "inne...oute" (5.1519), "in armes" (2.165), and "ese" (2.1659). The last three have sexual suggestiveness.

The Parson's attribution of a statement on the Crucifixion to Saint Augustine has never been identified; it may be a "Freudian slip," or it may originate in Augustine's detailed discussion of prelapsarian v. postlapsarian sexuality ("The City of God"…

The word "hazelwode" in Pandarus's proverbs ridiculing the lovers' fatuous hopes indicates Chaucer's familiarity with the miraculous powers attributed to hazel in Celtic divination and healing rites.

In SNP the identification of "ydelnesse" as a diabolical agent anticipates the dramatic rejection of pagan images later in the tale.

The Summoner's "bokeleer" of cake is a hypocritical parody of the eucharistic Host ritual. A magic object, consecrated bread was used in "bread cures"--the Summoner hopes to use his "Host-bread shield" to cure his "sawcefleem."

In GP 6 "inspired" evokes the Vulgate Gen. 2:7, suggesting Lenten spiritual renewal and the natural regenerative effect of the west wind in springtime.

Criseyde's sexually charged endearments for Troilus in bk. 3 of TC provided amusement for Chaucer's contemporary audience, adding new dimensions to Criseyde's character.

Those who insist on reading historical allusions into For's concluding stanza miss C̀haucer's subtle plea that charity, and not Fortune's favor, be the motivating force in human affairs.

In the first line of HF, "say," the reading of the better texts, is preferable to that generally adopted, "singen."

Consideration of contemporary education and conditions shows the Physician a capable and ethical "practisour" who "follows the established medical practices and standards of his time."

The Cook's association of delight with being "clawed...on the bak" probably alludes to medieval practices of hospitality.

The Summoner addresses the devil in formal pronouns (you) until he learns the fiend's true identity; then, he speaks to him informally (thou). The devil, however, is consistently formal in his own usage.

The red hose of the Wife of Bath may be her method of preventing venereal disease. According to the "doctrine of signatures," a fancied resemblance of a color to a disease could aid in remedy of prevention. Red was thought to be obnoxious to evil…