Reevaluation and continuation of the studies by John Burrow and by Richard Firth Green on the meaning of the word "elvish" in CT. "Elvish" in CYT carries the meaning "delusory," whereas elvish in the prologue to Th means "abstracted."
Chaucer uses "ingenu" irony (Muecke's term) in TC. Pandarus, the most prodigious user of proverbs, demonstrates the illusiveness and unreliability of proverbs. For all his proverbial wisdom, Pandarus, like the narrator, is inept in love. Proverbs…
An anthology of poetry for beginners, with an introduction to understanding and explicating poetry, selections from "Ten Great Poets," and an additional "One Hundred Poems" which includes the GP description of the Wife of Bath
Hall, Kathryn A.
South Atlantic Review 72.4 (2007): 59-71.
Encourages pairing Margery Kempe and WBT in British literature surveys, noting that Kempe was "a good deal more vulnerable than the fictitious Wife of Bath."
Hall, Louis Brewer.
Mediaeval Studies 25 (1963): 148-59.
Describes five medieval redactions of Virgil's "Aeneid," "widely separated geographically and chronologically," assessing how they "medievalized" the material in conventional ways, and using these "conventions" to discuss Chaucer's successful…
Hallam, Elizabeth, and Andrew Prescott, eds.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Photographic reproductions of records from British cultural history, arranged chronologically from the departure of the Romans to late-modern multi-culturalism. Reproduces in color (p. 31) three images that pertain to Chaucer: a page from the…
Halle, Morris, and Samuel Jay Keyser.
College English 28 (1966): 187-219.
Explores the assumptions about stress that underlie prosodic scansion, and demonstrates that Chaucer's decasyllabic verse is built upon a contrastive rather than an absolute distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables. Considers elision,…
Haller, Robert S.
Chaucer Review 1.2 (1966): 67-84.
Explores the epic elements of KnT and its sources, arguing that in placing love at the thematic center of his poem (replacing traditional political concerns), Chaucer was "attempting to make something entirely new" out of his material. By emphasizing…
Haller, Robert S.
Modern Philology 62 (1965): 285-95.
Argues that SqT is a "rhetorical satire" of the Squire; attributes the excesses of the Tale to the teller's youthful "defective knowledge" of rhetorical arts and argues that it is Chaucer's means of critiquing the "pseudo-genre of romance" and…
Haller, Robert S.
Annuale Mediaevale 6 (1965): 47-64.
Explores how female sovereignty in WBPT results in "the subservience of the class function to the bourgeois ethic which the Wife represents," indicating parallels in FranT and Genesis. Alison controls the merchant class in her first three marriages;…
Haller, Robert S.
Ph.D. Dissertation. Princeton University, 1960.
Explores a variety of sources, analogues, and backgrounds to WBPT and to the characterization of the Wife of Bath: the Bible (including St. Paul), St. Jerome, Philippe de Meziere's "Presentation Play," the tradition of the Ovidian "vetula" and La…
Halliburton, Thomas Laughlin.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3027A.
In attempting to make of literary criticism a science, the profession falls into illogic and absurdity. Readings of KnT and MerT differ wildly. From Kittredge to 1980s, critics have been self-deluded.
A biography of Chaucer, illustrated with numerous b&w photographs of objects from late-medieval life. Includes discussion of Chaucer's major poetry, linking his works with events and attitudes of his age, and exploring how Chaucer responded to such…
Halliday, Stephen.
Cheltenham: History Press, 2020.
Arranged in districts; includes brief references to Chaucer and his works, e.g., Cheapside (CkT), south of the Thames (CT), Aldgate (Chaucer's residence), etc.
Twenty-three essyas by various authors delivered at the "Northeast Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature" 10-12 October 1996, topics ranging from medieval to modern. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer search for…
Hallissy, Margaret M.
Essays in Literature (Macomb, Illinois) 9 (1982): 127-31.
The reference to the ape in ParsT is usually understood as an allusion to the sin of pride, the ape being an apt embodiment of the pomposities of fashion. This image is, however, also congruent with the extensive imagery of poison in the tale, since…
Hallissy, Margaret.
Studies in Short Fiction 26 (1989): 295-304.
During the Middle Ages, widowhood usually brought legal, social, and economic benefits. Although the Wife of Bath makes calculated use of these advantages, May in MerT foolishly jeopardizes her inheritance. Fertility lore indicates that she is…
Hallissy, Margaret.
Massachusetts Studies in English 9 (1983): 54-63.
In PardT details from poison lore add to the sophistication with which Chaucer develops the central paradox of the tale: the Pardoner as a channel of grace despite his evil character.
Hallissy, Margaret.
Essays in Arts and Sciences 10 (1981): 31-39.
Chaucer draws on the medical and literary traditions about poison current in his day. In KnT, Arcite's love for Emelye is pictured as a deadly infection.
Hallissy, Margaret.
Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood, 1993.
Using a tripartite structure of woman's role in society drawn from medieval codes of conduct, Hallissy explores Chaucer's depictions of women in light of accepted modes of behavior. Each section establishes medieval expectations for female behavior…
Intended as a "do-it-yourself course" for first-time readers of CT, the Companion is organized in a series of separate chapters devoted to GP and to most tales, although the Links, CkT and SqT, Thop, Mel, MkT, and ParsT are consigned to appendices.
A close reading of passages in KnT reveals Chaucer's close familiarity with the medieval construction industry. Although Chaucer supervised building rather than creating buildings, as a poet, he is supreme master over his own creative process.
Explores Chaucer's play "with the very concepts of finished and unfinished" in CT, surveying the ends of several tales and Ret. Suggests that Chaucer's sense of an ending distinguishes him from modern sensibility.
Includes biographies of thirteen artists and three writers, designed for juvenile audience. The Chaucer material (pp. 84-87) includes basic information and a magnified color detail of William Bell Scott's portrait of Chaucer in from "A Four Leaf…
