The hermeneutic method in Nicholas of Lyra's "Postilla" gave new richness to the understanding of the biblical "sensus literalis," expanding it to include parabolic senses and typology, and fostered more interactive reading. Similar principles seem…
Wurtele, Douglas (J.)
Florilegium 11 (1992): 179-205.
The Wife's pain and anxiety in regard to clerical pronouncements on the sinfulness of carnal pleasure in marriage and on the superiority of virginity to the married state suggest that she is reacting chiefly to the dominant "rigorist" school of…
While the "Siege of Thebes" can be read in terms of Lydgate's anxiety about his relationship to KnT, its combination of narrative and moralizing is principally influenced by developments within the tradition of the "roman antique." Lydgate's work is…
Orsten, Elisabeth M.
Florilegium 11 (1992): 82-100.
The Prioress's combination of pious sentiment, moral blindness, and indifference to official church doctrine can be paralleled in a 1985 attempt, in an Austrian village, to defend and preserve an anti-Semitic legend about the murder of a…
Schoeck, R[ichard] J.
Florilegium 11(1992): 124-40.
In TC, ironic effects are achieved through a rich exploration of a variety of rhetorical devices that create a complicated interplay between speaker, subject, and audience.
Chaucer's frequent references to nagging wives and henpecked husbands have less to do with his personal views than with his awareness of audience; women as well as men could share the misogynistic joke because in Pauline theory the shrew was "some…
The interpolated story of Midas's wife evokes Ovidian concern with poetic judgment and suggests Chaucer's perspective on the differing attitudes of the hag and the knight toward love and marriage. Complex Ovidian echoes imply the failure of Midas's…
Recent debates over editing of "Canterbury Tales" reflect "best-text" (Hengwrt) versus "best-book" (Ellesmere) views, but both sides continue to make editorial assumptions about unity and closure.
Grace, Dominick M.
Florilegium 14 (1995-96): 157-70.
Interpretations of "tretys" in MelP have assumed a single referent for both occurrences of the term. But here and elsewhere Chaucer challenges assumptions of consistency between word and meaning. In making the first use of "tretys" refer to Mel and…
Medieval encyclopedism, although typically treated as a manifestation of "closed-systems" thinking, has many dimensions that suggest a wider, unresolved view of the universe. Chaucer's works, with other encyclopedic texts, offer examples of open…
Although both were Londoners, Chaucer and Langland did not share a common readership. Chaucer was acknowledged as a founder of a literary tradition; Langland was appropriated less often and more in ideological than aesthetic terms. Ownership of…
Criseyde's statement that she lacks Prudence's third eye should be understood in the context of Augustine's theories of time and intentionality and the philosophical realism on which they draw. Her observation points up her failure to see…
Chaucer's reference to "ferses twelve" in BD remains a tantalizing problem. He may have been thinking of a non-standard version of chess, such as the Courier game, which includes twelve pawns; or the narrator may be thinking of draughts. In any case,…
Teaching in the humanities should entail continual reconstituting of relevance. Detailed analysis of the portraits of Briseis/Criseyde in the "Roman de Troie," TC, and the "Testament of Cresseid"--even apart from the long works in which they…
Linguistic and philosophical notions underlying the idea of "cosyn to the dede" fascinate Chaucer and Jean de Meun, who follow Plato and Augustine in accepting that signs reveal ultimate meaning and that myths relate to eternal ideals.
Patristic and scholastic writers condemn flattery as misuse of speech and an activity conducive to fraud. Chaucer's stricture on flattery initially appears comic, yet it is more direct and explicit than Langland's harsh condemnation, which Chaucer…
Despairing in his sin, the Monk ignores the providential aspect of the story of Job, and so his tragedies emphasize only death. He particularly ignores the conventionally exegetical readings of Adam and Sampson as examples of Providence.
Chaucer's interest in future contingencies (a problem raised by Aristotle) in part shapes the narratives in TC and NPT. The musings of Troilus and Criseyde about the future rely on Boethian principles (among others). Chauntecleer's theory--that…
Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Florilegium 22 (2005): 105-20.
Cipolla's tale concludes a set of stories focusing on wit, and PardT ends a fragment that precedes one centered on poetic language. The tales of both speakers coincide in "genre, character, theme, and placement," even though Cipolla improvises his…
Clarifies medieval understanding of the romance genre by exploring medieval catalogs of romances and applying George Lakoff's theory of "radial" categories. Includes comments on several of Chaucer's works and on several medieval lists that do not…
Assesses three of Sheila Delany's critical essays (including "Geographies of Desire: Orientalism in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women'") for the ways that they have "dramatically shifted the direction of critical discourse in emergent subfields of…
In later medieval thought, spinning women represent two often contradictory ideas: rebellion against hierarchical order and, paradoxically, Marian obedience. Citing scripture, Chaucer's Wife fuses both viewpoints in WBP. When Lancastrian mores…
McGillivray, Murray.
Florilegium 27 (2011 for 2010): 159-76.
Proposes that a "computer facilitated re-spelling of a reconstructed archetype" ought to be the basis for future editions of LGW, Anel, HF, PF, and BD because the textual situations of these poems are "precarious." The reconstruction would use the…
Gerber, Amanda J.
Florilegium 29 (2013 for 2012): 171-200.
Argues that the condensing and synthesizing of sources in MkT mirrors the way in which clerical commentary changed in the fourteenth century to accommodate new readers uneducated in monastic tradition.
