Silvia, Daniel, Donald R. Howard, Beryl Rowland, E. Talbot Donaldson, and Florence Ridley.
Florilegium 3 (1982): 239-67.
Chaucer repeatedly depicts himself as a poet of love frustrated. Several critics look at the thwarted erotic elements in PF, TC, and CT, focusing on PardT, WBT, ShT, MilT, MerT, MkT, and PrT and the tellers of tehse tales.
Reads Chaucer's BD in the context of the material and ritual aspects of Blanche's death, using Freud's concept of the work of mourning to address the public, political, social, and economic work of John of Gaunt's mourning. A revised version of an…
Discusses the history of silent reading and commercial manuscript production for private reading, starting with Chaucer's BD and including considerations of the Auchinleck manuscript and British Library, MS Harley 978, to suggest that meditative…
Jennings, Margaret (C.S.J.)
Florilegium 43 (1994): 121-40
Thematic sermon structure, as delineated in English "artes praedicandi," influenced romances as well as other genres. This influence can be seen in "Sir Amadace," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," KnT (Theseus's speech on order), WBT (the…
Absolon's twenty manners of dance after the school at Oxford may be traceable to the Morris dance troupes in the Oxford area, whose repertoire numbered approximately twenty dances. Absolon is ironically linked to dances which cast him in the role of…
The "Verginia Story" evolved from Livy to Chaucer in various literary forms, most often the exemplum. Chaucer adapted the story into a novella, developing a new narrative form.
The historical development of an Old Testament law can be applied to "Sir Gawain" and WBT. WBT, which begins with a "lawless, violent rape and ends with the free gift of fairness and fidelity, progresses by the efficiency of a statute (cf. OT 'eye…
Obscenity exists in LGW to extend the "aesthetic credo" of LGWP, where Chaucer establishes himself "as a poet faithful to the contradictions inherent in nature." Delany argues that obscenity produces a more "natural" view of women than that provided…
Explores historicity and fictionality in medieval narratives of early. mythic Thebes. Includes brief commentary on the sources of Chaucer's knowledge of Oedipus and his conflation of Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes in KnT 1.1470ff.
Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman.
Florilegium 8 (1986): 169-86.
The form of KnT not only is characterized by "layers of order and disorder" but also is "circular, interlocking, and repeating." Structurally, the tale can be divided into five parts: a prologue (lines 1-1032), the conflict between Palamon and…
Cook, Mary Joan,RSM.
Florilegium 8 (1986): 187-98.
"By developing an inner and outer Criseyde, by occasionally indicating a disparity between the two, by raising questions about her behaviour and usually acknowledging that he, the narrator, does not have the answers, (Chaucer) convinces the reader…
Rowland, Beryl.
Florilegium 9 (1990, for 1987): 125-45.
ParsT is a collage, drawing mainly on penitential materials, variously rendered in paraphrase, word-for-word translation,free idiomatic redaction, and adaptations that appear to derive from more than one source. Ssome sections are sermonlike,…
Boyd, Beverly.
Florilegium 9 (1990, for 1987): 147-54.
Almost all Chaucer's poetry specifically addressed to Mary includes translation, adaptation, or quotations from disparate sources brought together via "collage" technique. This layered effect has precedent in church liturgy and macaronic lyric.
Comments on food-producing labor as a motif in GP (and elsewhere in CT), in contrast with idleness, wealth-seeking, or nonproductive labor, especially among clerics. Associates these concerns with English history and ideological struggle.
Compares FranT with the tenth tale (Madassena and Her Rash Promise) of the "Vetalapachisi," identifying common motifs (rash promise, promise to return, and noble theft) and differences in frame, characterization, and setting. Observes relations with…
PardT has been classified as anti-marchen because its unhappy ending violates the marchen's typical "weightlessness," but given the negative nature of the hero, PardT does follow the normal marchen pattern. "Anti-marchen" should be redefined.
Rosenberg, Bruce A.
Folklore Forum 13 (1980): 224-37.
The paucity of readers in the fourteenth century and explicit statements throughout Chaucer's works indicate that his poetry was recited aloud to a live audience, at least part of the time. Oral readings are most usefully appreciated by criteria one…
Gentieu, Norman P., trans.
Foote Prints 31.2 (1960): 12-25.
Translates a portion of Astr (through Part 2.7) into Modern English with accompanying illustrations "re-drawn" from the manuscripts. The Introduction summarizes the nature, variety, and uses of astrolabes, describes Chaucer's text, and commends it as…
Ding, Jian-Ning.
Foreign Literature Studies [WenGuo Xue Yan Jiu] 29 (2007): 111-17.
Argues that Griselda's "restraint" is a subversive strategy and explores the implications of this subversion for understanding the Clerk as narrator and Chaucer as poet.
Colquitt, Betsy Feagan, ed.
Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1971.
Includes three essays that pertain to Chaucer, one previously printed. For the two new essays, search for Studies in Medieval Renaissance American Literature under Alternative Title.
Purdie demonstrates that the layout of Th in several key early manuscripts derives from the traditional layout of Middle English tail-rhyme poetry. Chaucer intended to contribute to the Tale's humor with this arrangement, which reflects his…
