Browse Items (16381 total)

The Reeve's words at A 3883-85 draw on Saint Fursey's otherworld journey and contribute to his impersonation of a preacher.

Challenges Haldeen Braddy's assertion that Cecilia Chaumpaigne was the stepdaughter of Alice Perrers, since, in fact, Chaumpaigne was not one of Alice's surnames. Elsewhere, Braddy's reading and citing of sources on this issue are suspect.

In alluding to the triple goddess Diana-Lucina-Prosperina to characterize Emily in KnT and May in MerT, Chaucer "simultaneously represents female assertiveness ... and vulnerability." However, he allows the potential to depict female pain to…

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.

Characterizes the Host as a "delightful traveling companion," summarizing details of his GP description and of his interactions with the other pilgrims in the links between the tales. He is "sometimes pompous, often impudent, and always forceful," a…

Discusses Chaucer as the first English poet laureate in a larger argument for the political impetus behind the selection of Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, Samuel Rogers, and Alfred Tennyson as laureate poets of the Victorian period.

Comments on five critical essays that pertain to RvT.

Eleven essays by various hands. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood under Alternative Title.

Clarifies how students' experiences with grief or loss can be useful in overcoming modern resistance to reading "Pearl," and suggests comparative study of the poem with other texts in Middle English, including BD. Offers discussion questions for…

Assesses the squire Jankyn in light of the tradition of the court fool whose role is to dispute wittily with his lord.

Explores secular rather than religious implications of madness in works by Chaucer (MilT and SumT; madness and social class), John Gower (VC, Book I), Thomas Hoccleve ("major works"), and Margery Kempe ("Book of Margery Kempe").

Rejects attempts to read PardT as an example of psychological realism and reads it instead as a "rapidly progressing discourse" that results from "special use of rhetorical devices for the impression of speed." The Tale conveys to its audience a…

Resists readings of the CYT that regard the narrator as stupid or unwitting in his self-revelation, contending instead that he is a "newly reformed alchemist" who is, generally, "rational, down-to-earth, and persuasive in his description and…

Explores the moral and intellectual "failings" of the priest in CYT, arguing that his greed, his gullibility, and his status as an "annueleer" make him a target of the Tale's satire by way of dramatic irony.

Explores rhetorical devices in KnT, and suggests that "analysis of its rhetoric" reveals that the poem is "organized" as a "demande d'amour," identifying how Chaucer adjusted the rhetoric of his source, Boccaccio's "Teseida."

Observes differences between January's reference to proverbially "sotile clerkis" (MerT 4.1427) and the Wife of Bath's reference to proverbially "parfyt" ones (WBT 3.44c; perhaps cancelled). The first is anti-clerical; the latter pro-clerical, and…

Resists impulses to denigrate the artistry of MLT and argues that the rhetorical passages--including several of the narrator's apostrophes--achieve "genuinely intense emotion" rather than mere sentimentality.

Argues that the satire in NPT is "better interpreted as general satire of Chaucer's age" than attributed to the character of the Nun's Priest. So-called "dramatic" readings of the tale falter because, for example, its "gentle satire of courtliness is…

"Grene" in many contexts in Middle English poetry including Chaucer implies fertility and sexual desire. Hence, the line "In hope that I som grene gete may" may mean "In hope that I may get some sex."

Examines Chaucer's use of dream visions and the "Somniale" tradition as contrasted with that of the Harley scribe. While Chaucer is suspicious, the Harley scribe uses the tradition as a source of knowledge. Includes an edition and translation of…

CT is the last formulation of one of Chaucer's strongest literary preoccupations: the dynamic interaction of experience and art. The links present reality as it is immediately perceived: chaotic but vital. The tales present reality as it is…

Argues that MerT should be read in light of MerP (for which there is strong manuscript evidence) and that the two are unified by a "cool, controlled, acidulous" tone and a "persistent interest in sexual activity . . . that frequently borders on the…

Late-medieval instructional poetry presents children as adults saw them and with adults' worries about them. In late-medieval narrative poetry, children are almost entirely absent, apart from a few exceptions such as the Pearl-maiden, the clergeon…

Examines fifteenth-century scribal responses to sexual language in the CT, noting that some manuscripts either replaced obscenities or added to sexual language. Observing that female narrators in the CT are restricted in their use of vernacular…

Comments on several medieval legal cases involving charges of rape, describes the role of rape in pastourelle tradition, and argues that, even though "no form of justice . . . can fully undo rape's harms," WBT "demonstrates the pressing need for…