Browse Items (16476 total)

Explores medieval English marital laws and practices that underlie details of the WBP and her description in GP, particularly her marriages at "chirche dore," her dowers, and the transaction that gave Jankyn control of her lands--before she took it…

Suggests that Branch I b of "Le Roman de Renart" provides "a partial parallel or inspiratory background" to the exchange in FrT between the summoner and the devil in disguise.

Observes that the "ferses twelve" of BD 723, though impossible on a common chess board, was possible on some medieval boards (especially in Germany) of twelve squares by eight squares, with their twelve pawns. Then argues that the phrase has…

Remarks on "several points of resemblance" between Nicholas in MilT and the Clerk in GP, suggesting that they may be attributable to the Miller's negative view of the Clerk.

Suggests that the Miller's tuft of hairs in GP 1.555 may associate him with a folklore tradition about honesty and might be read "he was honest, as millers go."

Assesses parallels between the "greyn" of PrT 7.662 and the three grains of legend that Seth laid upon the tongue of Adam when the latter was buried; suggests that the ambiguities of Chaucer's presentation indicate his artistic purpose.

Suggests that the version of the Constance story in the Middle English romance "Emare" may help to account for why in MLP the Man of Law says that he learned the story from a merchant.

Discusses the uses of "familiar 'thou' and polite 'ye'" by the major characters in TC, demonstrating that, in general, Chaucer "observed the mode of his day in the use of the pronoun of address," and offering hypotheses about instances where the…

Score in six parts for orchestra and voices: Prélude I, Captivity, Prélude II, Escape, Prélude III, and Rejection. The text of the three parts between the preludes is MercB in Middle English with an interlinear French translation.

Surveys prior criticism of ManT and observes recurrent irony in the tale, particularly in Chaucer's assigning unnecessary expansions and repetitions to the verbose narrator.

A reading in Middle English of GP, ParsP, and Ret., accompanied by introductory liner introduction and a 12-booklet that includes the text of the poetry from F. N. Robinson's 1957 edition, withour notes or glosses.

Explores the sources and meanings of Chaucer's "analogies" between animals and humans, focusing on hares, dogs, horses, wolves, and sheep, arguing that, generally, Chaucer uses them to indicate the need for humans to control their "natural passions."

Supplements "Verses of Cadence" (1954) to reinforce arguments that Chaucer's prosody was rhythmic, not metrical, and that final -e should not be pronounced in reading Chaucer. Considers the influence on Chaucer's rhythms--in prose as well as…

Commentary on social, political, ecclesiastical, and religious aspects of CT, with attention to particular pilgrims. Limited availability at http://hdl.handle.net/10069/9502; http://hdl.handle.net/10069/9506; http://hdl/handle.net/10069/9570;…

Comments on several thematic concerns as they occur in Chaucer's works as well as in Arthurian tradition (pity, renunciation of the world, etc.) and summarizes scholarship pertaining to the Auchinleck MS as a source for Th; also discusses WBT as a…

Argues that Chaucer modified, extended, and developed the "conventions" of medieval rhetoric (including the "doctrine of three styles"), exploring his uses in light of the "Poetria Nova" of Geoffrey of Vinsauf and the pseudo-Ciceronian "Rhetorica ad…

Item not seen; the WorldCat records indicate that this is a reading by Piehler of HF in Middle English, with Kerrigan Prescott in Books 1 and 2 (1963); Piehler reads Book 3 alone (1980).

Examines how Chaucer's early poems (i.e., those written before 1380) engage the conventional forms, techniques, and themes of French and Italian models, enriching them via "humour and realism" and applying them to "new uses." His innovative…

Describes principles of aesthetic appreciation evident in Elizabethan architecture, painting, sculpture, music, and literature, including a section entitled "The Elizabethan Appreciation of Chaucer" (pp. 223-30) which emphasizes admiration of Chaucer…

Observes a variety of astrological and sexual puns, allusions, and emphases in Troilus's address to Criseyde's house ("paraclausithyron"), distancing the reader from Troilus's grief and emphasizing sensual love.

A teaching edition that includes BD, HF, PF, TC, LGWP-F and the legend of Cleopatra, CT (without Mel or ParsT), and eight short lyrics (Ros, Adam, Gent, Truth, Sted, Scog, Buk, and Purse), with bottom-of-page notes and glosses, and a glossarial…

Reviews studies of Criseyde's character by G. L. Kittredge, George Mizener, and C. S. Lewis, and argues that she is "the finger pointing in accusation against the code of courtly love." She shows us that "we mortals are fools to think that by our…

Argues that in his "mature work" and in "the service of greater realism," Chaucer used rhetoric "dramatically rather than ornamentally." Then gauges the degree of appropriateness of tales to tellers in light of the percentage of rhetoric in a given…

Examines the statement about alliterative verse in ParsP 10.42-46, arguing that the "rum, ram, ruf" sequence has its source in French and helps to constitute a "meaningful . . . and technically adroit comment on alliterative poetry."

Comments on the ambiguity of the phrase "a finch eek koude he pulle," a detail in the GP description of the Summoner (CT 1.652).