Browse Items (16381 total)

Explores how recent scholarship of late medieval monastic practices informs a deeper understanding of the characterization of Chaucer's Monk. Contends that the Monk can be viewed as a "target of Chaucer's satire."

The semantic field of "heat" includes emotional connotations in Old English, but Chaucer evokes new oxymoronic nuances when he uses it in Troilus's song, TC 1.400-420.

Limited edition art-book version of MilT that uses the Nevill Coghill trans.

Graphic version of PardT, newly adapted and illustrated in ink and watercolor, with a calligraphic, abbreviated text in modern verse.

Item not seen. The WorldCat record indicates that this "continually updated," interactive historical novel involves Chaucer and Philippa de Roet on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, with the reader joining the pilgrimage and helping to shape the plot.

Considers representations of the power of Medea's magic and Helen's sexuality in works by male writers in medieval and early modern literature, clarifying their classical and early-medieval antecedents and assessing their powers in light of…

Considers the medieval medical views on "amor hereos" and Chaucer's descriptions of it, first in KnT and BD, then in TC. In TC 1, Chaucer shows Troilus as suffering from the lover's disease, to which the consummation of his love in bk. 3 is, from a…

Argues that "by studying Chaucer's handling of the story told by Boccaccio we may form a very good idea of the direction in which he modified the received French fabliau (if there was one)." In Boccaccio's tale, there is no individuation of the…

SqT is Chaucer's one foray into the genre of "interlace" romance, where characters and episodes are treated, then dropped, and subsequently treated again. SqT is not a parody like Th; it is a different genre that Chaucer wanted to try. He did not…

A series of studies focusing on depictions of the Orient and people from the Orient in medieval romances: MLT, Dido and Cleopatra from LGW, SqT, "Floris and Blauncheflur," and "Le Bone Florence." The introduction concentrates on how contact with the…

Heffernan considers the clergeon's devotion to Mary's image in relation to historical medieval religious images and the "affective piety" they were produced to evoke among the unlearned.

Heffernan discusses the nature, origins, and development of Italian "novelle"; Boccaccio's innovations with the form; and the likelihood that Chaucer had direct knowledge of The Decameron. Argues that the influence of Italian novelle generally, and…

The ludic responses depicted in these two lines bear out Barry Windeatt's assertion that Chaucer's "displacement of tragedy by comedy" at the end of TC took its inspiration from Dante's "Commedia."

Reconsiders questions of the number of Canterbury pilgrims, focusing on GP, 1.164 and the ecclesiastical pilgrims. Suggests that the Nun's Priest and the Clerk may be identical or, at least, kindred spirits, and considers what NPT and ClT may reveal…

Suggests the "possible influence" of Horace's Ode 1.9 on Alisoun's laugh in the dark in MilT, observing similarities in erotic setting, imagery, and opposition between youth and age.

Suggests that SqT may have influenced the narrative techniques of Philip Sidney's Arcadia, specifically its "interlocking structure."

Functioning in the tradition of "melancholia canina" treatises, Chaucer's dog in BD acts as a catalyst for the melancholy dreamer and enables him to relieve his sorrow.

Walter and Griselda embody qualities to be found in medieval discussions of tyrants and "commune profit," but they go beyond abstract ideas as characters in their own right.

Opposes the "garden of conjugal love" which appears at the beginning of the FranT to the "garden of courtly love," where Aurelius tempts Dorigen.

John Speir's claim that both poets use similes to promote "distinct visualization" in the service of allegory and realism is borne out by "The Divine Comedy" but not CT. Dante's similes produce visual accent, serving as ancillary devices within a…

The cask figure combines religious and sexual symbols in the reference to wine and baptism and to the phallic spout. These connect to the tale with the fear of impotence and the careless oaths, suggesting that the Reeve misses the hidden religious…

The function of wells and streams in Chaucer's use of the garden "topos" suggests that, where the secular materials are drawn from the courtly love tradition, as in PF and very largely in MerT, religious echoes expose the illusiveness or inadequacy…

Medieval contraceptive information includes mention of pears in discussion of techniques for preventing conception, so May's desire for a pear in MerT may indicate that she wants to deny January's foolish desire for offspring.

Summarizes medieval and Renaissance attitudes toward melancholy as a medical disorder and examines literary uses of melancholy in BD, TC, and Shakespeare's "As You Like It" and "Hamlet."

Argues that Chaucer had direct knowledge of Vendôme's text and suggests a possible manuscript source of it: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Pluteus 33.31.