Browse Items (16360 total)

The Augustans were the last English poets to possess enough confidence in their own idiom to attempt to make Chaucer their contemporary. Dryden's modernization of Chaucer was intended to achieve verisimilitude for his 17th-century audience. It…

None of the structural orders that critics have strained to produce are totally satisfactory for a poem in such an obviously fragmentary state as CT by an author whose plans and intentions are as enigmatic as Chaucer's.

Using evidence of paleography, orthography, watermarks, and indications of provenance, dates booklet 1 of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson C.86, as the second quarter of the fifteenth century; dates booklets 2-4 as early sixteenth century.

Surveys Middle English references to Spanish people, places, and things, concluding that, among Middle English authors, Chaucer "reflects the greatest and the most diverse knowledge" of Spain. He was familiar with Spanish geography, "hispano-Arabic…

Chaucer's strategy in LGW and Christine de Pisan's in "Livre de la Cite des Dames" differ from Boccaccio's in "De claris mulieribus." Chaucer's parody of hagiography and Christine's efforts to encourage us to read as women promote a revisionist…

Considers critical assessments of Chaucer's attitudes toward Arthurian literature in WBT and argues that Chaucer may have known only nontraditional Arthurian materials such as "Libeaus Desconus" and "Sir Perceval of Galles." This notion is…

A report on the history and the goals of the "Canterbury Tales" Project.

Argues that LGW was inspired by Jean Le Fevre's "Lamentations de Matheolus" (1371-72?) and "Livre de Leesce" (1373 or 1380-87).

Contrasts the life of Chaucer with that of D. H. Lawrence, focusing on their corresponding views about books, authors, and authorship.

Suggests that Henry Bradshaw looked at CT as an early book in terms of quire structure, which he tried to reconstruct, rather than a topologically real pilgrimage.

Traces the history of the motif of infernal punishment in the devil's anus, suggesting that the earliest evidence of the motif is found in the "Seven Heavens Apocryphon" of Irish visionary tradition and that Chaucer's use of the motif in SumP derives…

British Library MS Additional 37049 contains a variant of the third stanza of Sted. The most striking feature is the translation from rhyme royal into couplets. The stanza suggests memorial transmission.

Manuscript compilations, especially the Auchinleck MS, are structural analogues to CT. Manuscripts segmented into booklets parallel the fragments in CT in four ways: segments vary considerably in size and shape; common subjects and themes link…

Crawford discusses the unfinished CkT in relation to the Tale of Gamelyn; their thematic associations; connections to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381; who added the Tale of Gamelyn to CT; and why it was inserted right after CkT.

Surveys Chaucer's various metaphoric uses of animals, from "simple and conventional ideas about animals to throw light on man" to more elaborated or developed characterizations through more detailed comparisons.

Assesses Edmund Spenser's quotation of FranT, 764-66, in Britomart's speech in T"he Faerie Queene," Book III, arguing that the Chaucerian material and its original context carry suggestions of the "need for tolerance in social relations" and "[set] a…

Describes aspects of late medieval celebrations--focusing on feasting--to provide context for celebratory scenes in Middle English literature: "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" compared with "Cleanness"; Chaucer's KnT, WBT, SqT, the GP description of…

Argues that Kynaston's Latin translation of Books I and II of TC, published in 1635, exemplifies "heterochrony"--a "temporal counter-site located in the present and indicative of alternative modernities." Addresses the "perceived outdatedness of…

Argues that TC is a psychological "novel" insofar as it explores how the lovers' uses of courtly language and conventions disguise their "urgent sensuality" ("drängende Sinnlichkeit"), even from themselves. Compares and contrasts Chaucer's and…

Traces the scribal and editorial history of capitalizing (or not) "S/summoner" in FrT 3.1327, advocating the lower case "s" for the way it maintains the ambiguity of reference to the protagonist of FrT and the Friar's pilgrim-opponent.

Describes the concern with treason in TC, identifying references to the "Troy story as a series of betrayals" and allusions to the "Troy legend" where betrayal occurs, connecting them with questions of trust and treason in a pagan world lacking faith…

Identifies the allegorical traditions that underlie the mysteriousness of alchemy in Arabic and Latin writings, focusing on the sources, nomenclature, and descriptions mentioned at the end of CYT (8.1428-65) especially the comments on mercury,…

Studies details, allusions, and shifts in speech patterns in WBP, especially those connected with the Wife's false dream of blood and the "tantalizing ambiguous" circumstances of the death of Wife's fourth husband, arguing that they indicate a…

Endings may have been lost for HF and other works. The thesis that works were abandoned by Chaucer leads to untenable theories that Chaucer lost his patronage or became bored or dissatisfied.

The comparison of Alison to a swallow in MilT 3257-58 may refer to the story of Procne. The tale (from Ovid) is mentioned both in Gower's "Confessio Amantis" and in Chaucer's TC; it suggests the very sort of material woe found in MiltT.