Sudo, Jun.
Nobuyuki Yuasa et al., eds. Essays on English Language and Literature in Honour of Michio Kawai (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1993), pp. 19-27.
Surveys stylistic characteristics of KnT including abbreviation, parallel expression, repetition of synonyms, alliteratation, catalogs, similes, and archaisms.
Box, Terry.
College Language Association Journal 37 (1993): 42-54.
Chaucer's MilT and Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' are analogues because each satirizes the conventions of courtly love. Absolon, John, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek are "genuine fools" because they can be so easily duped, while Orsino and Viola "manifest…
Hatton, Thomas J.
Proceedings of the Medieval Association of the Midwest 02 (1993): 81-89.
Both the Miller and characters in his "Tale" exhibit "curiositas," defined by medieval Church fathers as the exercise of curiosity in pursuit of idle knowledge, i.e., knowledge not directly leading to salvation.
Konas, Gary.
Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor 13 (1993): 50-55.
Argues that MilT is a "farce," using the definition of Eric Bentley in "The Life of the Drama" (1967). Academic criticism of MilT has not confronted its farcical elements.
Singman, Jeffrey L.
English Language Notes 31:2 (1993): 1-7.
The "viritoot" of MilT 3870 is probably a top used in a game. The word caused Chaucer's scribes considerable difficulty and might be a nonce-word. The image conveys Absolon's mental and physical energy.
Porter, Gerald
Risto Hiltunen, Marita Gustafsson, Keith Battarbee, and Liisa Dahl, eds. English Far and Wide: A Festschrift for Inna Koskenniemi (Turku: Turun Yliopisto, 1993), pp. 59-74.
The figure of the miller has a dual tradition as it develops from oral to literary presentation: that of a carnivalesque artisan and that of a social-climbing tradesperson. Porter traces literary depictions of millers from the fourteenth to the…
Barnett, Pamela E.
Women's Studies 22 (1993): 145-62.
Reflected in RvT and FranT, rape is "mystified" in various forms of male discourse--discourse that substitutes the symbolic for the semiotic and thus keeps women silent or turns "no" into "yes."
The character Malyne, more complex than her fabliau antecedents, adds an ambiguous subplot to RvT. Emphasizing disorder, the subplot undercuts the theme of "retribution" in the main storyline.
Oka, Saburo.
Hiroe Futamura, Kenichi Akishino, and Hisato Ebi, eds. A Pilgrimage Through Medieval Literature (Tokyo: Nan' Un-Do Press, 1993), pp. 399-411.
Compares love and the transformation of love in RvT with presentations in analogues to the poem, considering them as versions of the one-male, two-female love triangle.
A "center-free analysis" of MLT discloses that Donegild is "an embodiment of a folklore motif," while the Sowdanesse (Sultaness) is a hostile ideological construct.
Donavin, Georgiana.
Dissertation Abstracts International 53 (1993): 2807A.
MLP and other comments suggest that late-medieval readers were "disconcerted" by Gower's repeated treatments of incest. Examination of his poem reveals him (through Genius) turning Amans from the incestuous love of Venus and Cupid to pure heavenly…
Dor, Juliette.
Robert Clark and Piero Boitani, eds. English Studies in Transition: Papers from the ESSE Inaugural Conference (London and New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 107-19.
Custance's earnest belief in a Christian deity is reflected in her prayers, while the narrator of MLT presents these prayers in the context of his own skeptical rhetorical questions. The tension between the two establishes the dialogic polyphony of…
Eberle, Patricia J.
Robert Taylor, James F. Burke, Patricia J. Eberle, Ian Lancashire, and Brian S. Merrilees, eds. The Centre and Its Compass: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Professor John Leyerle (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1993), pp. 111-49.
Growing out of the Parliament of 1386 and subsequent confrontations between Richard II and his subjects, arguments over the nature of royal and representative authority shape the portrayal in MLT of pagan savagery, Northumbrian custom, Providential…
Sadlek, Gregory M.
South Central Review: The Journal of the South Central Modern Language Association 10 (1993): 22-37.
Chaucer's translation of "Roman de la Rose" and his indirect references to Oiseuse (Idleness) in his own poetry illuminate her significance, normally explained by critics as having exegetical or courtly meaning. LGWP, KNT, SNT, and ParsT reinforce…
Snyder, Cynthia Lockard.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 145-71.
Thought to be the work of Chaucer until the 1870s and long read largely for its style, "The Floure and the Leafe" is an ironic allegory warning readers not to "succumb to the deceptions that have befallen both the Flower and the Leaf." The details…
Brown, Melissa L.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 119-43.
Thought to be the work of Chaucer until 1775, Roos's translation clarifies the role of the Lover as a "woful lover." The humor and criticism of the poem are aimed at the Lover, not the Lady.
Chamberlain, David.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 41-65.
Long considered a work by Chaucer, "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" is probably by his friend, Sir John Clanvowe. It is a work of considerable wit and subtlety, presenting a "libidinous narrator," a virtuous cuckoo who embodies Christian truth, and…
Chamberlain, David, ed.
Landon, Md,, New York, and London: University Press of America, 1993.
Seven essays by various authors, plus an introduction by the editor that surveys the tradition of Chaucerian love poetry. One essay is on Lydgate's "Temple of Glas"; one is on "Kingis Quair"; four are on Chaucerian apocrypha; and one is on the…
Friedman, Bonita.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 173-90.
Thought to be the work of Chaucer until the 1870s, "The Court of Love" manipulates the conventions of love lyric and allegory, including several details from LGW, PF, and Pity. Such manipulation produces humor, depicting Philogenet as a kind of…
Medcalf, Stephen.
Nicholas Rogers, ed. England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1991 Harlaxton Symposium (Stamford, Conn.: Paul Watkins, 1993), pp. 97-108.
Explores the motives for pilgrimage implied in Beryn and CT, comparing them with the urge to "darshan" ("seek the deity") in Hindu tradition. The motives of the fictional pilgrims are more genuinely spiritual than has been argued by some critics.
Chaucer's ABC closely reflects its original, a portion of Deguilleville's "Pelerinage." What critics have seen as Chaucer's creative contributions are better described as examples of "redistribution."
Chaucer's lyrics were known to readers at an early date, even before they appeared in print in the early fifteenth century. Earlier references are apparently lists, but the emulation of Chaucer's rhetorical strategies, rhymes, and phrasing suggests…
Wimsatt, James I.
Danielle Buschinger and Wolfgang Spiewok, eds. Etudes de linguistique et de litterature en l'honneur d'Andre Crepin. Greifswalder Beitrage zum Mittelalter 5, WODAN ser., no. 20 (Greifswald: Reineke, 1993), pp. 447-53.
Some features of Chaucer's putative lost lyrics may be inferred from those that exist. There may have been hundreds of occasional lyrics, reflecting Chaucer's penchant for octosyllabics and decasyllabics and for isosyllabic stanzas. He was skilled…
