Examines the textual tradition of ABC in its manuscripts and early editions, describing its popularity in manuscripts and its relatively late appearance in print in 1602.
Aguirre Daban, Manuel.
Modern Language Review 88 (1992): 273-82.
Analyzes the treatment of sovereignty in WBT, "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine," "The Wedding of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell," John Gower's "The Tale of Florent," and an Irish story, "Echtra mac n-Echach." Also discusses the continuity between the…
Although the Wife of Bath is a character constructed from masculine discourse, she appropriates that discourse into her own autoerotic sexual/textual glossing. In WBP, the Wife reveals an ambivalent feminine poetics within an apparently masculine…
Dickson, Lynne.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 15 (1993): 61-90.
Although WBP does not succeed in fictionalizing a discourse community of women, it makes clear the possibility in its struggle with patriarchal authority. WBT poses such a community in a transient, illusory form. Chaucer capitalizes on the…
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…
Folks, Cathalin Buhrmann.
Eilean Ni Cuilleanain and J.D. Pheifer, eds. Noble and Joyous Histories: English Romances, 1375-1650 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993), pp. 59-85.
The "Gawain" poet and Chaucer (through the mediating Wife of Bath) modify conventional details of character, description, and action, producing protagonists who develop or who come to self-awareness in ways more complicated than elsewhere in the…
Hodges, Laura (F.)
Chaucer Review 27 (1993): 359-76.
Analyses the Wife's Sunday costume and her traveling outfit from realistic and symbolic perspectives. Her dress reveals her economic and social class as well as her "allegoric nature"--fair outside and foul inside.
Edwards, A. S. G.
Chaucer Review 28 (1993): 146-47.
The word "prayere' in FrT D 1489 might have been intended to read "pray," as it appears in nineteen of the manuscripts. Such a reading would reinforce the "prey" imagery in the "Tale" and would suggest that God allows fiends to harm only the…
Myles, Robert.
Dissertation Abstracts International 54 (1993): 172A.
Although Chaucer has been seen as a medieval nominalist or realist, or both at once, he should actually be recognized as an "intentional realist" in the modern (John F. Searle) sense.
Shimotao, Makoto.
Hiroe Futamura, Kenichi Akishino, and Hisato Ebi, eds. A Pilgrimage Through Medieval Literature (Tokyo: Nan' Un-Do Press, 1993), pp. 413-26.
Explores the religious connotations and associations of Middle English "entente," arguing that it suggests spiritual or moral motivations in FrT.
Kolve, V. A.
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. 265-96.
Wheel iconography associated with Hugh of Foilloy's treatise, "The Wheel of True and False Religion," may have influenced the plotting of the divided fart in SumT.
Kendrick, Laura.
Bulletin des Anglicistes Medievistes 43 (1993): 769-80.
Investigates the burlesque effects of the -"aille" rhymes in the envoy to ClT. Like Eustache Deschamps, Chaucer plays with the plaintive effect of the sound, but he inverts the tone through male exhortation of a feminist position and through the…
Goyne, Jo.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 139-60.
Explores the limitations and parameters of word and will in ClT. Chaucer asserts that words must not encumber the will beyond its limited capacity, even in the service of virtue.
Shimogasa, Tokuji.
Nobuyuki Yuasa et al., eds. Essays on English Language and Literature in Honour of Michio Kawai (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1993), pp. 37-43.
Demonstrates through word study that Griselda is "the personification of the virtues of meekness, humility, fortitude, and modesty," a figure of medieval love.
Jost, Jean (E.)
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 117-38.
Not acknowledged or accounted for, feminine desire is a powerful force in the plot of MerT. Because January ignores May's sexual desires, he involuntarily provokes her to pursue a more appropriate mate. May takes what January proffers--his money…
Goodman, Jennifer [R.]
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 69-90.
The desperation of the falcon in SqT and that of Dorigen in FranT link the two tales. Similar links include three sets of parallel relationships between older and younger men, as well as the notions of "trouthe" and fortitude in each tale's ending.
Bleeth, Kenneth A.
English Studies 74 (1993): 113-23.
The fantasies of the rocks and the garden, initially denoting personal obsession, lose their ominous character when Dorigen and Aurelius enter into dialogue, a discourse grounded in mutual understanding. Unlike the dangerous rocks, threats to our…
There is a distinct difference between Dorigen's sensibilities and those of the men who speak for and about her. Considered from her perspective, the "generous" male acts are less generous, serving only to exaggerate her emotional suffering.
Mertens-Fonck, Paule.
Danielle Buschinger and Wolfgang Spiewok, eds. Etudes de linguistique et de litterature en l'honneur d'Andre Crepin. Greifswalder Beitrage zum Mittelalater 5, WODAN ser., no. 20 (Greifswald: Reineke, 1993), pp. 273-80.
Considers FranT in light of Epicurean philosophy, arguing that Dorigen's Epicurean efforts to seek perfect tranquility are thwarted by those who seek honor (Arveragus), impossible love (Aurelius), illusion (Aurelius's brother), and riches (the clerk…
Wheeler, Bonnie.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 91-116.
Chaucer situates Dorigen, who is bound to contradictory roles as faithful wife and courtly mistress, within contradictory rhetorical schemes that metonymically reinforce and undercut notions of truth and "fin amors." Through carefully constructed…
The lack of popularity of PhyT may derive in part from the separate, seemingly modern, aesthetic it espouses--one designed not to "define virtue and suppress vice" but to illustrate a sense of "randomness and discontinuity" that anticipates a new…
Lomperis, Linda.
Linda Lomperis and Sarah Stanbury, eds. Feminist Approaches to the Body in Medieval Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), pp. 21-37.
A historical examination of female sexual autonomy and medieval physicians' social and academic roles illuminates PhyT.
Brandt, Paul R.
Uuniversity of Dayton Review 22:2 (1993-94): 113-21.
Aware of his own failings and mortality, the Pardoner is more honest than the rest of the Pilgrims. He is a "messenger of Death" to them, although they do not know it. The only one without delusions, he is perhaps the "most worthy of forgiveness."
Since Chaucer does not describe the Pardoner's kiss, it could be either mouth-to-mouth or cheek-to-cheek; in either case, a public kiss signifies a sort of equality. A reply to Ann Barbeau Gardiner PMLA 108 (1993): 333-34.
