Browse Items (16382 total)

Explores how philosophers, theologians, poets, and other thinkers in late medieval England altered ancient ideas of geographical space. Analyzes medieval science, theology, literature, and maps, and the "relationship between high science and high…

Compares the antisemitism in the three works, describing the Jews of PrT as "an undistinguished mass with no face, and no individuality, a mass that can instinctively react, if given a chance, against their Christian neighbour"; they are less…

Surveys how chivalry is promoted or assumed in various medieval romances and argues that it is critiqued in TC, KnT, and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

Surveys the literary and historical context for medieval attitudes toward dicing, mentioning hazardry in PardT and the notion of divine intervention in the chances of trade in CYT.

The image of Prudence's third eye signifies looking to the future and implies that such prudential anticipation of implications and outcomes had "moral and even spiritual significance." Discusses the image and its implications in TC and Mel, as well…

Analyzes characters, both divine and human, in KnT as "representatives of the "three ages of man: youth, maturity, and old age."

Smith assesses characterizations of Criseyde, focusing on Chaucer's, Henryson's, and Shakespeare's characterizations but commenting on others. She argues that the character must be understood in light of contemporaneous attitudes toward, for example,…

Diffident comparisons point out the "Englishness" of both Chaucer and Langland (though Chaucer gives us little of London city life, his limits being Dartmouth, Strother, Oxford, and Cambridge). Bennett discusses the down-to-earth tones, association…

Part 1 traces the classical and medieval tradition of the "know thyself" motif and Chaucer's uses in MkT, ClT, TC, and Rom.

Defends Gower's "Confessio Amantis," with brief allusions to Chaucer's BD, ParsT, GP, and TC.

Like various English poets, James I of Scotland was imprisoned in the Tower, where he read Chaucer and wrote poetry influenced by Chaucer, especially KnT, TC, PF, and BD.

Makes comparisons with Chaucer's TC.

Aristotle's "Nichomachean Ethics" and "Rhetoric" and the Costinian "Tractate" can be used to anatomize comedy in CT.

By the fourteenth century "fin amor" was associated with "legitimate married love and...Christian charity." Thus, when the God of Love in the Prologue to LGW refers to "fyn loving," Chaucer's meaning (whether ironic or not) is that of an ideal love.…

The spaces left for illustrations in this ms, when correlated with the text immediately surrounding them, can rather easily be mentally completed with illustrations of the action of TC or with portrayals of court scenes of the readings of the poem…

A detailed commentary upon "armee" in the description of the Knight (1.60) in GP; upon the homeoteleuton in the description of the Friar (11. 252a-b); upon "fyue" in Prologue to WBT (11. 44a-f) as an omission in some mss due to the scribal "yielding…

Neither linguistic nor contextual evidence justifies the stance that Criseyde and Pandarus have sexual intercourse. Incest is incompatible both with the Italian source and with other elements in the poem itself.

Identifies trends in Chaucer criticism from ca. 1950-1970, observing attention paid to his religious views, rhetoric, style, and poetics, with comments on individual studies.

The character types in Chaucer's comic tales spring from the popular Aristophanic tradition; "popular" here does not exclude the learned or learning. While the humor of the tales is ambivalent and derisive, it yet elicits acceptance and sympathy.

Treats the use of astrology in the character portrayal of the Wife of Bath.

Textual and grammatical study of Astr. In Spanish.

Discusses the tradition and analogues of the "demande d'amour" of FranT, compares Chaucer's use, and concludes that the young lover Aurelius has the greatest claim to the honor of being "mooste fre," although the question is exceedingly complex.

Seeks to answer the "demande d'amour" of FranT (1622), first eliminating Dorigen and the magician from consideration of who is most "fre," and then arguing that Aurelius and Arveragus have effectively equal claim to be named--a complicated balance…

Comparative analysis of "Li livres de confort" and Bo, and study of French linguistic influence on English, with special focus on prepositions. The comparison shows a prevailing tendency to reproduce the structures and usages of French, though only…

Following a discussion of classical and medieval translation, imitation, commentary, and glossing, tabulates the sources of Bo--with newly proposed titles that fuse "interpretatio" and "exercitatio."