Browse Items (16456 total)

Describes (and reiterates) appreciation of Ricardian culture, exploring ways that Chaucer evokes a strong sense of contemporary London in CT and how, in "The Clerkenwell Tales," Peter Ackroyd evokes a similar sense of reality.

Resources for teaching the Middle Ages to school children, arranged as a series of "minibiographies" of five medieval "celebrities." The Chaucer section (pp. 61-74) includes a summary of CT, a brief play based on NPT, and various games and exercises.

In poetry (BD, ABC) and in prose (Bo, Mel), Chaucer as translator of French diverged early from his sources; his mature work (including MerT) shows him adapting verse and molding English prose, altering received texts.

The deserted woman, deriving from classical sources through medieval tradition, embodied the conflict of "amor" and "pietas." Appearing in allusion, exempla, and the poems HF, LGW, MLT, FranT, Anel, and TC, the deserted woman demonstrates for…

Chapter 2 examines two views of CT in eighteenth-century England: as a philologist's "historical foundation in need of preservation" and as "merchandise facilitating social refinement."

Examines how the long eighteenth century reflected "the emergence of a modern historical consciousness." Chapter 2, "Chaucer Ancient and Modern: Standardization, Modernization, and the Eighteenth-Century Reception of The Canterbury Tales," pp.…

Explores how medieval English law dealt with doubt and ambiguity, particularly in cases where the identity of the accused was uncertain Examines various legal cases, including the infamous case of the "Green Children" of Woolpit, and argues that…

Kamath surveys scholarly discussion of the influence of the "Roman de la Rose" on Middle English literature, with special attention to Chaucer's works, including Rom, as well as to those of his contemporaries and descendants.

In both "Reson and Sensuallyte" and "Troy Book," Lydgate establishes the literary authority of English poetry by placing it in the "allegorical landscape" of the "Roman de la Rose." He frequently follows Chaucer's "method of Rose citation," while…

Chapter 2 analyzes CT briefly, and connects Chaucer's allegorical tradition with Thomas Hoccleve, John Lydgate, and earlier pilgrimage allegories of Guillaume de Deguileville. Discussion of Chaucer's "mediation" of Rom.

Exemplifies the symbolic and socio-historical importance of cutlery in medieval literature, including discussion of instances from works by Chaucer.

Kamath traces "the impact of the innovative form of the Roman de la Rose in French and English history," considering the use of "vernacular first-person allegory" by writers such as Deguileville, Chaucer, Lydgate, and Hoccleve.

Kamath and Copeland survey the legacy of philosophical allegory and secular allegory--largely inspired by the "Roman de la Rose"--in late medieval France and, by extension, England. They focus on Machaut, Froissart, and Deschamps and their relative…

Evaluates some 500 items of TC criticism considered under the headings Historical, Philosophical, Formalistic, and Psychological. In addition to illuminating the poem, the book provides a trenchant critique of modern critical theory and practice.

Aware that he was writing in an increasingly literate milieu, Chaucer adapted his text to listening or reading audiences. A development is traced through TC, LGW, CT.

Four stanzas that seem out of place in the conclusion can be removed and reinserted, resulting in improved syntactic and thematic continuity. There is no manuscript authority for the mistaken position (all manuscripts have the order of the received…

CT entails two levels of reader response: the fictional listeners on the road to Canterbury and the reader audience. The reactions of the pilgrims warn the reader not to misinterpret the tales by responding to them uncritically, as many of the…

Argues that fragment III of CT is a coherent, extended critique of corruption of the sacrament of penance. WBT provides a "model for how penance should be practiced," while FrT and SumT reflect abuse of the sacrament through economic and…

A discussion of doubtful relics in CT, with emphasis on the skepticism of both the Pardoner and the Host.

An unfinished "Tale" that constantly calls attention to stories it is not telling, SqT epitomizes the poetics of Chaucer's fragments, including CT itself. Successful fragments prompt intensified reader response; they imply infinitude. Medieval…

In CT (especially WBT, PardT, CYT, PhyT, SNT, and MLT), Chaucer shares with Wyclif the belief that the Church had lost its miraculous power and its focus on salvation, and he stresses the importance of the individual's role in personal salvation. For…

Item not seen. WorldCat records provide the following note: "freely translated by Jerry Kamstra; with cheering drawings by Michael McCracken."

Discusses how the narrative strategies and implied audiences of animal fables produce the didactic impact of the tales, assessing "The Owl and the Nightingale" and fables by Chaucer (NPT and ManT), Gower, Langland, Lydgate, and Henryson. Also…

Focuses on the legend of Dido in LGW and compares its representation of Dido in Virgil's "Aeneid," Ovid's "Heroides," and HF. Argues that Dido in LGW desires Aeneas more actively than in other versions and that LGW presents her positively as…

Occasional essays previously published on Chaucer and Langland.