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Richard II's reign produced political upheaval that redefined treason not only politically but also as reflected in literary depictions of love.

In LGW, Chaucer asks, "Can women be faithful in love?" Christine asks, "Does virtue recognize gender?" Chaucer's "good women" are judged according to their relationships with men; Christine's are considered as separate beings.

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

Chaucer's catalog of women in LGWP contains attributes specifically chosen to reflect both the themes of the work itself and allusions to other literary works on the respective characters. Chaucer thus demonstrates his knowledge of previous…

The liturgy is omnipresent in the texts of medieval writers, including lay writers, although its influence is often indirect.

By altering the proverb in TC 4.588 from "day" to "nyght," Chaucer ironically foreshadows the beginning of Troilus's period of unrest.

Uses of the word "fyn" by Criseyde, Pandarus, and the narrator invite the reader to consider the teleology of the various parts of the work.

A comparison of the manuscripts of TC with those of Boccaccio's "Filostrato" indicates that Chaucer's narrative divisions correspond to the summary rubrics in the earlier work, even if he did not retain Boccaccio's internal subdivisions.

In TC, Chaucer amplified traits in Criseyde that Boccaccio emphasized less in "Filostrato."

Chaucer's TC responds to antifeminsit treatment of the Criseida character, especially Boccaccio's; Henryson's version replies to Chaucer.

TC shows Chaucer's ambivalence about the language of courtly love; he uses it denotatively with romantic meaning yet reveals its duplicity through Troilus's idealism, Diomede's cynicism, Pandarus's manipulativeness, and Criseyde's combined sincerity…

The "byjaped fol," to whom Chaucer refers in TC 1.526-32, is not a specific person but rather a mistranslation of Boccaccio's word "musorno," which Chaucer took to refer to a well-known person--a particular "fool"--rather than to the foolish quality…

The two distinct "social spaces" within the poem--the city of Troy and the Greek camp--represent the varying attitudes of the characters inhabiting them, particularly their attitudes concerning women. When Criseyde is given over to Diomede, however,…

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."

Examines the life, tomb, and library of Alice Chaucer--granddaughter of the poet--to suggest how we might reconstruct a women's literary culture of the fifteenth century. Alice's literary taste was influenced by her father, Thomas Chaucer; by the…

Examines the layout and annotation of some of the sixteen surviving manuscripts of TC, focusing on Bodleian MSS Rawlinson Poet 163 and Selden B.24. Repetition of headings and glosses may indicate that some parts of TC existed as discrete fragments…

Explores possible influences of Chaucer's dream poems on the works of Charles of Orleans, especially on the dream episodes in the English poems of British Museum MS Harley 682 attributed to Charles. Similarities in pattern and verbal detail may have…

William Blake's painting "The Canterbury Pilgrims" and his commentary on it in a "Descriptive Catalog" (1809) are a "complex allegory of life, where the classicist belief in the imitation of nature is thoroughly discarded." Blake returns to a…

W.B. Yeats's early interest in Chaucer as a populist poet gave way to a "more occasional interest in the aristocratic and esoteric elements of Chaucer's works." For only a brief time, after receiving a copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer in 1907, Yeats…

Draws examples from "Beowulf" and CT to demonstrate transition in impersonal constructions in the Middle English period, especially evident in uses of the expletive "it" with an infinitive ("It happed hym to ride").

Read in accord with the medieval one-handed alphabet, the hand positions in Chaucer's Hoccleve portrait form the monogram GC. These positions appear to be a constant in the tradition of Chaucer portraiture, including the Ellesmere miniature. Such…

Having normalized the language "in accordance with the grammar and spelling of late fourteenth-century London English," Duncan divides this "comprehensive selection" of lyrics into four thematic groups, three of which include lyrics attributed to…

Explores how Chaucer capitalized on extrinsic and intrinsic connotations in his ape metaphors. Kelly provides backgrounds to the metaphors from other medieval texts and, following Michael Riffaterre, theorizes about how such metaphors can operate in…

Examines structural and thematic roles of the Ceyx and Alcyone episode in BD, the Dido episode in HF, and the Dream of Scipio in PF.

Compares RvT with its analogue in Boccaccio's "Decameron" and with the Middle High German "Studentenabenteuer," exploring their concerns with disorder and its effects.