Schulz, Andrea K.
Dissertation Abstracts International 56 (1996): 4765A.
A universal theme of metamorphosis, compelled or voluntary, relates to both the natural mutability of human life and the boundaries and hierarchies set by society, as shown in four texts ranging from KnT (Actaeon) through Gower's Ovidian passages,…
Beidler, Peter G.,Jennifer McNamara Bailey, Christine G. Berg, Sister Elaine Marie Glanz, Anne M. Dickson, Tracey A. Cummings, and Elizabeth M. Biebel.
Chaucer Yearbook 3 (1996): 1-20.
Six brief essays from a graduate seminar explore how select medieval plays of the Flood, Nativity, Annunication and Slaughter of the Innocents and Jean Bodel's "Le jeu de Saint Nicholas" illuminate Chaucer's characters in MilT.
Briggs, Frederick M.,and Laura L. Howes.
Medium Aevum 65 (1996): 269-79.
MilT develops the theme of "pryvetee," which in Chaucer refers to both human genitalia and divine secrets. Echoes of Exodus and its tradition of commentary reinforce the theme and enable Chaucer to suggest an orientation of the "Tale" as a…
Lambdin, Laura C.,and Robert T. Lambdin.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 271-80.
Consistent with contemporary social and economic conditions, the Miller of GP aspires to the gentry although he "is still rooted in the peasantry." Bridging the courtly KnT and the low-class RvT, Chaucer's MilT--like the Miller's…
In Chaucer's RvT and Malory's "Morte D'Arthur," illegitimacy is not a negative notion. The Reeve is unorthodox in his negative view of the illegitimacy of Symkyn's wife and of the sexual liberation of Symkyn's daughter. Chaucer however, discloses a…
McDonald, Richard B.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 288-99.
Describes what it meant to be a reeve in terms of social status, day-to-day life, and relations with people of other professions, especially clerks. The viciousness of the Reeve of GP and RvT is consistent with what medieval people expected of…
Boyd, David Lorenzo.
Huntington Library Quarterly 58 (1996): 81-97.
The unique ending of CkT in MS Bodley 686 (ca. 1420-1440) reaffirms the preservation of traditional social systems and the obedience that they entail in the face of rising violence and the fear of political and social instability.
Pinti, Daniel J.
Chaucer Review 30 (1996): 379-88.
By adding forty-five lines in "quasi-Langlandian" alliterative personification allegory to CkT, the Bodley scribe creates a second distinctive narrative voice that competes with Chaucer's own. The deliberate moral ending "governs" both Perykn and…
Hieatt, Constance B.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 199-209.
Comments on each of the three appearances of the Cook in CT--the GP sketch, CkP, and ManP--providing historical and cultural background for Chaucer's "proprietor of a cookshop," including several recipes.
Dor, Juliette.
Roger Ellis and Rene Tixier, eds. The Medieval Translator/Traduire au Moyen Age, 5 ([Turnhout, Belgium]: Brepols, 1996), pp. 376-89.
Examines the differences between Chaucer's poverty prologue to MLT and its source, Innocent III's "De miseria condicionis humane," attributing these differences to the influence of Renaud de Louen's "Livre de Mellibee et Prudence," which Chaucer…
Forste-Grupp, Sheryl L.
Dissertation Abstracts International 57 (1996): 674-75A.
Analysis of legal documents and letters (especially treacherous or forged) in Middle English romances reveals that these fictions (including MLT) reflect popular attitudes of the 1300s and 1400s. Though speech had been preferred earlier, written…
Hornsby, Joseph.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 116-34.
Surveys the development of the legal profession in medieval England as background to understanding how the GP sketch of the Man of Law is a "thumbnail sketch of a common lawyer," focusing on his status as a "sergeant." MLT capitalizes on the myth…
The Man of Law uses the discourses of orientalism and antifeminism to suggest the proximity of Islam to Christianity and of women to men, as well as the necessity of reinscribing Muslims and women as clearly delimited Others. MLT attempts to forge a…
Aguirre Daban, Manuel.
Luis A. Lazaro Lafuente, Jose Simon, and Ricardo J. Sola Buil,eds. Medieval Studies: Proceedings of the IIIrd International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (Madrid: Universidad de Alcala de Henares, 1996), pp. 9-14.
Reexamines the meaning of "sovereignty," proposes that "The Wedding of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell" is a link between WBT and its ultimate Irish source, and reformulates the question of sources.
Beidler, Peter G., ed.
Boston and New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1996.
Based on the Hengwrt manuscript, this edition of WBPT and the Wife's sketch from GP is designed for classroom use. It includes notes and glossary, a biographical sketch of Chaucer, a guide to pronunciation and verse, and a summary of historical…
Episodes in the first part of WBT parallel events in the second. This "step parallelism structure" reveals a "pattern of attenuation" that emphasizes the development of the knight, who becomes less impulsive and more reflective through the course of…
Finke, Laurie.
Peter G. Beidler, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer: "The Wife of Bath." (Boston and New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1996), pp. 171-88.
A Marxist reading of WBPT that regards the "link between sexuality and monetary gain" as the "key to the sexual economy of the Wife's performance." WBP reflects the violence potential in "primitive accumulation," an early stage of capitalism defined…
Fradenburg, Louise O.
Peter G. Beidler, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer: "The Wife of Bath." (Boston and New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1996), pp. 205-20.
Psychoanalytic analysis of WBP reveals the development of the narrator's identity through the history of her losses and pleasure, suggesting the failure of society to structure her desires. Through fantasy, WBT idealizes a version of the past and…
Green, Richard Firth
Notes and Queries 241 (1996): 259-61.
Challenges E. Talbot Donaldson's emendation of the Hengwrt reading "wight" (WBP 117); "wright" is acceptable Middle English syntax, makes good sense as it stands, and accords well with contemporary notions of God's perfect design of the sexual…
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle.
Peter G. Beidler, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer: "The Wife of Bath." (Boston and New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1996), pp. 273-89.
The Wife of Bath's reference to being beaten by Jankyn and the rape in WBT indicate the violent nature of sex, yet the text glosses over this violence, making it seem normal. Although Chaucer's position as poet may have inclined him to identify with…
Cambridge MS Dd.4.24 contains a unique version of WBP: it adds five antifeminist passages and renumbers the Wife's husbands, making that section more organized and coherent. It is not possible to determine whether these changes were the work of…
Leicester, H. Marshall, Jr.
Peter G. Beidler, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer: "The Wife of Bath." (Boston and New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1996), pp. 234-54.
Treats the Wife of Bath as a subject in the process of self-definition who simultaneously seeks to deconstruct the society that constitutes that process. Leicester focuses on the dream of blood in WBP (577-82) to show the difficulty of determining…
McKinley, Kathryn L.
Chaucer Review 30 (1996): 359-78.
The old hag's curtain lecture, which changes the knight from selfish to selfless, is made possible through the romance genre. The silence of the knight signifies "radical freedom," not the end of an "authentic personality."
Minnis, Alastair.
REALB: The Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature (Tubingen) 12 (1996): 203-21
Assesses differing opinions of female preaching and teaching in medieval orthodoxy and in the Lollard movement, arguing that Chaucer's depiction of the Wife of Bath and the loathly lady in WBT confronts these opinions. Just as PardT confronts…
