Browse Items (16459 total)

Throughout MerT synonyms for the Boethian values of true bliss and sorrow are juxtaposed to develop the theme of the woe that is in marriage--parallel to the "contemptus mundi" theme of the "Consolation." The protagonist of MerT uses Boethian…

Explores how and in what ways the "psychological realism" of BD is established and reinforced by the verbal and structural repetitions of the poem. Considers the nature of the dream, the view of love, and the interaction of the narrator and the…

Applies to Chaucer's CT Dell Hymes's model of analyzing speech acts, SPEAKING (Situations, Participants, Ends, Act Sequence, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms, Genres), exemplifying the utility of the model, its relationships to more traditional literary…

Surveys interactions between women's speech and silence, on the one hand, and generic conventions, on the other, in KnT, WBT, ClT, MerT, FranT, and ShT. Chaucer variously confirms or complicates the expectations about female speech embedded in the…

Generalizes that John Dryden's compositional technique (in which abstractions precede concrete details) has precedent in the medieval "rhetorical poetic." Then shows how the details of KnT are "the vehicle for the presentation of certain Boethian…

Discusses the uses of "familiar 'thou' and polite 'ye'" by the major characters in TC, demonstrating that, in general, Chaucer "observed the mode of his day in the use of the pronoun of address," and offering hypotheses about instances where the…

Chaucer's version of MLT is more like Trevet's than the folktale version identified as "The Handless Maiden." If Chaucer knew this folktale version, his choice of Trevet's more sophisticated version is another tribute to his art.

In PF, NPT, TC, ManT, and MerT, Chaucer uses onomatopoeic bird talk for puns, verbal wit, irony, e.g., finds hints in MerT of May as turtle-dove-cuckoo.

Comments on English and Continental versions of medieval fox-and-cock narratives, including the claim that the "real value" of NPT "lies in [Chauntecleer's] windy philosophical monologue"; "Russell's subsequent appearance and his making off with…

Tabulates the percentage of romance words in the works of Chaucer against the overall length of these works, suggesting that, in terms of its romance vocabulary, Equat "is to be regarded as a work by Chaucer." Establishes a logarithmic formula for…

Offers evidence that "embosed" in BD 352-53 means that the deer "had well concealed itself in a thicket and was not easy to find" and that the meaning of "double worstede" (Friar's cloak; GP 1.262) is worsted fabric of "considerable width."

An anthology of appreciative poetry, narratives, and essays (some in excerpts) that pertain to organs, organ music, and organists, including a selection from SNT in Middle English (pp. 5-6; lines 8.120-40) and a brief commentary.

An edition of the Middle English text for nonspecialist students and general readers. Neither a normalization nor a translation, it retains--in all respects except spelling--the language of Hengwrt, with variants from other manuscripts of the…

Explores examples of "friendship, felicity or joy, love, fellowship, and 'compaignye' (company, companionship, community)" in Chaucer's works through a Neoplatonic lens. Focuses on "Chaucer's Boethianism" by offering perspectives on Chaucer's own…

Designed as a supplemental textbook for college courses on Chaucer or English prosody; includes brief exercises at the end of each of seven chapters. Introduces the basics of meter and rhythm and analyzes Chaucer's verse in traditional foot…

Studies Chaucer's views of war and chivalry, examining biographical and historical data as background to assessments of TC, KnT, and the GP sketches of the Knight and Squire. Pratt summarizes medieval theories of warfare and "just war" and discusses…

Twelve essays that pertain to Chaucer's "translative" use of source material, exploring less the influence of others on him than the "'affluence' his imagination sets flowing in the process of reshaping material." Recurrent issues include the ways…

Reads KnT and TC as "tales of fortune's fools" in which the traditional themes of romantic love and knightly chivalry are undercut by verbal play and the trivialization of notions of pity, mercy, grace, and love.

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.…

Twenty-six essays and thirteen appendices explore how Christianity underlies Western attitudes. The section "Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)" (pp. 67-75) reads Ret in light of ParsT and Mel as a mild account of misconduct in which Chaucer is guided more…

A new verse translation of "Pearl" with original Middle English text and modern English version on facing pages. Contains a brief preface and longer introduction, which discusses current scholarship and criticism.

Identifies how and where Chaucer's poetry engages contemporary society and politics, as well as how it adjusts to changes in these arenas. As a court poet, Chaucer was knowledgeable about worldly affairs but unwilling to comment or criticize openly.…

The "homo ludens" tradition from Erasmus to Huizinga and the recent development of sociobiology reveal three motives in life and art: play, purpose, and game. Critics focusing on allegory or "idea" see purpose as Chaucer's primary motive, but his…

Chaucer's "detached role" in CT establishes his "characteristic attitude toward human behavior--the rhetorical attitude," which views social interaction as a series of roles played in accord with conditional games. Comments on the Host, the Wife of…

Offers a "new look at Chaucer's folktales," distinguishing between written and oral analogues to portions of CT, focusing on oral motifs, and categorizing the tales in accord with the numbering system in the 1961 revised version of Stith Thompson's…