Browse Items (16469 total)

The character Malyne, more complex than her fabliau antecedents, adds an ambiguous subplot to RvT. Emphasizing disorder, the subplot undercuts the theme of "retribution" in the main storyline.

Among the hitherto unrevealed examples of subtle bawdy humor in Chaucer's poetry are many in KnT. These provide suggestive commentary on the Knight's character. The Miller's values probably come closer to Chaucer's own sentiments than do those…

Engages several critical approaches to Chaucer works and incorporates them into appreciative commentaries, with particular attention to the poet's "habit of working" or process of composition, his narrative techniques (not inorganic, but…

Appreciative comments on BD, HF, TC, and CT, addressing their concerns with death, isolation, knowledge of self, and above all, the hman need for self-disclosure in confronting these concerns. The human need for narrative is particularly evident in…

Compares Bo with the versions by "Alfred," Walton (1410), Colville (1556), "I. T." (1609), and Preston (1695), tracing the assimilation of sophisticated Latin terminology into English discourse.

In the Middle Dutch "Wrake van Ragisel" (adapted from the Old French "Vengeance Raguisel"), "Walewein, who is transformed into a dwarf, learns what women are exclusively led by their sexual desire," a different answer to the life question than is…

The Middle English romance "Amis and Amiloun" explores the complex concept of "trewth" in the fourteenth century. This essay contends that the binding oath made by childhood friends is reminiscent of the agreement of the GP pilgrims, as well as…

Considers why Gower's verse-epistle "In Praise of Peace" was included in William Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer's works and explores possible motives and collaborations in the process of editing the poem and the volume.

Accepts that much fifteenth-century admiration of Chaucer praises his rhetoric and "ornate eloquence," but explores comments that convey wider, more sophisticated appreciation of his stylistic range and philosophical depth, considering comments by…

Comments on food-producing labor as a motif in GP (and elsewhere in CT), in contrast with idleness, wealth-seeking, or nonproductive labor, especially among clerics. Associates these concerns with English history and ideological struggle.

Item not seen. WorldCat record indicates that this is a poem composed of lines drawn from a select group of literary works, including CT and works by Kerouac, Camus, Hemingway, Pound, and more.

In Japanese.

Discusses the work of J. B. Severs, the manuscript tradition of Petrarch's Griselda narrative, and the form in which it would have been accessible to Chaucer.

Thought to be the work of Chaucer until the 1870s, "The Court of Love" manipulates the conventions of love lyric and allegory, including several details from LGW, PF, and Pity. Such manipulation produces humor, depicting Philogenet as a kind of…

Printed musical score: TC 3.8-14, set to music, with text in Middle English.

Summarizes the political, economic, and social aspects of late-medieval Flanders and evokes a sense of English attitudes toward them. Chaucer's references and allusions to Flanders and Flemings in GP, Th, ShT, PardT, and CT anticipate the more…

Argues that the Summoner "triumphs over" the Friar in their tale-telling competition, revealing his greater intelligence and competence, but also indicating that his social success discloses a more fundamental "malignancy and egotism." Compares the…

The arrangement of CT proposed by Henry Bradshaw a century ago solves the problems of geography and the Endlink to MLT which are present in the Ellesmere arrangement. Recent arguments against the Bradshaw shift offer no real evidence to reject it.

Close feminist examination of Dorigen's complaint in FranT indicates that the Franklin may be ambivalent toward her.

Critics have argued that Chaucer intended the reader to view Criseyde as a woman destined to be a whore, Diomede as an unscrupulous seducer, and Troilus as an ideal knight. But if a fourteenth-century view is adopted, Diomede can be viewed in a…

Contrary to contentions of A. C. Spearing and others that Criseyde is a passive heroine "at the mercy of events," Criseyde is a decisive figure who actively takes charge of her own destiny. She is representative of emerging "scientific" intellectual…

Comments on previous criticism of the character of Criseyde, and explores the "infinite suggestiveness" of her more positive characteristics such as self-knowledge, charm, and desire to please others.

Explains that Chaucer's source for his account of Lot's incest, followed as it is by reference to Herod and the slaying of John (PardT 7.485-91), is likely to have been Peter Comestor's "Historia Libri Genesis" rather than the biblical account. Also…

Argues that "Inferno" V does not justify dismissing Francesca's love for Paolo as "lust," given the continuity between the "disiato riso" that leads them to kiss and the "santo riso" of Beatrice that draws Dante upward to Paradise. Echoing Dante and…

Surveys theories of Criseyde's betrayal in TC; maintains that her depravity results in Pandarus's deliberate actions and Troilus's passion, along with her own weaknesses; and emphasizes Chaucer's characterization of Criseyde as a complex woman.