Gower's "Confessio Amantis" presents Genius's tales as morally simple, although the incest stories stimulate readers to ask moral questions. In MLT, Chaucer represents his narrator as misreading Gower, affecting a simplistically moral stance and…
Astell, Ann W.
Studies in Philology 94 (1997): 395-416.
Examines Chaucer's two brief but similar references to the "St. Anne Trinity," a portrayal of Mary, Jesus, and St. Anne in the cultural context of fourteenth-century England. Concludes that the references in MLT and SNT represent two sides of a…
Dauby, Helene.
Marcel Faure, ed. Felonie, trahison, reniements au moyen age. Actes du troiseme colloque international de Montpellier Universite Paul-Valery, 24-26 novembre 1995. Cahiers du CRISIMA (Centre de Recherche sur l'Imaginaire et la Societe au Moyen Age), no. 3 (Montpellier: Publications de l'Universite Paul-Valery, 1997), pp. 432-39.
Compares acts of treachery in the tales of Constance by Trevet, Gower, and Chaucer, showing that MLT has a feminist point of view and a religious stance. The liveliness of the debate scenes in MLT may result from the occupation of the teller.
Dugas, Don-John.
Modern Philology 95 (1997): 27-43.
Additions to MLT suggest Chaucer's concern with aristocratic power, particularly with "translatio imperii." Considered in the "context of the second decade of Richard II's reign," MLT "subtly legitimizes kingly authority."
Goodman, Jennifer R.
James Muldoon, ed. Varieties of Religious Conversion in the Middle Ages (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997), pp. 115-28.
Examines MLT as one of several historical and literary accounts of princesses who marry husbands of a different religion and either convert themselves or persuade their husbands to convert. In addition to Constance, Goodman considers accounts of…
Silar, Theodore I.
Notes and Queries 242 (1997): 306-9.
Citing examples from feudal law and practice, Silar argues that MLT 2.168 has a specific legal sense and should be translated "[Custance's] hand, in which the right to grant estates in the feudal tenure of frankalmoign."
Fleming, John V.
Thomas Hahn and Alan Lupack, eds. Retelling Tales: Essays in Honor of Russell Peck (Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 73-90.
The sources for the Wife of Bath's performance as exegete--and the authorities she cites in her "Tale" (in particular Ovid,for the Midas story)--make clear that the underlying theme and conflict in WBPT concern "surface and substance, letter and…
Green, Richard Firth.
Helen Cooper and Sally Mapstone, eds. The Long Fifteenth Century: Essays for Douglas Gray (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), pp. 163-84.
Surveys ballad scholarship and argues that exploration of medieval ballads has value for broader study, suggesting, for example, that "King Henry" provides useful contexts for the gentility speech in WBT.
Hahn, Thomas.
Thomas Hahn and Alan Lupack, eds. Retelling Tales: Essays in Honor of Russell Peck (Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1997.), pp. 91-108.
In drafting learned sources (Ovid, Boethius, Dante) onto the core of a popular story, WBT generates a form of romance with appeal for "serious" readers; the appeal of this genre rests not on marvels and adventure but on individual fulfillment through…
Henebry, Charles W. M.
Chaucer Review 32 (1997): 146-61.
Working through WBP at various points in his writing career, Chaucer conceived of changing the character "Janekyn" to make him "Jankyn," the Wife's fifth husband. Thus, the character changes from an apprentice to a scholar boarding with the Wife to…
Kennedy, Beverly.
Norman Blake and Peter Robinson, eds. The Canterbury Tales Project Occasional Papers, Volume II (London: King's College, Office for Humanities Communications, 1997), pp. 23-39.
Argues that two distinct scribal attitudes toward the Wife of Bath can be perceived: a misogynous scholarly response typical of one manuscript family, and a more sympathetic popular response typical of another. Considers evidence from WBP,…
Olivares Merino, Eugenio M.
Margarita Gimenez Bon and Vickie Olsen, eds. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval Language and Literature (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Dpto. Filologia Inglesa, 1997), pp. 222-29.
Focuses on the presentation of polygamy, virginity, and sexuality in WBT, using St. Paul's teachings as a background.
Smith, Warren S.
Chaucer Review 32 (1997): 129-45.
In WBP, the Wife takes not an extremist position on marriage but rather a centralist one, often adhering to the doctrine of Augustine. By burning Jankin's book and by according husbands bliss after she attains "mastery," Alisoun refutes the…
Solopova, Elizabeth.
Norman Blake and Peter Robinson, eds. The Canterbury Tales Project Occasional Papers, Volume II (London: King's College, Office for Humanities Communications, 1997), pp. 133-42.
Analyzes the manuscript variants of the so-called added passages of WBP, concluding that the passages were composed by Chaucer and that they extend from a single exemplar, probably an unfinished authorial draft.
In WBP, the Wife delivers not a sermon but a mock legal case. Her reasoning is typical of courtroom reasoning, and (like lawyers) she buries her argument in rhetoric. Her unwritten law of marriage triumphs over the written laws of St. Paul, thus…
The questioning of the fiend by the Summoner in FrT echoes "Purgatorio" 25. Both humans (Dante and the summoner) ask material questions of their supernatural guides; both guides direct the questions to the realm of the spiritual. The place of both…
Hanks, D. Thomas, Jr.
Chaucer Yearbook 4 (1997): 33-43.
SumP and various puns in SumT not only transform Friar John into a fart but also indicate that his prayers invert the Pentecostal wind and "suggest that his brethern share his odious nature."
Astell, Ann [W.]
Jeanette Beer, ed. Translation Theory and Practice in the Middle Ages (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute, 1997), pp. 59-69.
The link of Griselda and Job in ClT recalls Saint Gregory's "Moralia" in Job, which "translates" Job as feminine. In casting Job as a female figure, Chaucer reveals the contradictions and misogyny of Gregory's exegesis.
Chaucer intensifies the voluntarist diction found in sources of ClT, thus urging a reconsideration of the "Tale's" principal characters and of the will of God as it was understood in late-fourteenth-century England.
ClT is neither an affirmation of traditional hierarchies nor a critique of them, but rather an exploration of the ways individuals interact with social, marital, and spiritual authority. Michel de Certeau's notions of "intextuation" and…
Stanbury, Sarah.
New Literary History 28 (1997): 261-89.
ClT is about visual investigation. Contemporary manuscript illumination, panel painting, and statuary are instructive for understanding Chaucer's representations of lines of sight framing the female body. Relying on complex tensions between an…
Cooke, Jessica.
English Studies 78 (1997): 407-16.
Medieval texts on the ages of humankind (such as "The Parlement of the Thre Ages") indicate that January of MerT is not extremely old or about to die; he is at the transition between middle and old age. May is in early stage of adulthood.
Kraman, Cynthia.
Diane Watt, ed. Medieval Women in Communities (Toronto and Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, 1997), pp. 138-54.
In MerT, the marginal communities of females and Jews maintain ambiguous statuses, serve as subtext to the "Tale," and assert the seductiveness of the suppressed. The ambiguity of the garden--exciting but exclusionary--is associated with female…
A feminist reading of MerT as a diptych in which sympathy for May as the victim of marital rape is replaced by response to her as a fabliau shrew. May's reading and disposal of Damyan's letter are a "fissure" that marks her transformation and…
DiMarco, Vincent.
English Studies 78 (1997): 330-33.
Replies to M. C. Seymour's identification of seven satiric loci in SqT arguing that Chaucer's manipulations of convention may be seen as innovation rather than parody.
