Laird, Edgar (S.)
Philological Quarterly 51 (1972): 486-89.
Explores the astrological term "valunse" as it seems to mean something approximating lack, want, or non-being, used by Chaucer in this sense at Mars, line 145.
Laird, Edgar [S.]
Chaucer Review 34: 410-15, 2000.
Trinity College, Cambridge MS R.14.52 contains a late-fifteenth-century fragment of Astr. Its contents help illuminate previous copies of Astr and show Chaucer as a "compiler," creating a treatise out of which "other such treatises could be put…
Given its resonance with references to duties of friendship that preface many astrolabe treatises, Chaucer's reference to his young son Lewis as his "frend" may accede to the wishes of adult friends who also wished for "a companionable guide to…
Laird, Edgar S.
English Language Notes 25:3 (1988): 23-26.
The use of the word "proportionals" by the Clerk of Orleans in FranT shows "how very up to date" Chaucer was in astronomy. Corresponding to the Latin "minuta proportionalia," proportionals were a measure for calculating celestial positions in the…
WBP contains two quotations from Ptolemy (3.180-81, 326-27), setting up a system for classifying knowledge according to practica (the Wife) and theorica (Ptolemy). The Wife recontextualizes and trivializes Ptolemy's efforts to achieve a vision of…
Laird, Edgar S.
M. Teresa Tavormina, ed. Sex, Aging, and Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52, Its Text, Language, and Scribe (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008), vol. 2, pp. 607-80.
Laird edits and describes portions of Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52 that pertain to scientific instruments, including several sections from Chaucer's Astr (conclusions 2.37,40,39,and 38).
Laird, Edgar S.
Chaucer Review 6.3 (1972): 229-31.
The astrological details of "Complaint of Mars" indicate that in the anthropomorphic action of the poem Venus betrays Mars and becomes the mistress of Mercury, "eternally re-enact[ing] the eternal myth."
Laird, Edgar S., and Donald W. Olson.
Modern Philology 88 (1990): 147-49.
The interpretation in Bo of how the constellation Bootes rises and sets indicates Chaucer's reliances on commentaries; he did not have the expertise in observational astronomy he would have needed for a more accurate translation.
Laird, Edgar, and Robert Fischer, trans.
Binghamton, N.Y. : Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1995.
Facing-page (French-English) translation of the earliest French treatise on the astrolabe (1362), a work that shares the same source as Astr. The introduction assesses the relations among Pélerin's "Practique," Astr, and their source text, John of…
Laird, Edgar.
Jack P. Cunningham, ed. Robert Grosseteste: His Thought and Its Impact (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2012), pp. 217-26.
Describes Grosseteste's notion of universals and Wyclif's treatment of it; then argues that KnT and MilT are, respectively, philosophically realist and antirealist, focusing on the First Mover speech in KnT as an example of Grosseteste's…
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.
Lakshmi, Vijay.
Osmania Journal of English Studies 17 (1981): 19-25.
Woolf manages, in her essay "The Pastons and Chaucer," artfully and expertly to conjure up the medieval period while also insisting that Chaucer's gift as a storyteller depends on his creation of an art that improves upon life.
Lall, Rama Rani.
New Delhi: New Statesman Publishing Co., 1979.
The satiric fable, with oral origins among the Orientals and Greeks, is usually characterized by economy, light-heartedness, and singleness of impression. The popularity of the genre continued into the Middle Ages and beyond not only because of its…
Lalla, Barbara.
Jamaica: University of West Indies Press, 2008.
Examines Old and Middle English language and literature in light of postcolonial conditions and theories, particularly those of Caribbean studies, considering issues of cultural contact, vernacularity, competing discourses, power, transgression, and…
Lamb, Jonathan P.
In Shakespeare in the Marketplace of Words (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 175-208.
Argues that the glossary and other "editorial apparatus" of Speght's 1598 edition of Chaucer's "Workes" "yokes" Chaucer's language and lexicon "with his position as an English author," and that in his use of Speght's TC as source for "Troilus and…
Introductory study edition of GP, with Middle English text, interlinear translation, and side-bar commentary and glosses, preceded by introductions to Chaucer's Life and World (pp. 6-9) and to the backgrounds, language, phonology, and versification…
Introductory study edition of WBPT, with Middle English text, interlinear translation, and side-bar commentary and glosses, preceded by introductions to Chaucer's Life and World (pp. 6-9) and to his backgrounds, language, phonology, and versification…
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. 145-53.
Surveys the development of various fashions in late-medieval England in an attempt to explain the rising importance of haberdashers and why Chaucer may have included one among his GP Guildsmen. Also comments on the history and status of the…
Lambdin, Laura C.,and Robert T. Lambdin, eds.
Westport, Conn.;
Thirty-two essays by various authors who define and describe the professions, vocations, and avocations of Chaucer's pilgrims. Individual essays pertain to each of the pilgrims mentioned in GP--including the five guildsmen, the Host (innkeeper), and…
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…
Lambdin, Laura Cooner, and Robert Thomas Lambdin, eds.
Westport, Conn.; and London : Greenwood, 2002.
Nineteen chapters by various authors, each addressing a literary genre by defining it, discussing representative examples, and surveying appropriate criticism (with selected bibliography). References to Chaucer recur throughout, especially in…
Questions the gloss of "gnof" (MilT 3188) in major editions of CT. In all of medieval literature, the word appears only here, and it cannot be elucidated from the context. The editor's gloss ("churl") is inconsistent with the behavior of John, whom…
