Choi, Yejung.
Medieval English Studies 7: 149-75, 1999.
In LGW, if the God of Love and Alceste criticize Chaucer, they do so as representatives of a text community based on Augustinian hermeneutics. Chaucer undermines the legitimacy of their view of poetry, inscribing his own presence and intent in the…
Wolfe, Matthew C.
Chaucer Review 33: 427-31, 1999.
It is possible that Ret was written as a general work, found among the papers and drafts of CT, and then put at the end of that work by scribes and early editors. If thought to apply to Chaucer's entire corpus, Ret broadens our view of the poet as a…
Thebes's foundational perversion (Jove's rape of Europa) establishes a recursive pattern of love and violence. Creon's dynastic expectation for Anelida and Arcite results in Anelida's self-deception and leads as well to Arcite's servitude to his new…
Asahata, Syozo.
Hisayuki Sasamoto et al., eds. Hearts to the English-American Language and Literature: Essays Presented to Emeritus Professor Sutezo Hirose in Honour of His 88th Birthday (Osaka: Osaka Kyoiku Tosho, 1999), pp. 239-53 (in Japanese).
Surveys the reception of Astr in Japan and describes the former Marquess of Bute MS 13 (A.19) purchased from H. P. Kraus, New York, at an unspecified date.
Craig, Lisa Renee.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60: 1119A, 1999.
In this study of a specialized kind of computer manual, Chaucer's Astr is cited as a prototype and analyzed for its use of three characteristic rhetorical features.
Laird, Edgar (S.)
Thomas A. Prendergast and Barbara Kline, eds. Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority, and the Idea of the Authentic Text, 1400-1602 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999), pp. 145-65.
The status of Astr as an unfinished scientific treatise encouraged its manuscript compilators to finish or add to it in a number of ways: responding to the descriptive prologue included by Chaucer, adding to or reordering its materials, and placing…
Although Astr can be read as "unmarked," or neutral in relation to issues of cultural otherness, its source in Messahala's Arabic treatise and its enfigurement of the astrolabe as feminine indicate that we can and should treat it (with other…
In BD, Chaucer complicates the chess metaphor by adding the concept of gambling, which had become standard both in literary depiction and in actual play. By doing so, he adds an economic dimension, characterizing marriage relationships in the Middle…
Varty, Kenneth.
Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 1999.
Traces the textual and iconographic history of the Reynard stories from twelfth-century Flanders to nineteenth-century England. The combination of text and picture was a particular success for Caxton, who translated the Dutch stories and printed them…
Zeitoun, Franck.
Wendy Harding and A. Mathieu, eds. Le futur dans le Moyen Âge anglais (Paris: Publications de l'Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 1999), 2: pp. 361-74.
Assesses the excursus on predestination and free will in NPT, arguing that these theological concepts underlie the Tale from beginning to end, especially Chauntecleer's questioning of the nature of his dream.
Damon, John.
Sally McKee, ed. Crossing Boundaries: Issues of Cultural and Individual Identity in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1999) pp. 41-56.
Martial imagery in SNT presents Cecilia as a "kind of general in a spiritual army of the steadfast faithful." Seen in light of Th and Mel, SNT idealizes "non-violent resistance, not passive resignation, to abuses of power."
The alchemists' discourse echoes Chaucer's, and one might serve as a "metaphor for the other." Alchemists, like poets, were concerned with interpretations of the written word and with concealment.
Houwen, L. A. J. R.
Geoffrey Lester, ed. Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 100-17.
Derived from Boethius's Consolation and from the Roman de la Rose, the exemplary image of the caged bird invoked for the audience of ManT and SqT the "natural law" of sexual drive and the requirement that human beings, unlike birds, curb this drive.…
The warning concerning silence in ManT derives from its penultimate position in CT and from the concept that real pilgrims are struck dumb on approaching the Holy Land (a theme echoed in Dante and de Lille). The Parson refuses to tell a tale, not…
ParsT is the best of the CT to choose for a survey class. It provides a link with ancient and modern literature, reflects the thinking of the major writers in medieval England, and interweaves the previous themes and images of CT.
Vaughan, Míceál F.
Thomas A. Prendergast and Barbara Kline, eds. Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority, and the Idea of the Authentic Text, 1400-1602 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999), pp. 45-90.
Examines the relationship of Ret to ParsT and the relation of both to CT, arguing that editors and critics have been mistaken in separating the treatise from the confession and in ascribing one to the Parson and the other to Chaucer. Manuscript…
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome.
Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
Argues that giants can represent the lost prehistory of the masculine body and therefore figure its present and dangerous instability. Six chapters and an introduction focus on the English Middle Ages. Chapter 4 (pp. 96-118) discusses Chaucer's Th,…
Taylor, Paul Beekman.
English Language Notes 37.2: 1-13, 1999.
The Host's question of Chaucer-the-pilgrim, "what man artow?" elicits triadic contexts for reading Th, whose prosody, parodic style, and plot are particularly informed by debate structures. These same contexts deconstruct Harry Bailly as adequate…
Ando, Shinsuke.
Heinz Antor and Kevin L. Cope, eds. Intercultural Encounters-Studies in English Literatures: Essays Presented to Rdiger Ahrens on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday (Heidelberg: Universittsverlag C. Winter, 1999), pp. 168-74
Compares Chaucer's notion of tragedy, defined and exemplified in MkPT, with that in Japanese "Kishuryuritan" (legends of exiled nobles). Neither view is easily compatible with modern Western notions of tragedy.
Kim, Jung-Ai.
Medieval English Studies 07: 93-123, 1999.
Although the Monk seems to suggest that the tragedies he relates can be explained by the action of Fortune, there is no consistent concept of Fortune. As a result, MkT is a failure.
Caxton's grouping of the Nine Worthies influenced later English perceptions of nationhood and history. Includes brief mention of MkT, and several notes pertain to Chaucer.
Boitani, Piero.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999.
Studies of how Scriptural narratives and their themes have been "re-Scriptured" in particular works of Western literary tradition. Chapter 3 (pp. 77-100) explores how NPT prompts and resists the exegetical potential in reading and leads to…
Greenwood, M[aria] K.
Wendy Harding and A. Mathieu, eds. Le futur dans le Moyen Âge anglais (Paris: Publications de l'Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 1999), 1: pp. 153-74
Examines structural and thematic functions of Chauntecleer's dream exempla in NPT. The exempla all suggest "an unresolved sense of guilt" that casts into tragic relief the events in the barnyard, transforming NPT from comedy to tragedy. The Tale…
Buckmaster, Dale, and Elizabeth Buckmaster.
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 12.1: 113-28. , 1999.
Reviews criticism of ShT as it relates to the history of accounting, arguing that Chaucer scholars would benefit from deeper familiarity with the subject. In Chaucer scholarship, descriptions of historical accounting practices are less precise and…
