Malone, Kemp.
Modern Language Review 57 (1962): 481-91.
Examines WBPT for internal contrasts, attributing them to the Wife's comic inability to see the implications of her own tale. WBT is a "tale of wonder" or "folktale" in which the rape is merely a plot device and the education of the knight…
Describes grammatical and metrical conditions that restrict or encourage pronunciation of final -e at the end of lines in Chaucer's verse. Introduces double-consonant rhymes as a previously unnoticed factor in these concerns, explores their…
Although earlier scholarship has recognized the importance of the Feast of the Holy Innocents in PrT, a reading of the entire mass as it occurs in the Sarum use suggests that the "greyn" is not a mere prop but a symbol with rich liturgical…
Malvern, Marjorie M.
Studies in Philology 80 (1983): 238-52.
The Wife of Bath's allusion to the fable of "A Lion and a Man" indicates the "sentence" unifying her Prologue into cogent satire and emphasizes the aim of her rhetorical devices.
Manaf, Nor Faridah Abdul.
Islamic Quarterly 46 : 247-58, 2002.
Tallies similarities among PF, the Persian Mant̓iq al-T̓ayr, and Peter Brook's theatrical adaptation, "Conference of Birds." The author comments on titles, frame, and universality of message.
Mandel, Jerome, and Bruce A. Rosenberg, eds.
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
Twenty-five essays, by various authors, on medieval literature and medieval and modern folklore. For five essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Medieval Literature and Folklore Studies under Alternative Title.
Removing attribution of the phrase "al stille and softe" from the monk and reading the phrase instead as narrative discourse eliminates ambiguity, enhances our perception of the monk's character, and extends the tale's thematic concerns.
Mandel, Jerome.
Rutherford, Madison, and Teaneck, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.
Explores coherence of structure, theme, and character within the fragments of the CT. Balanced plots, oppositions of themes, and parallels of character unify the paired tales of Fragments IV, VI, VIII, and V. Rich in thematic and structural…
Mandel, Jerome.
Papers on Language and Literature 11 (1975): 407-11.
The word "boy" occurs infrequently in contexts evocative of demonic connotations when ordinary denotations of the word are not appropriate. Boys whose actions in CT seem to be supernaturally evil illustrate the possibility that one connotation of…
PhyT treats appearance and reality, fraud and honesty at the individual, familial, political, and cosmic levels of governance. Virginius' pardon of Claudius can be seen as an act that, on the cosmic level, affirms God's charitable governance and…
Mandel, Jerome.
Hebrew University Studies in Literature and the Arts 16 (1988): 27-50.
Explores parallels of character and structure (councils, marriage agreement, feast, tests, restoration) used to establish the architectonic unity of the fragment. Clothing imagery in the tales strengthens these connections.
Although courtly love is central to TC, it is parodied or viewed as dangerous in CT. Evidently Chaucer no longer found it a viable way of revealing the human heart.
Imitative indirect discourse in the portraits of the Monk, Friar, and Parson presents attitudes not Chaucer's in language not his. Examining personae in early tales may alter the pilgrim's portrait or the tone, as when the Merchant's ironic praises…
Mandel, Jerome.
ES Revista de Filología Inglesa 33.1 (2012): 69-79.
Compares the resolutions of conflict in WBT and Gower's "Tale of Florent" and explores their methods of characterization. While Chaucer depicts characters through dialogue, argument, debate, and negotiation with other persons, Gower's characters…
Uses KnT and TC (among other works) as case texts for a study of recognition within various forms of medieval romance. In particular, Manion argues that these Chaucerian texts use recognition as a means of speculating on the limits of interpersonal…
Manley, Francis.
Modern Language Notes 74 (1959): 385-88.
Traces backgrounds to the coral beads held by the Prioress (GP 1.158-59), both as an amulet against evil and a charm for earthly love, also found in John Donne's "Sonnet. The Token," lines 10-12.
A survey of fantasy literature in England, arranged topically in six categories: secondary world, metaphysical, emotive, comic, subversive, and children's. Includes commentary on various works by Chaucer in an opening chapter called "The Origins of…
New edition of CT, based on both the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts, with on-page glosses, explanatory notes (pp. 795-1111), and glossary (pp. 1112-54). The introduction (pp. xvii-lxx) comments on the importance of Chaucer and CT, Chaucer's…
Mann, Jill.
Erik Kooper, ed. This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Xth Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics.... (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991), pp. 173-88.
For Chaucer, the literary traditions of Ovid and Jerome created a dual image of woman as predator or victim. Chaucer refines and deepens the "double-sidedness" of these traditions, bringing the polarized alternatives into complicating relation with…
Mann, Jill.
Piero Boitani and Anna Torti, eds. Poetics: Theory and Practice in Medieval English Literature (Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 1991), pp. 3-12.
Chaucer's presentation of himself as a reader of literature is a metaphor for our own reading of his work, an acknowledgement of his concern with the reciprocal relationship between the reader's mind and the text.
Mann, Jill.
Atlantic Heights, N. J.: Humanities Press International, 1991.
Chaucer defines "woman" as the norm against which all human behavior is to be measured, representing women in ways that undermine traditional antifeminist categories. In HF, TC, and LGW, the antifeminist theme of betrayal is recast to reflect human…
Mann, Jill.
Proceedings of the British Academy 76 (1990): 203-23.
Anger and glossing--linked by their common "refusal to accommodate the self either to events in the world outside, or to the autonomous meaning of the text"--are evident in SumT and throughout CT. The Marriage Group centers around patience, the…
In its narrative strategy and its theme of the comic irrelevance of the abstractions on which men try to base their lives, Nigel of Longchamps' medieval Latin beast fable, "Speculum Stultorum," provided a suggestive model for Chaucer's NPT.
