Browse Items (16364 total)

Argues that Ovid inspired the structure, narrative complexities, and thematic focus of CT--its tales-within-a-tale structure, its multiple narrators characterized by their tales, and its concern with two kinds of love, higher and lower--and shows…

Explains the sexual resonances latent in the reference to Priapus in MerT 4.2034-37, citing tales in Ovid, the commentary tradition, and PF. January's statue of Priapus "constitutes a kind of devotion to the obscene god who was the true patron saint…

Presents MerPT in Middle English (following Robinson's 1957 edition), with notes and glossary at the end of the text. The Introduction (pp. 1-34) comments on the GP description of the Merchant, the relations between MerT and ClT and between MerT and…

Reads the rocks of FranT as a representation of natural evil, only apparently avoided in the plot, and an opportunity for the operations of both "gentilesse" and unearned providential grace.

Explicates the phrase "withouten coppe" (FranT 5.492) as meaning "outside of the cup," conveying that Aurelius drank his penance to the fullest extent.

School-book edition of GP, with interlinear Middle and Modern English, and sidebar commentary, notes, and illustrative drawings.

Challenges psychoanalytic approaches to ClT and rejects the approaches that read the poem either as a Christian parable of authoritarianism or a rejection of authority as a "disease of monarchy." Argues that Chaucer creates the Tale as an expression…

Examines the meaning and significance of "courtesy" in the works of the "Gawain"-poet, and includes comments on characterization (as a matter of role rather than personality) in Chaucer's works, along with an excursus on "hende" that focuses on…

Interprets the discontinuities and disunities of TC for the ways that they reveal the "growth and release" of Chaucer's creative imagination, reading them as evidence of his "dissatisfaction" with the characterization of Criseyde and the nature of…

Explores the attitude toward sexual love expressed in Andreas Capellanus's "De Arte Honeste Amandi," contrasting it with the "innocent sincerity in sexual love" that is characteristic of Chaucer's Troilus (and Shakespeare's), also considering the…

Contributes to discussions of the effectiveness of SumT by describing its "pattern of biblical parody" centered on Pentecost, arguing that the Summoner uses the pattern to attack the claim that friars, like the apostles, "have a special divine…

Argues that Chaucer uses portions of Pope Innocent's "De Miseria" in MLPT to "further characterize" the Man of Law, deepening the "concern with wealth" found in the GP description of the Sergeant. Furthermore, the portions from "De Miseria" unify the…

Illustrates Chaucer's "comic misapplication" of "monitory elements" as a device of characterization in CT, discussing how the misapplied expressions of traditional wisdom can be used cleverly (as with Nicholas in MilT), foolishly (John in MilT and…

Explores the "aristocratic, moral, and Christian" understandings of "gentilesse," listing the entailed ideals of truth, benevolence, mildness, etc. as expressed in ParsT, Gent, and in French courtly tradition. Argues that a complex understanding of…

Comments on Chaucer criticism produced between 1950 and 1964 and, treating Chaucer's work as a "single fiction," reads it as a "complex examination of what it means to love" in earthly and spiritual ways. An "abyss exists between" the two kinds of…

Describes patterns of "elaborate inconsequence, incongruity and downright bathos" in SqT, attributing them to the Squire's naïve efforts to be impressive and, by extension, Chaucer's skillful weaving of character and theme.

Asks why the Pardoner "always preaches against his own sin" and why he admits to doing so to the Canterbury pilgrims, using the questions to argue that he is a con-man rather than a hypocrite, and one who considers himself morally superior to his…

Reads Hoccleve's references to Chaucer as evidence of conventional respect for the older poet's work, rather than evidence of a personal relationship.

Describes Chaucer's arrangements of multiple adjectives (preposed, postposed, and combined), contrasting his practice with other Middle English writers, and exploring the poetic value of his usage, suggesting that he seems to have been "the writer…

Coins the term "pathedy" to describe Chaucer's "serene middle ground" between tragedy and comedy, applying the term to the "quality of love" that characterizes Troilus in TC and to the tragicomic contradictions and essential humanity of several of…

Explores Chaucer's "reading and use" of the genre of verse epistle, drawing on evidence from LGW, the two letters in TC, Scog, and Buk. Considers the influence of Ovid's "Heroides" and Horace's "Satires" to argue that Chaucer was adept in the Ovidian…

Surveys Chaucer's "use of rhyme as it contributes to poetic effect," examining rhymes in his complaints and balades, in Anel, and in Tho, and demonstrating his unobtrusive dexterity with rhyme royal in TC and with decasyllabic couplets in CT.…

Assesses Gower's virtues and achievements as a narrative poet rather than as a moralist in "Confessio Amantis," occasionally comparing and contrasting his techniques and accounts with analogous ones by Chaucer. Considers the frame of LGW to be…

Documents the influence on WBPT, SumT, PardT, and, to a lesser degree, other parts of CT of the "Communiloquium" of John of Wales (or another fraternal compendium much like it), showing that a number of biblical, classical, and medieval quotations or…

Describes the advantages of close reading of Chaucer's lyrics and shorter poems, examining ABC and Ros in detail for their riches of prosody, tone, structure, and meaning, with attention to narrative voice.