Duffell, Martin J.
Chaucer Review 34: 269-88, 2000.
Chaucer's model for the iambic pentameter line was Boccaccio's endecasillabo, not the French vers de dix. Chaucer introduced the "void" position, the "extra unprominent syllable within the hemistich, and possibly the epic caesura." All of his…
Over six centuries, Chaucer's verse has been construed in a "bewildering variety of ways." This essay surveys the reception of Chaucer's metrics from his immediate contemporaries to the present and considers the process of "transmitting metrical…
Minkova, Donka.
Irma Taavitsainen, Terttu Nevalainen, Päivi Pahta, and Matti Rissanen, eds. Placing Middle English in Context (Berlin and New York: Gruyter, 2000), pp. 431-59.
Surveys critical discussion of the prosodic behavior of Romance loan words in Middle English, challenging the Halle/Keyser analysis and the reliability of rhyme. Providing examples from alliterative poetry, Chaucer, and Henryson, Minkova argues that…
Discusses meter, rhythm, and textual problems in Chaucer's iambic pentameter, analyzing them using text-analysis computer applications: Oxford Concordance Program and WordSmith Tools. Texts of GP and WBP from the Hengwrt manuscript are transcribed…
Horobin, S. C. P.
Notes and Queries 245.1: 16-18, 2000.
Explains an eccentric spelling in the Hengwrt version of RvT (heem, or "home") as descending from Old Norse (East Norse "hem"), extended by a kind of imitation in Ellesmere to geen ("gone") and neen ("none"). Ellesmere also mistakes a Northern form…
Mooney, Linne R.
A. S. G. Edwards, Vincent Gillespie, and Ralph Hanna, eds. The English Medieval Book: Studies in Memory of Jeremy Griffiths (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 113-34.
Adds to the list of thirteen manuscripts attributed to the "Hammond" scribe another manuscript: BL Add. MS 29901. Long known for his Chaucerian affiliation, the scribe is now also affiliated with the officers of Arms, helping to explain his interest…
Mooney, Linne R.
Derek Pearsall, ed. New Directions in Later Medieval Manuscript Studies: Essays from the 1998 Harvard Conference (York; and Rochester, N.Y.: York Medieval Press, in association with Boydell and Brewer, 2000), pp. 131-41.
Surveys the techniques and functions of identifying manuscripts produced by the same scribe (especially manuscripts relating to Chaucer and Gower) and calls for a digital archive of known hands to help identify related manuscripts.
Ogilvie-Thomson, S. J.
Cambridge : D. S. Brewer, 2000.
Describes all manuscripts in the Laudian collection that contain English prose composed ca. 1200-1500, including Laud misc. 600, which includes incomplete versions of Mel (one folio lacking) and ParsT (through 10.914, completed in seventeenth-century…
Partridge, Stephen.
A. S. G. Edwards, Vincent Gillespie, and Ralph Hanna, eds. The English Medieval Book: Studies in Memory of Jeremy Griffiths (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 51-87.
Summarizes the manuscript information pertinent to The Cook's Tale and The Squire's Tale, focusing on scribal confrontations with their fragmentary state, including continuations and, especially, gaps and notes. Evidence suggests that the notes and…
Pearsall, Derek, ed.
York; and Rochester, N.Y. : York Medieval Press, in association with Boydell and Brewer, 2000.
Thirteen essays by various authors that pertain to the use of manuscripts in understanding medieval texts and/or to the use of computers in manuscript analysis and study. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for New Directions in Later…
Examines the contents and provenance of MS Digby 86 (Bodleian); MS Harley 2253 (British Library); MSS fr. 837 and 19182 (Bibliothque Nationale); and Carmina Burana MS (Munich), Bayerische Staatsbibliothek CLM 4460 and 4460a. The literary techniques…
Robinson, Peter.
Literary and Linguistic Computing 15: 5-14, 2000.
Despite trends in textual theory and the capability of representing multiple versions of a text electronically, editors should present eclectic, reconstructed texts--not as representations of lost originals but as texts that best explain "all the…
Dor, Juliette.
Jean-Claude Polet, ed. Patrimoine litteraire europeen: Actes du colloque international, Namur, 26, 27 et 28 novembre 1998 (Brussels: De Boeck Université, 2000), pp. 139-49.
Like many of his French predecessors, Chaucer relied heavily on ancient (and a few foreign) authorities, but his vernacular language lacked prestige. He gradually freed himself from such handicaps to claim new status as an English writer.
Echard, Siân.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30: 185-210, 2000.
Cultural and institutional practice has frequently estimated the status of Gower's poetry and the value of his manuscripts, not through assessment of his own achievements, but through his historical and literary proximity to Chaucer.
Farrell, Thomas (J.)
Medieval Perspectives 15.2: 34-48, 2000.
Defines the assumptions underlying J. Burke Severs's analysis of the relation of ClT to Petrarch's version of the material and clarifies how Farrell's own assumptions differ from those in his analysis for Sources and Analogues II. Severs was more…
Koff, Leonard Michael, and Brenda Deen Schildgen, eds.
Madison, N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000.
Eleven studies on reception and influence, the shared culture of the two authors, and specific tales. Includes an introduction by Koff and an afterword by David Wallace. For essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Decameron and the Canterbury…
Taylor, Karla.
Leonard Michael Koff and Brenda Deen Schildgen, eds. The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: New Essays on an Old Question (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000), pp. 47-82.
Italian vernacular literature (rather than French court culture) inspired Chaucer to develop his authorial voice. FranT is a reading of Decameron 10.5 that illustrates the development of Chaucer's distinctly English agenda.
Thompson, N. S.
Leonard Michael Koff and Brenda Deen Schildgen, eds. The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: New Essays on an Old Question (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000), pp. 85-101.
Studies two ways CT borrows from Boccaccio: first, in transforming exemplary narratives into "novelles" and, second, in the use of narrative detail to create local history. MilT, RvT, and ShT are examples.
Jimura, Akiyuki.
Loren C. Gruber, ed. Essays on Old, Middle, Modern English and Old Icelandic in Honor of Raymond P. Tripp, Jr. (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 409-46.
Compares each line of TC in Larry Benson's, F. N. Robinson's, R. K. Root's, and B. A. Windeatt's editions in preparation for a larger study that will account for differences of word choice and syntax among these editions.
Karibe, Tsuneronri, Hisaaki Sasagawa, Ryoichi Koyama, and Yoshiharu Tanaka, eds.
Tokyo : Shohakusha, 2000.
An edition based on the Variorum facsimile edition of the Hengwrt manuscript (1979), retaining the original virgule marks. Includes glosses and explanatory notes at the bottom of the page, with Japanese translation, textual notes, and commentary.
