Browse Items (16470 total)

Covers a wide range of concerns in Spenser criticism, with forty-two individual essays arranged under five headings: Contexts, Works, Poetic Craft, Sources and Influence, and Reception. The handbook cites Chaucer and his works recurrently, with…

McCabe views Spenser's alleged completion of Chaucer in "The Legend of Friendship" as a move to represent himself as a "Bonfont" rather than a "Malfont" poet.

Discusses the "very novelty of Gower's claim to be a nationally significant, elite, literary author by examining specific articulations of this claim." Examining the implications of such a claim, McCabe argues for Gower's influence on English poetry…

Discusses the ways in which Chaucer uses classical materials in comedy, tragedy, and allegory; in theme, action, and character, to make available the world of Virgil, Ovid, and Lucan--sometimes through Dante, Graunson, Boccaccio, and Froissart.

Comprehensive readings of TC fall into two basic categories: sympathetic/dualistic, and ironic. In the first, the essentially admirable courtly love of Troilus and Criseyde is seen to contrast (in varying degrees) with the orthodox Christian world…

Examines the dating, authorship, textual history, and medieval popularity of "De Maria Magdelena," attributed to Origen, as a basis for exploring Chaucer's use of it in his "Orygenes upon the Maudeleyne," cited in LGWP F427 (G418) and here regarded…

Argues that critical efforts to provide a harmonious interpretation of PF are misdirected because the poem is designed to represent the cacophony of this world rather than heavenly concord.

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.

Judges ClT to be "more successful than it has been thought" because it is a tale of "idealized obedience" in which Griselda's submissiveness is an "imitation" of Christ's Passion and Resurrection and a demonstration that the human will can achieve…

Explicates Chaucer's reference to John of Legnano ("Lynyan" at ClT 4.34), clarifying the international reputation of the canon lawyer and his role in justifying the papal schism, suggesting how Chaucer may have learned of him during his 1378 mission…

Argues that the "formal and thematic design" of TC--particularly its five-book structure--reflects the "ordered argument of Lady Philosophy" in Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and "reveals a new facet of Chaucer's concept of tragedy." Altering…

Argues that Chaucer's references to May third, assigned in Ovidian tradition to "the goddess Flora and her celebrations," is a day on which the "force of love is especially and powerfully felt," and therefore "a suitable day for Pandare [TC 2.56],…

Argues that Chaucer's personal experience of the 1386 Parliament influenced his depiction of parliamentary activity in TC (4.141ff.), detailing events of the historical parliament, Chaucer's likely feelings about it, and changes and additions Chaucer…

The warnings in ParsT against contraceptive methods are literary evidence that women successfully limited fertility in the late Middle Ages.

Reads the first three tales in CT as a gradated and "symmetrical" treatment of love that moves from the non-physical idealism of KnT to the mixture of emotion and action in MilT and on to the revenge and "physical realism" of RvT.

Prints two versions of "The Plowman's Tale" (ca. 1400)--the 1533 edition originally intended for publication in Francis Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer's "Works" but suppressed and the 1606 edition by additional explanatory notes, a glossary and…

Nineteen essays by various authors that together seek to "raise the standard of scholarly editing for Middle English texts," describing theories and problems of editing and offering practical recommendations on how to edit. The contributors explore…

Explores how the material book is a "metaphorically rich signifier" in contemporary culture and in a selection of English narratives, including BD and PF--where the narrators' books, serving as portals to the dream experience, result in "poetic…

Anthology for teaching medieval ideas about love, sex, and marriage; includes modern translation of portions of Chaucer's works: PardT, WBP, and Buk.

FranT raises problems rather than providing a solution in the Marriage Group. Like ClT, it poses "a problematic marriage agreement" at the outset; like MerT, it shows that disastrous consequences can result from introducing non-marital love into a…

Because they were not subject to fathers or husbands, widows posed a challenge to dominant views of women in late fourteenth-century England. Chaucer's Wife of Bath is portrayed as lecherous, yet she may also embody broader concerns about widowhood.

Chancery highlighted problems posed in the medieval common law courts by failures in jurisprudence. MLT raises questions about injustice that reflect critically on the Sergeant of Law. Though he is shown to be an expert in jurisprudence, he is…

McCarthy explores how marriage is represented in medieval English literary and legal texts and the "relationship of these representations to actual practice." Subjects range from Beowulf and Old English laws to late medieval ecclesiastical statutes…

Uses Chaucer and the "Pearl"-poet as metonyms for the tasks of translating and updating medieval works for later readers. Evokes both works in these translations, if at times obliquely.

Pedagogical commentary on PardPT, based on A. C. Spearing's 1965 edition (text not included). McCarthy emphasizes the "gothic" elements of PardPT and summarizes the poem in sections, offering section-by-section commentary, along with sidebar glosses,…