Challenges the identification of Adam Pynkhurst with Scribe B (the "label nowadays given to the scribe" of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of CT). Surveys the history of identifying Pynkhurst as Scribe B, examines paleographical and linguistic…
Chaucerians must encourage or revive linguistic and cultural literacy of the Middle Ages among students and colleagues, both because the Middle Ages are of significant interest in popular culture and because they offer access to "familiar…
Chocano Díaz, Gema, Noelia Hernando Real, and Ana Ardid Gumiel, eds.
Madrid: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2020.
Includes a selection of passages from Chaucer, with word-by-word English translations and an introduction to Chaucer's linguistic and literary context. Intended for use as a manual for Middle and early modern English literature survey courses.
Challenges existing editions of CT and proposes an alternative that would include the old-spelling version of Hengwrt with new spelling, glossing, and annotations.
Evans, Ruth.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 44 (2022): 3-26.
Contemplates the value of studying Chaucer in light of national and international calls to decenter the poet and his works, considering the history and politics of these calls, the nature of canon-making, and several instances where "Chaucer's work…
Dabydeen, David.
Maggie Butcher, ed. Tibisiri: Caribbean Writers and Critics (Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1989), pp. 121-35.
Interrogates differences and tensions between modern black British poetry and the dominant Anglo-American tradition, focusing on the use of "Caribbean creole" to resist colonial subordination of black voices. Refers to Chaucer and the tradition of…
Murphy, Michael.
Mediaevalia 9 (1986, for 1983): 205-23.
Argues that if we read CT aloud we should generally do so in our own dialects rather than in "Semblance," the reconstructed version of the fourteenth-century English dialect of the Southeast Midlands.
Nakley, Susan.
Matthew Stratton, ed. The Routledge Companion to Politics and Literature in English (London: Routledge, 2023), pp. 172-82.
Explores how "blame" links politics and literature in late medieval England, arguing that CT (especially MilP and Ret) "democratizes narrative authority and erodes authorial intention by redistributing doubt and confidence through blame," thereby…
Medcalf, Stephen.
Stephen Medcalf, ed. The Later Middle Ages (London: Methuen; New York: Holmes & Meier, 1981), pp. 1-55.
Seeks to bridge the intellectual and emotion distance between modern readers and medieval literature, addressing the nature of semantic change and changing ideas about human personality. Includes commentary on a range of medieval works, with extended…
Hill, Betty.
Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society Literary and Historical Section 14 (1971): 207-20.
Reads six stanzas from TC (3.85-126), closely analyzing rhymes and rhythm, alliteration, diction and phrases, repetitions and echoes of other works to exemplify the "pliable pleasure" afforded by Chaucer's style and his engagement with oral and…
G. K. Chesterton's "Chaucer" makes the "spaciousness" and capacity of Chaucer's writings available to twentieth-century readers. Chesterton associated Chaucer's sanity and vitality with Aquinas, who shared with Chaucer medieval orthodox Christian…
Yamanaka, Margaret.
Bulletin of Gifu Women's University 47 (2017): 11-18.
Compares two travel diaries by Jerry Ellis (1974-). Includes a detailed description of "Walking to Canterbury--A Modern Journey through Chaucer's Medieval England," which contains references to NPT, SumT, WBT, and ParsT.
Roberts, Jane.
Julia Boffey and Janet Cowen, eds. Chaucer and Fifteenth-Century Poetry. King's College London Medieval Studies, no. 5 (London: King's College Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, 1991), pp. 103-21.
Explores the "moralitas" of Henryson's poem and conjectures that KnT was a "major shaping force" in it.
Lee, Sung-Il.
Medieval English Studies 05 (1997): 201-16.
Henryson's emulation of Chaucer is evident in his adoption of the stanza form of TC for his "Testament," yet he expresses his "rivalry" with his prececessor by offering a different conclusion.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31: 113-46, 2001.
Echoing Chaucer's poetry while portraying non-Christian, racialized others, the Middle English romance "The Sultan of Babylon" invokes a "Saracen Chaucer" whose status as national poet depends on such markers of difference.
Harris, Carissa M.
Chaucer Review 57 (2022): 475-83.
In light of newly discovered documents surrounding Cecily Chaumpaigne, calls for more attention to the servant women depicted in Chaucer's texts and the use of the word "endure" in his corpus.
Zhou, Yue.
Hideshi Ohno, Kazuho Mizuno, and Osamu Imabayashi, eds. The Pleasure of English Language and Literature: A Festschrift for Akiyuki Jimura (Hiroshima: Keisuisha, 2018), pp. 375-90.
Discusses adjectives employed to modify knightly characters in TC, GP, KnT, Th, BD, and Anel.
Burnley, J. D.
Erik Cooper, ed. This Noble Craft . . .: Proceedings of the Xth Research Symposium of Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics, Utrecht, 19-20 January, 1989. Costerus New Series, no. 80 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991), pp. 43-57.
Drawing on recent socio- and ethnolinguistic insights, Burnley examines the complex stylistic associations of commonly used language in a variety of spoken and written contexts. The structure of Chaucer's English is not neat and orderly but…
Brown, Peter.
Peter Brown, ed. Reading Dreams: The Interpretation of Dreams from Chaucer to Shakespeare (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 22-50.
Argues that Middle English dream visions from the second half of the fourteenth century allowed writers to experiment with altered states of consciousness and liminality. Discusses French and Middle English dream visions, including BD, HF, LGW, and…
Higuchi, Masayuki.
Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature 5 (1990): 13-26.
The rare construciton "go + walked" occurs only in BD 387 and SumT 3.1778. No other instances are recorded in the OED, the MED, or Visser. Discussion about this construction will contribute to a more accurate reading of Chaucer's text and to an…
Argues for the continuity of English literary tradition from Beowulf to the present by exploring several "great speeches" in Chaucer's works and in previous literature. No one disputes the continuity from Chaucer to the present, and the presence in…
Mori, Hajime.
Bulletin of the Department of English Literature, Teikyo University (1979): 342.
The use of contrast in PF is notable, as the poem begins with a suggestive contrast in "Ars longa, vita brevis." The main theme of the work may be considered to be a contrast of courtly love and natural love.
Higuchi, Masayuki.
Studies in English Literature, English number 59 (1983): pp. 101-25.
"Wenen," defined as "think" or "imagine" when referring to an anterior or contemporaneous event and "expect" or "intend" when referring to a posterior event, is most commonly used when the subject holds an erroneous conception. The counterfactual…
