Browse Items (16471 total)

Suggests that the portentous oak of PardT 6.765 (no species mentioned in analogues) gains dimension in light of Chaucer having been robbed at a "fowle oak" in Kent in 1390, and also suggests, therefore, that Chaucer must have been written PardT after…

Clarifies the typicality of Chaucer's Miller by identifying characteristics that "were commonly ascribed to millers in late-medieval literature." Like analogous miller's, he is "is red-haired, coarse-featured, socially ambitious, muscular,…

Identifies sources for a number of instances in MilT where Chaucer parodies, ridicules, or alludes to mystery plays--most evident in the characterizations of the Miller and Absolon as influenced by stage-versions of Pilate and/or Herod and the parody…

Records Chaucer's consistent and conventional usage of "ye" and "thou" in FrT, showing how it achieves "irony and humor." Attends to manuscript variants and opines that "that the English language lost something by the abandonment of the singular form…

Suggests Chaucer "was walking on dangerous ground" in choosing 1Timothy 6:10 ("Radix malorum . . .") as the theme of the Pardoner's sermon, adducing a Latin sermon by Oxfordian Robert Lychlade on the same theme that led to him being brought to trial…

Identifies previously unrecorded allusions to Chaucer, most of them reflecting his "reputation as a religious leader and reformer," some based on works attributed to him falsely.

Describes the "intellectual milieu" of the Clerk in order to characterize him as "man of essentially humanistic temper, aware of so many complexities . . . that he found it difficult to rest in dogmatic assurance of anything." Traces the "movement…

Examines the characterization of the Pardoner as the "wretchedest and vilest of the ecclesiastical sinners" among Chaucer's pilgrims in CT, arguing that "not covetousness, but wrath against the Divine was the Pardoner's prime motivation." Tallies a…

Reads Antigone's song (TC 2.827-75) as a "reply to Criseyde's objections to love" which precedes it in the narrative. Much of the song derives from Guillaume de Machaut's "Paradis d'Amour," but its sequence and several ideas mirror Criseyde's earlier…

Describes how the quarrel between the Friar and Summoner in WBP sets up the vituperative exchange of FrT and SumT, commenting on audience expectations and the motives and techniques of the two narrators, but focusing particularly on the cleverness of…

Examines references to times and dates in Book II of TC, arguing that Chaucer creates a double sense of time in order to convey a "rapid sequence of events" among the three main characters while also conveying through a "longer time scheme" the…

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 the "static portraiture" in MilT establishes "character traits precisely" for the main characters so that the plot may "punish" these traits and convey "comic moral justice." Explores connections between Carpenter John and Oswald the…

Observes a variety of astrological and sexual puns, allusions, and emphases in Troilus's address to Criseyde's house ("paraclausithyron"), distancing the reader from Troilus's grief and emphasizing sensual love.

Comments on previous criticism of the character of Criseyde, and explores the "infinite suggestiveness" of her more positive characteristics such as self-knowledge, charm, and desire to please others.

Identifies parallels between the effects of grief on the Black Knight in BD (486-512) and late-medieval medical descriptions of the "falling of the heart" due to sorrow or distress, quoting parallels from John of Gaddesden and Jacopo Berengario Da…

Argues that the astrological data in GP and MLH establish the date of the beginning of the Canterbury pilgrimage as April 17, the same day as the departure of Noah's ark, evoking notions of sinfulness and salvific baptism, reinforced by imagery of…

Focuses on the characterization of the Knight in GP, cast into relief by the Squire and Prioress, especially in the application of words such as "curteys" and "worthy." Distinguishes between moral virtue and professional efficiency throughout the GP,…

Describes the medieval tradition of representing the scorpion as a figure of female sexuality and explains how this underlies the depiction of Fortune as a harlot and a treacherous "woman-visaged scorpion" in MerT 4.2057-62.

Argues that the "ability of the poet to secure a just and enduring fame" is an important and unifying theme in HF, focusing on the poem's concerns with poetic authority and patronage, and suggesting that its "missing conclusion" was to entail the…

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…

Questions whether Troilus has gained wisdom by the end of TC and explores what is evident as true wisdom in PF. Although Troilus's laughter indicates his contempt for the world, the hero does not realize fully the hierarchical nature of love that is…

Examines the "shifts in point of view, authorial intrusion, changes in subject, and multiple closures" of the final seventeen stanzas of TC, reading their structure closely, and arguing that they produce an "artistic disorder, the purpose of which is…

Presents the Host as the figure of Judge in CT and identifies the judgment imagery in ParsP and elsewhere in CT, along with its Biblical and iconographical roots. This theme of judgment anticipates the concern with penance in ParsT.

Analyzes the Wife of Bath's sense of guilt for her life of lust and rapaciousness, reading details of WBP as evidence of this guilt and WBT as a reflection of her "thirst for innocence" which has not been satisfied. The characterization is a rich…