Browse Items (16471 total)

Chaucer's use of the interjection "Oo" in KnT (2533) is adduced as a stage in the history of "Ahoy" going back to the Anglo-French verb "oir" (to hear, listen).

References to "Lameth" in WBT and SqT comprise links in a sturdy chain connecting the tragic actions of Shakespeare's prince of Denmark to Lamech, a "(pseudo-)biblical figure associated with murder, rage, and vengeance."

The ludic responses depicted in these two lines bear out Barry Windeatt's assertion that Chaucer's "displacement of tragedy by comedy" at the end of TC took its inspiration from Dante's "Commedia."

The poem's use of "rare variants" such as "peregal," which appears in Chaucer's TC (5.840) and in Lydgate's "Reson and Sensuallyte" (ll. 1738, 4384), exemplifies its "rather refined" language.

The varying senses of "lewed" in Chaucer's works point out the myopia of the received view of the word's history as an easy progression from "lay" to "lascivious."

In the context of the biblical passages alluded to in a couplet evoking "gem-encrusted plows," it is worth noting that in Blake's depiction of the Canterbury Pilgrims, "he represented the Plowman as a medieval version of himself."

The successive deaths between 1810 and 1816 of several men associated with Thomas Strothard's "Canterbury Pilgrims" painting would seem to have executed a certain poetic justice, for Blake had dubbed himself "Death" in one Notebook poem and, in…

A biography of Blake, "William Blake, ein ausgezeichneter Künstler, Dichter und Narr," mentions his work on his "Canterbury Pilgrims" and his troubled relationships with Thomas Stothard and Robert Cromek.

In HF the response of "Geffrey" to being asked if he is seeking fame is a version of the proverb "One must drink as one brews."

Suggests that PrT is the source of George Eliot's reference in "Middlemarch" to a "legend" that Ladislaw believes to have influenced Dorothea.

An art-edition of KnT, with wood-cut style illustrations accompanying the text, followed by a summary of the tale, and comments on its sources, date, genre, structure, themes, style, prosody, historical context, and previous illustrations in…

Comments on the fittingness and suggestiveness of a number of proper names in CT--Eglyntine, Absolon, Alisoun, Philostratus, January, May, Justinus, Placebo, and Cecilia--as part of a survey of the literary uses of names and naming in medieval Latin…

Assesses the paucity of names given to the pilgrims in CT and comments on those that are given; Eglyntine, John (Nun's Priest), Piers (Monk), Harry Bailly (and his wife Goodelief), Huberd, Hodge, Robin, Oswald, Alisoun, and Chaucer himself, who is…

Surveys the uses of personal names of the Canterbury pilgrims and of the major characters in the tales, commenting on names adapted from sources, common names, diminutives and name variants, given names and surnames, name-play, the relative paucity…

The word "soutere" (shoemaker) in CT 1.3904 may possibly be a pun on "Chaucer" (Fr. "chaussier", shoemaker).

Chaucer uses 636 proper names (excluding about 300 additional topographical and geographical names). They fall into four categories: astrological, Biblical, classical, and mythological. Names from Latin and Greek appear in the oblique case (e.g.,…

The Shipman and other mariners named ships after Mary Magdalene as protectress from shipwreck and death and, probably, because of her scarlet past.

Analyzes the function of the proper names as playful, complex allusions, and associates with January--holder of the silver "clyket" to the garden--both Janus, god of passageways, and Saint Peter, who holds the keys to paradise.

Each of the five names Chaucer uses for the moon goddess denotes a particular aspect of the goddess. A study of these names in TC, FranT, KnT, and MerT and of the functions they denote helps us understand the personalities of the women who invoke…

Kittredge's argument that Chaucer's reference to "Trophee" (MkT 2117) is due to a misreading of Latin "tropaeum" is indirectly supported by difficulties with the Latin word in a Middle English translation of the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle.

"Alys" and its diminutive "Alisoun" have interesting reverberations. The rhyme "Alys"/"talys" may link the Wife with "tales" and have a pun indicating love of drink. "Alisoun" may be a covert pun on "eleison." The popularity of the name Alys is…

The statement that the fox "thurghout the hegges brast" into the barnyard, which does not accord with the earlier description of the yard as surrounded by a fence and a dry ditch, is perhaps best accounted for as a narrational paraphrase of the name…

Challenges previous arguments that the name "Malyne" is appropriate to the character in RvT because it means "dish cloth," arguing instead that "Malyne," "Aleyn," and their roles in RvT can better be understood in light of the denotations and…

Reads various adaptations of WBPT in light of the time in which each of the individual "iterations" of the Wife was produced, from scribal adjustments in manuscripts, to ballad versions, to John Gay's dramatic adaptation and William Blake's…

Fisher comments on the series of faces or portraits depicted in the historiated initials of the Bedford Psalter, arguing that they depict members of the affinities of Richard II and Henry IV: the kings themselves and the future Henry V, Gower,…