Browse Items (16472 total)

Summarizes the plot of French fabliau "Bérenger au long cul" and suggests that it helps to "explain the background upon which Chaucer was drawing when he decided to make January a knight of Lombardy" in MerT.

Summarizes the historical and formal stumbling blocks involved in describing a tradition of Middle English secular lyrics, with comments on Chaucer's innovations and on the evidence in his works for courtly and popular legacies.

Exemplifies the "allusive richness" of SumT by explaining the references to horn and ivory (3.1741-42) which emphasize the falsity of the tablets of the Summoner's Friar.

Gauges Matthew Arnold's familiarity with Chaucer's works, judging it to be "thin" and "not extensive until the last eight years of his life," and suggesting that Arnold might not have misjudged Chaucer's "high seriousness" if had he read more of him.

Identifies antecedents to Troilus's address to Criseyde's empty palace and his reference to its doors (the rhetorical topos "paraclausithyron"), comparing Chaucer's and Boccaccio's versions of the scene, discarding suggestions of astrological…

Assesses the "tenderness" of Chaucer's own feelings by examining his adaptations of the genre of consolation in BD and his techniques for evoking "consolatory feeling" in TC.

Tallies and comments upon various irreversible paired words in Chaucer's works (e.g., "joy and bliss," "word and dede," wele and wo," etc.), observing where modern usages vary or continue medieval practices.

Challenges characterizations of the Wife of Bath that treat her as an icon or as a representative figure. Reads WBP for the ways that it may be regarded as a "modern case history" that reflects a complex personality rife with desires and regrets.

Shows that the bob-lines in Tho are characterized by "Bathos and vapidity," and focuses on their placement in manuscripts and the unique qualities of the first bob-line (7.793) to show that these characteristics are intentional and artful. Includes a…

Reports 102 items.

Identifies limitations in the Manly-Rickert "Corpus of Variants" and urges caution in its use, explaining that their use of the term "variant" excludes dialectical variants as well as spelling variants. Regional dialectical variants are especially…

Shows that the thematic concerns of FrT are evident in its rhyme words, focusing on the occurrences of "entente" and its rhymes: "rente," "hente," and "repente."

Compares and contrasts Pandarus's wooing of Criseyde (for Troilus) with Diomede's, assessing their patterns and details for the ways they reflect the design of the poem, its concern with time, and the "unchanged character" of Criseyde.

Argues that the theme of idleness and the triads of characters in PardT and SNT encourage us to read these tales in sequence--a feature of the ordering of the fragments of CT proposed by Henry Bradshaw.

Reports 106 items.

Argues that the image of the "citole" in KnT 1959, instead of a "concha" also found in traditional sources, contributes to the theme of "harmonious order" in the poem that is temporarily disrupted by the Venus/Mars strife.

Explicates several words and images found in MilT--the "piggesnye" of Alison's description most extensively--and identifies echoes of the tale's concern with "poetic justice" in RvT which contributes to the bitterness of the latter.

Attends to the details and imagery of old age in MerT in order to clarify the "precision and complexity" of Chaucer's art, commenting on January's name, age (60 years), physical condition, sexual prowess, attitude toward counsel, etc., and exploring…

Examines the allegorization of Pluto and Proserpine in the "Ovide Moralisé" and argues that it discloses how as figures of "earthly lust" their episode is well integrated into MerT.

Reports 85 items.

The Man of Law, in the telling of his tale, wants to present himself as a fount of knowledge. In Part I he frequently interrupts the narrative to voice his own comments. In Part II, as the power of God manifests itself in the trial scene,the…

The so-called original "Dunmow Oath" quoted by G.E.L. Johnson in the quarterly "This England" V (1972), 53, col. 3 is much more recent than the Dumdow [sic] Flitch spoken of by Chaucer's Wife of Bath in her prologue.

The references to the licentious god Pluto and the rich and lecherous Solomon that Proserpina talks of contribute to the notion of covetousness in MerT. The language of trade, commercial values, and the references to Solomon's prosperity in commerce…