The pilgrimage to Canterbury is actually a search for wisdom. Chaucer is seeking to arrive at a fusion of rational thinking and revelation. KnT rejects reason as the only answer to man's problems. In ParsT the superiority of godly revelation over…
Rutherford, Charles S.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 78 (1977): 350-58.
Clanvowe uses Chaucerian themes and conventions with deftness. He recognizes irony based on logic, characterizes through rhetoric, and employs all three conventional endings of debate form.
Magoun, Francis P.,Jr.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 78 (1977): 46.
"Townes end" translates, literally, as "the town's end," a concept that has lost its meaning in our modern society of expanding cities. Chaucer's "estres" has a much broader meaning than merely "the ins and outs of a building." Virtually the entire…
Resemblances between Aelfric's and Chaucer's versions of the St. Cecilia legend suggest a common Latin source, possibly Mombritius' "Passio." But Chaucer's treatment, different from Aelfric's especially in dealing with the crowns of flowers, is more…
Keenan, Hugh T.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 79 (1978): 36-40.
The "snow" of food and drink in the Franklin's house evokes manna, which was like hoarfrost in the Bible, and therefore snow in medieval references. The result is eucharistic parody, discrediting the Franklin's feast.
Whitbread, L.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 79 (1978): 41-43.
CT I (A), 5 equals Catullus Car. XLVI 1-3, 7-11. "Pynce at" CT I (A), 326 is not a pun but an idiom. Mars is rightly red, as is the Wife; the number of her husbands evokes John 4:17-18. The Miller's gold thumb refers to the method of his theft,…
Lines 1748-54 (558-64) of PrT are a "tour de force" of sustained onomatopoetic alliteration, with thirty-one ("recte," thirty-two) sibilants, in hissing imitation of "the serpent Sathanas." Chaucer's artistry here is more subtle and varied than in…
Nonce words in CT illustrate a correlation between conventionality in subject matter and conventionality in diction. Because nonce words increase as Chaucer's career progresses, their frequency can be used for relative dating. Following this…
Ridley, Florence H.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 81 (1980): 131-41.
Chaucer's enduring appeal derives from his poetry's visuality,its presentation of unchanging human behavior, its deliberate ambiguity. The broad ranges of psychological criticism are viable as long as they are understood as imaginative constructs of…
Spraycar, Rudy S.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 81 (1980): 142-49.
The spring opening of GP may reflect Alain de Lille's concepts in "De Planctu Naturae," indicating the connection between nature's amorous regeneration and man's need for spiritual renewal.
Matthews, Lloyd J.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 82 (1981): 211-13.
The lines of Matteo Frescobaldi's "Canzone XI" provide the nearest analogue for Chaucer's description of Prudence with "eyen thre." As bankers to the crown, the Frescobaldi had direct links with fourteenth-century England, and the verbal parallels…
Lipson, Carol [S.]
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 84 (1983): 192-200.
No more than a fraction of Astr is translated; the largest part is Chaucer's own "practical prose." In the "translated" sections Chaucer expanded his source by a factor of eight; thus his version is hardly a "translation."
Allusions to several Christian saints in HF show that, contrary to the arbitrariness of Fame's judgment, the "natural consequence of meritorious action" is "recognition both worldly and other-worldly."
Olsen, Alexandra Hennessey.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 84 (1983): 367-71.
The Old Man's significance depends on audience reaction, not on learned traditions; readers and pilgrims might easily associate him with the Green Yeoman of the FrT, for he too "seems to be a devil wandering the earth in search of prey."
