Baswell, Christopher.
New Medieval Literatures 5 : 8-58, 2002.
The calming of an "urban rabble" in Aeneid 1.148-56 was a topos in reports and rumors that surrounded the uprising of 1381 and in reports of similar conflicts at Lynn and London in 1377. Baswell explores the "anxieties, hopes, and tensions" of the…
Minnis, Alastair.
New Medieval Literatures 6 (2003): 107-28.
Argues against specifying the Pardoner's sexuality, on the grounds that historical evidence discourages such specification and that specification can only render the character less enigmatic and thereby less queer. Sexual characteristics ascribed to…
Scanlon, Larry.
New Medieval Literatures 6 (2003): 129-65
Scanlon reads ClT against a historical tension between aristocratic arranged marriage and canonist marriage of consent, focusing on the espousal scene, the papal letter forged by Walter, and the conclusion and Envoy of the Tale.
Oliver, Clementine.
New Medieval Literatures 6 (2003): 167-98
Explores the identity and political career of Thomas Fovent (Favent), author of the polemical treatise on the Merciless Parliament--"Historia Mirabilis Parliament"--arguing that the treatise is best regarded as a "pamphlet," an index to the public…
Steiner, Emily.
New Medieval Literatures 6 (2003): 199-22.
Steiner assesses political "clamor," "appeal," and "voice," using them to discuss the Prologue to "Piers Plowman" as a work in which "commonality" is "the poem's ideological subject and poetic process." Suggests briefly that the same is true of PF.
Ellis, Steve.
New Medieval Literatures 7 (2005): 35-52
Virginia Woolf's discussions of Chaucer have "the effect of cutting him down to size." This effect reflects her reaction to High Modernist affection for the Middle Ages and her "subversive and anti-canonical approach to literary history."
Trigg, Stephanie.
New Medieval Literatures 7 (2005): 9-33.
Distinguishes among "various ways in which medieval English religious sites are mediated for visitors," from cathedrals (including Canterbury) to the Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction. Assesses the authenticity of visitors' experiences in light of…
Turner, Marion.
New Medieval Literatures 9 (2007): 139-77.
Describes the cultural production of members of late-medieval English livery companies, focusing on political and literary activities of scribes (Thomas Usk in particular) who were members of the companies and comments on the impact of these…
Camargo, Martin.
New Medieval Literatures 9 (2007): 41-62.
Describes the role of performance, or delivery, in medieval rhetorical and grammatical treatises, and exemplifies the evidence of Chaucer's concern with rhetoric and performance in CT--in the Host's remarks to the Clerk, the role-playing of the…
Ussery, Huling E.
New Orleans, Louisiana: Tulane University, 1971.
Describes fourteenth-century medical training and practice in England and documents physicians who were contemporary with Chaucer, suggesting that John de Middelton is the "perhaps most probable" candidate for a real-life model of Chaucer's…
Thomas, Eberle, and Barbara Redmond.
New Orleans: Anchorage Press, 1993.
Adaptation for the stage of WBT, ClT, SumT, MancT, FranT, and PardT, presented as a single play in which there is a tale-telling contest framed by the actions of two thieves (a Miller and a Plowman) who join a group of five pilgrims (Chaucer, the…
Wax, Judith.
New Republic 169.10 (September 17, 1973): 24-25.
Sendup of the Watergate political scandal in pseudo-Chaucerian rhymed couplets, based on GP descriptions. Includes comic foonotes. Reprinted in "Time" 102.13 (1972): 20, with a brief introduction.
Spencer, Jaime.
New Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2011.
Discusses how authors, from Chaucer to C. S. Lewis, are influenced by the "flexible tradition" of religious stories. Chapter 1 analyzes how Chaucer reveals understanding of Christian doctrine in WBT.
Lopez, Alan.
New Views on Gender 5 (2000): 69-79. Fully accessible at https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/iusbgender/article/view/35631/38680; last accessed May 22, 2025.
Observes tensions between masculine, political responsibilities Troilus has to his state and feminized submissiveness to his "sovereyn" Criseyde, grounding these tensions in medieval critiques of courtly love and aligning Troilus's submission with…
Amano, Masachiyo, and others, eds.
New York and Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2008.
Twenty-eight essays by various authors on linguistic aspects of Old and Middle English. For three that pertain to Chaucer; search for Historical Englishes in Varieties of Texts and Contexts under Alternative Title.
Twelve chapters assess why so many poets have been drawn to Ovid's Metamorphoses as a source of inspiration. Although its intrinsic richness and complexity provided the original impetus for its popularity, its permeation of so much English literature…
Palmer, R. Barton, ed.
New York : AMS Press, 1999.
Fourteen essays by various authors on French poets Machaut, Froissart, Deschamps, Christine de Pizan, Charles d'Orelans, and Villon. The essays emphasize the determining material effects of the courtly mode of production, especially the roles of the…
Wright, Constance S., and Julia Bolton Holloway, eds.
New York : AMS Press, 2000.
Ten essays, two fictional narratives, and one lecture on Apuleius, his legacy, and the traditions of folly. Reprints Holloway's "The Asse to the Harpe: Boethian Music in Chaucer." For two new essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Tales Within…
A personal travelogue of a walking trip from Canterbury to London following the Pilgrims' Way--interspersed with brief summaries of portions of CT and musings on medieval social history and folk wisdom, the United Kingdom and the United States,…
Beidler, Peter G., trans. and ed.
New York : Bantam, 2006.
Facing-page translation of selections from CT, based on the 1964 version by A. Kent Hieatt and Constance Hieatt, augmented with expanded selections and apparatus. Selections include GP, KnT, MilPT, RvPT, WBPT, MerPT, FranT, PardPT, ShT, PrPT, and…
Coghill, Nevill, trans.Foreword by Melvyn Bragg. Introd. by John Wain.
New York : Barnes and Noble, 1994
A reprint of the 1952 Coghill translation (Mel and ParsT in synopsis only), with extensive color and black-and-white illustrations from a variety of medieval sources: all of the Ellesmere illuminations; woodcuts from Caxton's second edition of CT…
Giancarlo, Matthew.
New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Studies the intersection between the "growth of parliament" and the "development of poetry" from c.1376 to 1414, focusing on depictions of parliaments in literature. Poets such as Langland, Gower, and Chaucer had "extensive parliamentary…
West, Richard.
New York : Carroll and Graf; London: Constable, 2000.
A non-academic biography of Chaucer focusing on his responses to the sociohistorical concerns of the "Black Death, war, class, race, religion and social justice" (p. 256). It reprises a view of Chaucer held in the early twentieth century: genial,…
George, Jodi-Anne, ed.
New York : Columbia University Press, 2000.
Summary-survey of critical responses to GP. Six chapters focus on particular time periods and the critical emphases that dominated them: (1) 1368-1880, Chaucer's "greatness" and the early editorial tradition; (2) 1892-1949, later editors and…
