Browse Items (16364 total)

Examines the allusion to Constantinus Africanus's "De Coitu" in MerT 4.1810-11, suggesting that knowledge of the treatise helps us to understand that January's consumption of aphrodisiacs is "manically compulsive" and sinful.

Explores various denotations in medieval uses of "phantom," and contends that Chaucer's use of the word in HF (line 493) capitalizes on these meanings and neatly encapsulates the poem's fundamental concern with the difficulties of seeking to…

Applies "principles" of medieval visual art (scale and perspective) to aid in understanding how BD magnifies the Black Knight's loss by presenting it in the context of the analogous accounts of the narrator's malaise and the grief of Alcyone.

Argues that the opposition between "feyned" worldly love and true heavenly love posed at the end of TC produces "dialectical" irony in which the alternatives "share equally in the truth of experience." Secrecy and deception interact with idealism…

Speculates "about the real state of Chaucer's purse in late 1399," examining details of the poem "Purse" and the relative chronology of the poet's life records to conclude that he wrote "Purse" to Henry IV because of actual financial duress.…

Traces the iconographical motif of "Maria Misericordia" as it developed from its early roots into the satire of friars found in SumP. Originally found in treatise by Caesarius of Heisterbach, the motif was adapted by Dominican and Franciscan friars…

Examines animal, costume, and color imagery in RvT to show that Chaucer adapted his source by increasing and specifying such imagery, lending moral dimension to the fabliau plot and offering an exemplary illustration of the "sins of pride, wrath and…

Translates "Pamphilus" into modern English prose (lineated as verse) and describes its influence on late medieval literature, including discussion of Chaucer's references to it in Mel and FranT and its role as a secondary source of the first three…

Concentrates on the links between the Tales in Part 7 of CT, arguing that this "Literature Group" is concerned primarily with the "art of storytelling," particularly the responsibilities of audience and author as dramatized in the directions and…

Interprets the eagle's descent on the narrator in HF in light of medieval medical theory, contending that it is "actually an apoplectic seizure in 'visionary' form--a 'stroke'." Also, the eagle's oration on sound evinces Chaucer's familiarity with…

Analyzes Chaucer's use and adaptation of the allusion to Jephthah and his daughter in PhyT, arguing that it helps to explain why the Physician's study is "but litel on the Bible" (GP 438), why Chaucer placed PhyT after FranT in the order of the CT (a…

Compiles more than 100 maps and images that illustrate the Chaucer's world and the imagery therein, arranged loosely around the GP descriptions of Chaucer's pilgrims, with additional topics. The accompanying text includes appreciation of Chaucer's…

Tallies books and articles pertaining to Chaucer--ones in progress, completed, and/or published in 1966.

Describes the "ironic reversal" of the roles of the husband and the monk in ShT, exploring the equation of sex and commerce in the Tale, and the wife's use of them both. The Tale presents commercialization of sex and a sexualization of commerce.

Argues that the glosses from Pope Innocent III's "De Miseria" in manuscripts of MLT "were written either by Chaucer from his own manuscript of the 'De Miseria' or by a scribe copying from that same manuscript, either under Chaucer's supervision or…

Shows that NPT was the "principal source" for Henryson's "Tale of the Cock and Fox," listing and discussing eight shared features that are found in "no other extant version of the fable."

Argues that the reference to ale and cake in PardP (6.321-22) is a "device operating on three levels": 1) creating cohesion in PardPT; 2) introducing the theme of gluttony; and 3) reinforcing the irony of the portrait of the Pardoner through a…

Considers CYPT to be "highly moralistic," a poem that addresses the "nature and the consequences of man's transgression against the will of God." Signaled by juxtaposition with SNPT and appropriate to placement near the end of CT, CYPT is anagogical,…

Explores the female protagonists of the legends in LGW and Chaucer's adaptations of his sources in these legends to sketch Chaucer's "psychograph of the Good Woman," emphasizing rejection of authority and active pursuit of love and sex, "a human…

Explores the imagery, action, and word-plays of SNPT to show that they are "concerned with the interplay" between the dark, mundane world and the bright heavenly one. In their "werk," both the Second Nun and Cecilia help others to achieve "their full…

Suggests that FranT is an exposé of "bourgeois sentimentality," and argues that its "central theme" is the "difficulty of perceiving truth in a world of illusions." Self-deceived, the Franklin mistakes his own desires for reality. He projects a…

Inculdes comments on the "somnium animale" in classical and medieval literature, particularly Chaucer's dream poetry. Explores the possibility that the dream in PF influenced Mercutio's dream of Mab in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

Identifies and transcribes an extended praise of Chaucer as a "pierles poet" (cast as a description of his burial site) found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 290 (90 (Bodl. SC 21864).

Identifies several medieval visual images of a sow playing bagpipes and suggests that the iconography underlies the reference to bagpipes and the two references to a female pig in the GP description of the Miller, helping to characterize him as…

Studies Chaucer's uses of "gan" and "do" with infinitive forms, tracing the history of the usage in English and providing statistics about Chaucer's uses and their relative chronologies. In Chaucer's works, "gan" is generally periphrastic and used…