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Queer Blood.
Barr, Helen.
Bonnie Lander-Johnson and Eleanor Decamp, eds. Blood Matters: Studies in European Literature and Thought, 1400-1700 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), pp. 238-48.
Describes the iconography of Thomas Becket's blood in Canterbury Cathedral and its "Christomimetic" associations, and explores parallels between Becket's blood and the Pardoner's blood in the "Canterbury Interlude" that precedes the "Tale of Beryn,"…
May's Mismarriage of Youth and Elde: The Poetics of Sexual Desire in Chaucer's 'Merchant's Tale'
Jost, Jean (E.)
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 117-38.
Not acknowledged or accounted for, feminine desire is a powerful force in the plot of MerT. Because January ignores May's sexual desires, he involuntarily provokes her to pursue a more appropriate mate. May takes what January proffers--his money…
Pleasing Virtue: The Problem of Word and Will in Chaucer's 'Clerk's Tale'
Goyne, Jo.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 139-60.
Explores the limitations and parameters of word and will in ClT. Chaucer asserts that words must not encumber the will beyond its limited capacity, even in the service of virtue.
Criseyde Through Her Own Eyes
Everhart, Deborah.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 23-42.
Uses Heidegger's language concerning the "concealing" and "unconcealing" of truth to examine the narrative layers through which readers interpret Criseyde's character. Criseyde's speeches subtly but forcefully unconceal her own "trouthe," raising…
With the 'Poynte of Remembraunce': Re-Viewing the Complaint in 'Anelida and Arcite'
Stallcup, Stephen.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 43-68.
Examines Anelida's complaint in relation to the genre of amatory complaint, considering the role of gender in the genre. Anelida reclaims lyric space for herself by reworking the courtly, traditionally masculine form, balancing the illogic of…
Dorigen and the Falcon: The Element of Despair in Chaucer's 'Squire's' and 'Franklin's Tales'
Goodman, Jennifer [R.]
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 69-90.
The desperation of the falcon in SqT and that of Dorigen in FranT link the two tales. Similar links include three sets of parallel relationships between older and younger men, as well as the notions of "trouthe" and fortitude in each tale's ending.
'Trouthe' Without Consequences: Rhetoric and Gender in the 'Franklin's Tale'
Wheeler, Bonnie.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Feminea Medievalia I: Representations of the Feminine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Academia Press, 1993), pp. 91-116.
Chaucer situates Dorigen, who is bound to contradictory roles as faithful wife and courtly mistress, within contradictory rhetorical schemes that metonymically reinforce and undercut notions of truth and "fin amors." Through carefully constructed…
The Necessity of History: The Example of Chaucer's 'Clerk's Tale
Patterson, Lee.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Mindful Spirit in Late Medieval Literature: Essays in Honor of Elizabeth D. Kirk (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 187-210.
Patterson reads ClT in light of negotiations over the marriage of Richard II and Isabelle of France in 1396 and of the texts surrounding those negotiations, especially those concerned with the ideology of sacral kingship. Chaucer knew of the marriage…
Host Desecration, Chaucer's 'Prioress's Tale,' and Prague 1389
Stanbury, Sarah.
Bonnie Wheeler, ed. Mindful Spirit in Late Medieval Literature: Essays in Honor of Elizabeth D. Kirk (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 211-24.
Accusations of eucharistic host desecration in Prague in 1389 may be read as a backdrop for PrT. Stanbury summarizes the events of mob violence that led to a massacre of Jews.
Caxton and Chaucer: A Re-View
Matthews, William.
Bonnie Wheeler, Robert L. Kindrick, and Michael D. Salda, eds. The Malory Debate: Essays on the Texts of Le Morte Darthur. Arthurian Studies, no. 47. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2000, pp. 1-34.
A revision (by Robert L. Kindrick) of Matthews's "Caxton and Malory: A Re-View" (SAC 24 [2002], no. 34), with a corrected title.
Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'
Dalby, Richard.
Book and Magazine Collector 199: 46-59, 2000.
Surveys the sales performance of various editions of Chaucerian texts, concentrating on recent sales and auctions and on market values. Includes a brief survey of Chaucer's works and editions and responds to the auction of Caxton's first edition for…
The Case of the Stolen Chaucer Manuscript
Edwards, A. S. G.
Book Collector 21 (1972) 380-85.
Recounts the details of various transactions involving the theft, acquisition, and sales of the Cardigan manuscript (now University of Texas Humanities Research Center MS 143), focusing on information derived from the papers of Henry Noble…
Dispersing the Atmosphere of Antiquity and Attempting the Impossible': R. H. Horne's Geoffrey Chaucer Modernized
Hodder, Karen.
Book Collector 51 : 222-39, 2002.
Recounts the aims and accomplishments of the modernization of Chaucer edited by Horne in 1840-41, with contributions by Leigh Hunt, William Wordsworth, and Elizabeth Barrett, among others. Correspondence helps to clarify what individual contributors…
Reforming Chaucer: Margins and Religion in an Apocryphal Canterbury Tale
Patterson, Paul J.
Book History 8 (2005): 11-36.
Studies the marginalia printed with the 1606 edition of "The Plowman's Tale," arguing that it challenges both Papal authority and the Church of England, encouraging Puritanism. Also discusses the place of this edition in the tradition of Chaucer…
The Canterbury Tales, 1380s-90s: Geoffrey Chaucer
Taylor, Andrew.
Books That Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History (London: Quercus, 2008), pp. 46-49.
Summarizes Chaucer's life and works, particularly CT, and praises Chaucer's characterizations, use of vernacular English, and depiction of a wide social range and register.
The Nonne Preestes Tale (from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales").
Holbrook, David.
Boris Ford, ed. The Age of Chaucer. Volume I of a Guide to English Literature (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin), pp. 118-28.
Appreciative interpretation of NPT, with attention to its stylistic dexterity, subtle ironies, and thematic range.
A Survey of English Verse.
Speirs, John.
Boris Ford, ed. The Age of Chaucer. Volume I of a Guide to English Literature (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin), pp. 17-67.
Offers advice to modern readers on how to read Chaucer--and what to read of his works--as preparation for appreciating Middle English verse more generally, emphasizing his "civilized delicacy" and his variety while surveying his works. Then surveys…
Chaucerian Themes and Style in the 'Franklin's Tale'
Mann, Jill.
Boris Ford, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Volume 1, Part 1: Medieval Literature: Chaucer and the Alliterative Tradition (New York and Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982), pp. 133-53.
Reads FranT as an epitome of the CT to the extent that both are concerned with the "ideal of patience and the problems of time and change," emphasizing the universality of these concerns and their appearances throughout the CT. As in Marie de…
The Social Context of Medieval English Literature
Brewer, Derek.
Boris Ford, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Volume 1, Part 1: Medieval Literature: Chaucer and the Alliterative Tradition (New York and Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982), pp. 15-39.
Describes the major social institutions and social practices of late-medieval England, identifying their roots, indicating their later developments, and illustrating their features from Middle English literary sources, especially the works of…
'Troilus and Criseyde' and the 'Knight's Tale'
Bishop, Ian.
Boris Ford, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Volume 1, Part 1: Medieval Literature: Chaucer and the Alliterative Tradition (New York and Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982), pp. 174-87.
Treats TC and KnT together because each derives from a source by Boccaccio and because each includes Boethian thought; also considers the Shakespearean analogues of each and compares each with opera, Books 1-3 of TC correspond to the "medieval…
Culture and Anarchy on the Coast of Bohemia
Richardson, Macolm
Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation 5.2 (2010): n.p. [Electronic publication]
Recounts the experiences of teaching a British Literature survey at a Louisiana university in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in Fall 2005, exploring why student response to CT was unusually intense at that time, particularly for its concern with…
The Riverside Chaucer
Benson, Larry D., gen. ed.
Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
A compilation by thirty-three Chaucerians (based on "The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer," edited by F. N. Robinson [2d ed., 1957]), this new edition updates, expands, and revises its predecessor while generally preserving its sequence. Entirely rewritten…
The Complete Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer
Fisher, John H., and Mark Allen, eds.
Boston : Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.
Revised edition of CT, based on Fisher's "Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer" (1977), with new on-page glosses and explanatory notes, plus bibliography (pp. 402-41). Includes lightly revised essays on Chaucer's life and language and a new…
Promissory Notes on the Treasury of Merits: Indulgences in Late Medieval Europe
Swanson, R. N., ed.
Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Twelve essays by various authors and an introduction by the editor. General commentary on the theology of indulgences and more focused studies of the history and literary depiction of indulgences in European nations/institutions in the late Middle…
The Canterbury Tales: Complete
Benson, Larry D., ed.
Boston and New York : Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Based on The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edition, providing a corrected text and set of glosses, with essentially the same apparatus, updated and adapted for beginning students.
