Browse Items (16472 total)

Examines how dialectal evidence can shed light on the textual affiliation of PF in MS Tanner 346.

Fourteenth-century English Breton lays, such as "Sir Degaré," "Sir Orfeo," and FranT, displace "Celtic" otherworlds to Brittainy and depict them as exotic, feminine, and supernatural-places of self-discovery that contrast with the domestic and…

Twelve short dramas for oral reading, including a Modern English prose adaptation of CT (pp. 161-83) that retells portions of GP, KnT, WBT, NPT, and PardT, with narrative transitions between them. Designed for juvenile audience; reading time…

Polarities in Chaucer's work lead the reader to nonjudgmental acceptance of opposites through involvement with characters,triangular relationships, and language.

Presents case studies and historical background of the nuns' priests in medieval society, and interprets literary tradition of Chaucer's Nun's Priest. Includes an appendix on the Diocese of Norwich Nuns' Priests.

Compares and contrasts Griselda of ClT with the Biblical Job to show that her morality is unorthodox and that she can be seen as a usurper of male roles.

Comments on Chaucer's description of Pedro I of Spain in MkT, and on similarities between CT and de Ayala's "Rimado."

Focuses on the presentation of polygamy, virginity, and sexuality in WBT, using St. Paul's teachings as a background.

Assesses the descriptions of the Knight and Squire in GP for how they reflect differing chivalric views of femininity and, more broadly, wisdom versus pleasure.

Reviews scholarship concerning Chaucer's visits to Spain and considers ways he may have encountered Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor, orally and/or in manuscript.

Surveys scholarship pertaining to Chaucer's contact with Spain and suggests several routes of transmission for the influence of Juan Ruiz's "Libro de buen amor" on TC and PardT. Chaucer was probably aware of Ruiz (and other Spanish literature)…

Item not seen; reported in Encomia 32-33 (2010-2011): 206, with an abstract in French by Isabel de Barros Dias.

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…

Technical report of a set of acoustic experiments designed to gauge how "voicing duration" interacts with intonation to "give a poetic line much of its 'personality'." One experiment assesses eight readings of a passage from Alexander Pope's "Essay…

The "greyn" placed on the little child's tongue by the Virgin in PrT represents the Eucharistic Host, also known as "singing bread." "Greyn" means "particle," such as that broken from the wafer. The viaticum possessed properties of restoration and…

Comments on several stylistic device of characterization in GP and the effects they produce: the Knight is earnest by obsolete, and spiritually ambiguous; the Parson, an exaggerated stereotype, cut off from people by lack of realistic details; the…

Both PardP and PardT are "self-exposure" on the part of the Pardoner, although in the latter he is "unaware" of his similarity to the three rioters: "all four are spiritually dead . . . blasphemers and motivated by avarice . . . totally hardened…

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,…

An Eskimo analogue to NPT is "The Raven and the Marmot" (a woman's tale, from Norton Bay).

Though often viewed as the most unloved of the CT, ParsT is a fitting climax to the pilgrimage; it is a handbook for the play of the ultimate "sport," the race to salvation.

The verb "troiledest" ("deceived"; "Piers Plowman," C, xxi, 321), a "hapax legomenon" introduced in 1393 when TC was at its most popular, may be a reference to the treachery recorded in Chaucer's poem. Langland uses it to refer to Satan's temptation…

Troilus' prayer to Mercury is ill-considered. The god's diffident and finally unsuccessful attempt to bed Herse brings disaster to the go-between Aglauros. Further, the reference to this affair draws a pointed contrast between Pandarus and Herse's…

Briefly surveys the practice of drawing lots in ancient history, the Bible, medieval literature, and Chaucer's works, focusing on the GP "lottery" to select who will tell the first tale.

Olsan makes a brief reference to ParsT and "charms for wounds and sickness."

Discusses references to the middle class in Arthurian literature and relates to SqT, Th, and ShT to the medieval "commercial revolution." Arcite, in KnT, is a type of Horatio Alger, beginning as a page, gaining status, and marrying into nobility.