Browse Items (16472 total)

Conan Doyle's portrayals of knights from the Hundred Years' War in "The White Company" (1891) and "Sir Nigel" (1906) embody the same contradictions and ambiguities found in Chaucer's depiction of a fourteenth-century knight in CT.

Trevisan identifies in Eliot's "Prufrock" possible echoes of the Monk's description from GP. "Prufrock" may also have been influenced by Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

Discusses linguistic pragmatics to disclose parallels between WBPT and PardPT, focusing on the relationship between the characters' uses of speech and the two works.

Brief summary of Ricardian literature and contemporary social and political events. Mentions Gower's works, "Piers Plowman," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and Chaucer's works, especially GP and WBPT.

Includes five essays that pertain to Chaucer; for the individual essays search for Medieval English Literary and Cultural Studies under Alternative Title.

An illustrated guide to raptors in English literature (fourteenth century to seventeenth century), which explains their symbolic value in terms of historical training and hunting practices and rituals. Recurrent references to Chaucer's works,…

Surveys medieval beliefs and learning about magic and explores the narrative function and resonance of magic and the supernatural in Chaucer's writing. Also considers relations to natural philosophy or "science" and the shift from medieval to…

Tambling reads several late medieval and Renaissance texts in relation to Walter Benjamin's notions of melancholy and Freudian concepts of death, as well as allegory and history. Individual chapters treat "Piers Plowman," Hoccleve's "Complaint and…

Evaluates the effects of the transition from orality to literacy in CT. Chaucer's oral mode of presentation conditions his manipulation of that tradition to the extent that it compels his audience to believe that he has read what, in fact, comes from…

Assesses GP descriptions of the ecclesiastical pilgrims, showing that Chaucer's criticism of his church figures is ambiguous. Focuses on the Prioress but also comments on the Monk, the Friar, the Summoner, the Pardoner, and the idealized Parson.

Commentary on "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell" that emphasizes partnership in marriage. Occasional references to WBT.

Linguistic and economic background to uses of ivory in medieval decoration, including the saddle of Sir Thopas (Th 7.875-78).

HF reflects Chaucer's efforts to imitate Dante's innovation and use of the vernacular; the poem shows Chaucer's struggles with nonstandard forms of English and the lack of an English literary tradition.

Shows how allusions to Dante in TC combine with Boethian elements to offer an ironic commentary on Troilus's notion of happiness. Also comments on allusions to Statius.

Discusses Chaucer's imagination, investigating the description of nature in TC. In Japanese.

Sell identifies "verbal parallels" and "ontological similarities" between Criseyde and Chaucer's version of Boethius's Fortune. Association with Fortune undermines "sentimental views of Criseyde" that Chaucer the narrator may share though Chaucer…

Furnivall's Six-Text Print transcribes ParsT from Selden B.17, except for lines 104-290, which come from Lansdowne 851. The lines from Seldan are given here.

Suggests that SqT may have influenced the narrative techniques of Philip Sidney's Arcadia, specifically its "interlocking structure."

Argues that, despite the influence of French on the idioms, spelling, and pronunciation of Chaucer's English, the "basic structure of English as a Germanic language . . . remained intact." In Japanese, with English abstract.

Introduction and study guide to Chaucer and his works (especially CT), with emphasis on connections with contemporaneous history and literature. Includes advice on how to approach medieval texts; extracts from the literature with discussion; a …

Appreciative commentary on CT. Chaucer's "cheery and companionable writing" in the vernacular "sets out the ideas" for the rest of Lacey's volume of anecdotal history.

Explores the representation of old age in WBPT, MerT, PardT, Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Confessio Amantis, and the Book of Margery Kempe, arguing that the motif of old age falls into three distinct categories: "the comical figure…

Considers the impulses to go on pilgrimage in late medieval England and assesses the GP descriptions of the pilgrims in light of contemporary motivations for pilgrimage.

Chaucer uses Th to "debunk his own textual authority" and subvert patriarchal power, enacting the "death of the author" that is completed in Ret.

Surveys critical commentary on the absence and presence of Jews in late medieval English society and literature,gauging the state of discussions of works such as PrT,the Croxton Play of the Sacrament,and others.