Browse Items (16472 total)

Surveys the attitudes toward and conditions of hunting in late-medieval society, describing practices, laws, criminal offense, social variety, and artistic representations in literature and visual art. Includes brief comments on KnT, BD, and the GP…

Reproduces portraits or busts of twenty-four English poets, from Chaucer to T. S. Eliot, held in England's National Portrait Gallery, with a very brief biography and short selection of poetry for each. The portrait of Chaucer is labeled as "By an…

Analyzes the contribution of Edward III to England's growth as a nation, emphasizing such institutional changes as the development of the Commons in Parliament, the emergence of a systematic exchequer, and the commissioning of justices of the peace. …

Edward III achieved his dynastic ambitions through military activity, careful marriages, and apportionment of lands and titles among his children. By 1377, his plans lay in ruins,and Richard II's abrasiveness destroyed Plantagenet harmony.

The public evidence of Edward III's religious devotion reveals his rather conventional piety, "imbued with a strong and confident nationalism" and dedicated largely to commendation of his dynasty.

Two documents in the National Archives (London) show that Alice Perrers was married to Janyn Perers, possibly an Italian, before becoming Edward III's mistress. These records hint that she was "a person of lower birth who made her fortune essentially…

Traces the allegorical tradition of the Judgment of Paris from Fulgentius through Bersuire and other fourteenth-century writers (especially sources of the Troilus story) and examines Chaucer's use of and allusions to the myth. The journey of Troilus…

The Prioress's combination of pious sentiment, moral blindness, and indifference to official church doctrine can be paralleled in a 1985 attempt, in an Austrian village, to defend and preserve an anti-Semitic legend about the murder of a…

Reviews several late medieval texts to demonstrate the "devolution of knighthood" before Shakespeare's time. Comments on the GP description of the Knight, on MerT, and on Th.

In MilT, "viritoot" can best be deciphered as a slang pun on "virtutis," ridiculing Absolon's manhood

Surveys efforts to explain the meaning of "phislyas" (MLE 2.1189; here attributed to the Shipman), summarizing contextual concerns, manuscript variants, and several etymological hypotheses; agrees with those who treat it as a term related to…

A topical, alphabetical listing of critical studies that pertain to Chaucer's French sources, compiled from previous bibliographies, with brief annotations added. The one-page introduction comments on the status of France and French in Chaucer's age.

Whereas the GP portrait of the Prioress raises questions about the operation of performances in general, we see in PrPT the efficacy of performative utterances in particular. Details of the boy's murder and postmortem singing demonstrate that the…

Surveys interrelated attitudes toward the "status and function of poetry" in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe, limning poetry's exalted status in the Parisian schools and in the writings of Roger Bacon and Alberto Mussato, and exemplifying…

"Burdoun" as an obscene pun in Chaucer's description of the Pardoner in the GP is supported in Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and even more strikingly in Wyatt's poem "Ye Old Mule". The latter shows the ribald possibilities of the word as…

Birds as the participants in the "demande d'amour" game are comic, as is Nature the judge: her ineptness is both risible and serious, as traditionally she is limited by the Fall.

Although Charles d'Orleans first described an actual Valentine's Day lottery, it was apparently Chaucer who, in PF and Mars, first associated Saint Valentine's Day with love, both in its ornithological simplicity and in its human complexity. His…

Distinguishes between the "clerical" and "non-clerical" traditions of "de casibus" tragedy in medieval tradition, observing the emphasis on the goddess Fortuna in the latter, and claiming that MkT "belongs to the non-clerical tradition." In ignoring…

Iconographic associations of Mary and Griselda have proved problematic in attempts to read ClT as allegory; however, if we hear in the "annunciation passage" a larger range of allusion--both secular and patristic--the allegorical force of the Marian…

TC is a thoroughly Christian poem in which characters of a pagan past bring about through their actions the contrary of their expectations, whereas the narrator achieves his purpose exactly, despite his seemingly varied tones. Thus the palinode…

The large amount of alliteration in narrative and lyric poetry of the courtly tradition, including Chaucer's poetry, is derived from certain veins of devotional prose of the thirteenth century.

The naive, heavily repetitive, oratorical style of PrT appears to be influenced by late-medieval devotional prose written by men for women. Broader patterns of recurrence signal oppositions in the "Tale" that subvert its feminine voice and its…

Assesses Chaucer's uses of alliteration as recurrent adornment despite the poet's distance from the so-called alliterative tradition. Focuses on the role of alliteration in various kinds of rhetorical situations (high style, courtliness, prayer, and…

Examines the role of two "false memories" of Chaucer's life in the formation of nineteenth-century attitudes toward the poet and his reputation. The spurious incidents--Chaucer's exile and imprisonment and his "retirement" to a park at…

Modern verse translations of romances in their original verse forms, with individual introductions and notes, a general introduction, and a commentary on the value of modern verse translation. Includes WBT and Th, along with Gower's "Tale of…