Osborn, Marijane.
Patrick J. Gallacher and Helen Damico, eds. Hermeneutics and Medieval Culture (Albany : State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 121-31.
In SqT, Chaucer obliquely introduces the astrolabe, an instrument used for celestial observation in navigation and timekeeping. According to Osborn, the diagram and operation of the astrolabe clarify our understanding of both time and place in CT.
Osborn, Marijane.
Vistas in Astronomy 39: 605-14, 1996.
When read "astrolabically" rather than astrologically, the "chronographia" of ParsP is accurate and ripe with spiritual meaning. It was inspired by Dante's presentation of the stars in the "Divine Comedy" and indicates the imminence of Easter.…
Osborn, Marijane.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.
Osborn explores how Chaucer used an astrolabe in his composition of CT and explains the use of the instrument in celestial navigation; includes a cutout astrolabe. Throughout most of CT, Chaucer's references to time and place are realistic. Such…
Osborn repunctuates the "astrolabic" passages in SqT and MLP (both set in the East) and considers the operation of an astrolabe to resolve apparent problems of time and date. The steed of brass and its association with the star Alpherez in SqT…
The "coillons" interchange between the Pardoner and the Host at the end of PardT goes much deeper than previously noticed. Echoing a passage from the "Roman de la Rose" found in some manuscripts, the lines evoke a transgressive inversion of the "nut…
Osborn, Marijane.
Helen Damico and John Leyerle, eds. Heroic Poetry in the Anglo-Saxon Period: Studies in Honor of Jess B. Bessinger, Jr. Studies in Medieval Culture, no. 32 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1993), pp. 313-30.
Argues against over-ingenious readings of the dayraven in "Beowulf" and of the stone with which Alison threatens Absalon in MilT (3708, 3712), clarifying the commonplace nature of each.
Osborn, Marijane.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Anthologizes three Middle English "woman-centered" romances--"Emaré," "Le Bone Florence of Rome" (Part 2), and MLT--in rhymed modern English, and discusses their common theme of castaway queens, their sources and analogues, and modern reflexes of…
Explores literary allusions used in the courts of law in Britain and Ireland, revealing how literature conceptually informs practical life. Osborough briefly mentions Chaucer when discussing etymology in a nineteenth-century case involving…
Argues that "gentilesse" is the main concern of SqT, linked to the sub-themes of integrity, mercy, education, truthful rhetoric, youthfulness, and social class.
Osselton, N. E.
Jan van Dorsten, ed. Ten Studies in Anglo-Dutch Relations (Leiden: The University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 231-45.
Comments on translations of four of Chaucer's works (one spurious) by Willem Bilderdijk, the "first Dutch translator of Chaucer": Lydgate's "Balade de Bon Consail," WBT (mediated by Dryden's version and, in turn, Voltaire's), the tale of Phyllis from…
Describes Chaucer's use of "Thise" in PardT 6.661 as a marker of stylistic transition--from the "rhetorical tirade" about sins to the "more intimate and often colloquial" tale of the rioters. The usage anticipates modern English.
Ostade, Ingrid Tieken Boon van, and John Frankis, eds.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991.
Sixteen essays encompass the interpretation of textual cruxes in Middle English, lexicography in the past and present, current and older problems in English usage, and the history of English spelling.
For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search…
Advocates the use of translation and translation exercises in teaching Chaucer's works in surveys of British literature. Criticizes major anthologies for promoting original-language study only and offers a syllabus, description of in-class…
Otal Campo, Jose Luis.
"Actas del IV Congreso de AEDEAN." (Salamanca: Ed. de la Universidad de Salamanca, 1984), pp. 107-21.
The "illocutionary" system of the narration in CT is organized into six levels based on two criteria: direct communication between literary personae standing at the same illocutionary level and transferred communication between different levels.
Otaño Gracia, Nahir I.
English Language Notes 58.2 (2020): 35-49.
Includes the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in conceptualizing the global North Atlantic, and argues that in several places in CT (e.g., GP description of Knight, MLT, Pedro in MkT) Chaucer uses paradigms that are similar to those of "settler…
Otaño Gracia, Nahir I., and Daniel Armenti.
Medieval Feminist Forum 53.1 (2017): 176-201.
Includes comments on MLT, arguing that it "demonstrates the belief that not everyone can become a true Christian and that true Christianity can only be acquired by the right kind of pagans, such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings," but not Muslims.
Otey, Kirsten Johnson.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60: 4443A, 1999.
Most studies of the vernacular used in religious writing of the late-fourteenth century focus on clerical authors. Clanvowe, a layperson and chamber knight of Richard II, uses the vernacular to discuss Lollardy covertly. Otey examines works of…
Otten, Charlotte F.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 23-33.
Troilus's disease of erotomania is gluttonously lustful, irredeemably egocentric, and life-denying--an example to be shunned in favor of Christian love.
