Browse Items (16364 total)

Challenges several claims made by Alice Miskimin in "The Illustrated Eighteenth-Century Chaucer," Modern Philology 77 (1979): 26-55.

Maintains that the details and description of astrology in MilT along with its foreshadowing imagery establish a theme of Boethian determinism in the Tale. Accordingly, the character of each of the three male actors determines his unforeseen fate and…

Benton contrasts SqT and the work of the "Gawain"-poet with popular romances as a way of understanding how romances employ descriptive passages as an essential "formal and conceptual" element.

Exploring the relationship between gender identity and book production at the turn of the twentieth century, Benton assesses the format and typography of the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896) and Eric Gill's illustrations to The Canterbury Tales (1930). Also…

Contains an account of the organization and work of the Chaucer Society (1868-1912) founded by Furnivall.

Focuses on the "Chaucerian tree catalogue[s]" in Philip Sidney's "Old Arcadia" and Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queene," tracing the device as a "subtype of epic catalogue" in classical tradition and in KnT and PF, exploring its narrative,…

Historical survey of the relations between literary texts in English and material presentation, from oral and dramatic performance through manuscripts and books, to audio, visual, and digital forms. Includes a section on key terms, a timeline, and an…

In KnT, Chaucer manipulates devices of genre and rhetoric to achieve a highly sophisticated subtext of opacity and of perversion of order.

Interprets SqT and FranT as "expressions of their tellers," with the latter being an "instructive modification" of the "Squire's attitude toward life." Contrasts the uses of rhetorical devices in SqT and KnT in order to show the Squire's youthful,…

Report of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronological analysis of the oak panel of the UCLA Chaucer portrait, indicating a date of about 1400. This makes it likely that the portrait "represents a close likeness of the poet" at the end of his life.

The entry on Chaucer (pp. 213-15, written by Paul Bacquet) summarizes the poet's life and comments on his language, his prosody, and the importance of CT.

Treats WBPT as an analogue to Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," observing shared "allusions, rhetorical formulas, [and] character presentations" as well as the theme of the "problems of marriage." The two works share "many common…

Bergeson explores the semantic and dramatic range of Middle English "reden"--advise, counsel, read, interpret--as it is used and enacted in BD, HF, PF, and TC.

Contrary to received opinion, the Wife of Bath argues implicitly for equality in marriage; she and the loathly lady in her tale gain dominance only to relinquish it. On the other hand, the Clerk, Merchant, and Franklin present views of women which…

Facing-page translation (Middle English verse/German prose) of selections from the CT, with introductions, commentaries, and bibliographies. Includes GP, KnT, MilT, WBPT, FranT, PardPT, and NPT. Translations by Bergner, Waltraud Böttcher, Günter…

FranT mirrors contemporary contradictory beliefs about marriage, criticizing standards and legal constraints that force paradoxical and confusing demands on married partners,and exposing the predicament of three moral characters who fall short with…

Describes the genre of the fabliau and discusses "Dame Sirith," MilT, RvT, SumT, MerT, and ShT as examples in Middle English.

As in the worlds of Sidney's "Arcadia" and Milton's "Paradise Lost," the fictive world of TC is grounded in a key ethical concept. According to Bergquist, "Kynde or nature is the making and undoing of both Criseyde and the fiction that contains her."

An encyclopedic handbook with contributions by various authors, with topics ranging from historical periods to modern media studies. Includes an introductory essay by Jeremy J. Smith entitled "Middle English" (pp. 32-47) and a section on various…

Comprehensive interdisciplinary and theoretical study of the history of the English language. Chapter 36 discusses Chaucer's language.

Four poems inspired by Chaucer's CT, written and recorded by Bergvall: "The Host's Tale"; "The Summer Tale (deus hic, 1)" [link to text included]; "The Franker Tale (deus hic, 2)" [link to text included]; and "The Not Tale (funeral)."

Includes a section entitled "Shorter Chaucer Tales" (pp. 21–51) with five pieces inspired by CT: "The Host Tale," "The Summer Tale (Deus Hic, 1)," "The Franker Tale (Deus Hic, 2)," "The Not Tale (Funeral)," and "Fried Tale (London Zoo)." The…

An extended prose-poem (with portions lineated), presented as a dialogue between "Caroline" and "Alisoun," the latter an adaptation of the Wife of Bath. Transgresses temporal, linguistic, modal, and thematic categories, and includes references to…

Assesses the Proem to Boccaccio's Il Filostrato as a source for TC: the artist's "dual-self of helpless lover and ingenious artist" is split between Troilus and Pandarus, and Boccaccio's two ladies, Filomena and Criseis, "are first merged and later…

A five-movement suite, composed by Michael Berkeley for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, who are recorded here. Includes "Triton's Trumpets" (1:25), "The Grieving Queen" (3:46), "A Fanfare for the Huntsmen" (0:35), "The Sorrowful Knight" (1:51), and…