Browse Items (16472 total)

Posits a "chronology of growth" for the CT, seeking "to follow the imagination of the poet and to recapture the dynamics of creation" evident in Chaucer's apparent changes in plan. Comments on earlier scholarly efforts to explain or understand…

Accepts that the manuscript of Equat is Chaucer's own draft, with revisions, and suggests that evidence from TC indicates that "Chaucer did not wait till he had finished his work to have parts of it copied out fair by his scribe."

Explores how several of Chaucer's putative additions to or revisions of TC (posited by R. K. Root) strengthen the poem's structural and thematic symmetry.

Observes similarities in imagery, diction, and impact of portions of ParsT (Chaucer's interpolation in "lachesse" as a subset of Sloth) and PhyT (digression on governesses), exploring possible sources (especially St. Augustine), possible occasions of…

Questions Germaine Dempster's 1948 suggestions about the production of "manuscripts postulated as heads of genetic groups" and lines of descent for CT witnesses, offering several alternative explanations. Includes attention to the change of ink in…

Identifies the "contrast between surface respectability and corrupt motive [as] the keenest source of the comedy" in ShT, and suggests that there is a pun on "cozen" and "cousin." Explores similar contrasts and other devices in CT that produce comic…

Articulates a number of parallels and contrasts among the tellers and tales of KnT, MilT, RvT, and CkT, focusing on character, accident versus fate, intention, and paradox. Emphasizing the Knight's "chivalric idealism" and the "strong earthiness" of…

Exchange of letters in the Forum section of PMLA, disagreeing about the validity of the Ellesmere order of the CT and about the speaker of Chaucer's Ret.

An exchange of letters in the PMLA Forum section that comment on openendedness and closure in CT and the influence of Arabic literary models on Chaucer.

The record of surviving manuscripts shows three patterns in the production of collections of CT: the gathering in of examplars for the specific occasion; the use as exemplar of an already written manuscript of CT; and the use of a collection of…

Against the revision theories of R. K. Root, Barry Windeatt's edition of TC argues that Chaucer began by translating Boccaccio, then filling in "reflective and 'philosophic' material." Arguments from context support Root rather than Windeatt;…

Portraying himself as a participant in a supposedly actual pilgrimage, Chaucer freed his characters from his control and avoided predetermining the meaning of their tales.

The Pardoner's invitation is not an attempt to divert the pilgrims from their journey, and the Host's response is designed to restore the fellowship of the pilgrims, not to improve their spiritual well-being. Storm's essay appeared in PMLA 97…

In GP, Chaucer changed approaches, developed new techniques, and became increasingly critical of society. Increased use of similes suggests that the portraits of the Squire, Monk, Friar, Miller, Manciple, Reeve, Summoner, and Pardoner were added…

Response to Gitte's article: the "open-endedness" of CT may result more from the unfinished state of CT than from Arabic tradition.

Manuscript evidence indicates that only after Chaucer's death did editors assemble copies of individual tales and links to arrange the fragments (reflecting various stages of development in Chaucer's plan) into their differing ideas of a coherent…

Chaucer shows keen awareness of children--they are not merely miniature adults--and their relationship to their parents, as is clear in GP, FranT, ManT, PrT, SumT, MkT, WBT, PhyT, ClT, and especially Astr.

Provides a broad outline for an undergraduate course in Chaucer and a complete syllabus for a graduate course, the latter based on the author's conception of the development of CT.

Since Kittredge, we have come to see a dramatic structure at the heart of CT, with interaction not only among the tellers but also among the tales themselves. Many points, however, are still in dispute: the order of the tales, the question of…

The conception of CT is an inherent conflict between the pilgrimage to a martyr's shrine in Canterbury and the game of storytelling to be consummated by a feast in Southwark. The development of the collection reveals movement away from Canterbury…

Questions John H. Fisher's "Language Policy for Lancastrain England" (PMLA 107) on method of establishing Chaucerian texts. See Fisher's "Forum Reply."

CT is a storytelling contest involving a drama of contrasting visions. It was intended to end not with ParsT but with a feast of celebration and judgment.

Chronologically surveys CT manuscripts, highlighting the importance of Hengwrt and the "wide difference in the number of independent textual traditions for different parts" of the work. Rejects the notion of a single Chaucerian copy text, crediting…

Uses Chaucer (selections from CT) and Langland to contextualize "patient heroism" in medieval romances, especially "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

Identifies several previously unnoticed references and allusions to Chaucer in Nathaniel Whiting's "I1 Insonio Insonadado" (1638), including two euphemisms for the sexual revenge in RvT.