Browse Items (16472 total)

Offers support for the notion that the whelp episode in BD (387-96)--likely derived from Machaut's "Dit dou Lyon"--serves as a "symbol of fidelity," adducing instances of Renaissance "canine symbolism" and the appearance of dogs "on medieval tombs."…

Locates three references to Chaucer in Stow's 1570 "Summarye," not found in the 1565 edition and not included in Caroline Spurgeon compendium of Chaucer's allusions. Points out that death dates given for Chaucer vary in two of the reference (1400 and…

Seeks advice in understanding the phrase "Chaucer's borrow" which appears Sir Nicholas H. Nicholas's "Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton" (1847), where it is quoted from a letter to Hatton from William Dodington. Clarifies the…

Identifies an allusion to CkT 1.4421-22 in John Lacy's play, "The Dumb Lady" printed in 1672.

Analyzes the meter of the opening line of CT (GP 1.1), focusing on renderings of "Aprill(e)" in manuscripts and printed editions, comparing it with meter elsewhere in CT, and arguing "that there is a strong possibility, even a probability, that…

Suggests that Andreas Capellanus's Rule 17 in "De Amore" is the "more likely source" for TC 4.415 than those previously suggested.

Suggests that Chaucer's citations of Lollius as a source for Trojan history may be attributable to his misreading of Horace's "Epistles" I 2,1.

Suggests that ManT 9.311-62 is a personal, dramatic rejoinder to the Canon's Yeoman and his account rather than criticism of the Cook.

Argues that Aleyn's "easy conquest" of Malyne in RvT can be attributed to their prior familiarity and to her promiscuity, the latter evident in the "ease" with which she uses the term "lemman."

Revisits Carleton Brown's 1910 suggestion of source relations between the "Alma Redemptoris Mater" in PrT and the "Gaude Maria," offering a liturgical explanation for Chaucer's use of the former.

Identifies "Boethian sentiments" in an eight-line stanza appended to TC in St. John's, Cambridge, MS L.1, fol. 119v.

Offers anecdotal support for Pertelote's belief (NPT 7.2961-62) that worms can be used as a digestive.

Reconsiders the toponym "Pullesdon" as a location in archival records that pertain to Chaucer, Philippa, and their patrons Lionel and Elizabeth, exploring possibilities for the location and implications concerning Philippa and Elizabeth.

Suggests that "spiced conscience" in GP (1.526) means "peppery" moral indignation; "sweet, spiced conscience" in WBP (3.435), a "bland, gentle disposition."

Identifies allusions to Chaucer from the "Periamma Epidemion" of 1659: to the description of the Physician in GP 1.437-38 and to WBP 3.227-28

Observes an inconsistency in Emily's address to Diana in KnT 1.2349-52 that results from Chaucer's change in the sequence of the three protagonists' addresses to deities, altering his source in Boccaccio's "Teseida." Suggests that Chaucer was…

Locates an allusion to "Chaucers Bootes" (see Bo 4m5) in line 17 of Nathaniel Ward's "commendatory poem" written for Anne Bradstreet's "Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America . . ." (1650).

Locates a previously unnoticed allusion to MilT 1.3638-39 in Samuel Harsnet's "A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures" (1603), perhaps recalled from memory.

Identifies three "predominant" characteristics shared in the characterizations of Pandarus in TC and of "the slave Spurius, who plays the part of a pander for a young lover in Guillaume de Blois' Latin farce 'Alda,' written somewhat before 1170:…

Explores similarities of Chaucer's description of women's hair (KnT 1.1048-50, PF 267-68, and TC 5.808-12) and Apuleius's "Metamorphoses" II.10, suggesting a similar aesthetic rather than a source relationship, and noting that all resonate with…

Shows that in his "Cambus Khan" Leigh Hunt is indebted to Edmund Spenser (and others who followed him) in modernizing Part I of SqT "almost as much as he is to Chaucer."

Suggests that the "gate-metaphor" of PardT 6.729 derives from a Spanish proverb fused with Maximianus's "Elegy" I.

Suggests two unattested emendations to SqT: pluralizing "Cambalus" in 5.656 (to mean two brothers), and changing "hewe" to "shewe" in 5.640.

Suggests that Aristotle is the "most likely" referent for "the philosopher" in ParsT 10.484.

Disagrees with editorial explanations of FrT 3.1314, arguing that the subject of the sentence, a "composite sinner," is the recipient of "pecunyal peyne." Offers supporting evidence from several contemporary sources.