Browse Items (16364 total)

Offers the "tempting hypothesis" that Adenet le Roi's "Berte aud Grans Pies" is a source of the "coincidence of . . . three motifs" in GP ("pilgrimage, spring, framing device"); also observes several "interesting verbal similarities" between the two.

Argues that in BD Chaucer "heavily inlays the Black Knight's long description of his lady with imagery of the Blessed Virgin" and "that the effect produced by such imagery is an apotheosis not inconsonant with the traditional apotheosis of the…

Focusing on the exemplum of Ceyx and Alcyone in BD, illustrates Chaucer's "early use of multiple sources in close alternating sequence," discussing source relations with Machaut, Froissart, Virgil, Ovid, Statius, the "Ovide Moralise," and the "Roman…

Gauges William Caxton's appreciation of Chaucer's literature by exploring why Caxton printed the works of Chaucer that he did, how he treated the texts, and to what extent his decisions reflect his own tastes or those of patrons, poets, and the likes…

Demonstrates the "conventional and unspontaneous elements in the language" of early English letter-writing, citing examples from the Paston letters, Cely letters, Stonor letters, etc., and discussing how phrasing reflects earlier literary usage,…

Argues that Chaucer's role in Spain in 1366 was as a "confidential messenger" of the Black Prince, adducing historical and biographical evidence as well as the attitude expressed about Pedro of Spain in MkT 7.2375ff.

Reads "hostes man" in SumT 3.1755 as referring to the "servant of the innkeeper at whose inn the two friars are staying," and adduces paleographical evidence for retaining unemended "swan" as a suggestive detail in SumT 3.1930.

Explicates the allusion to Joshua 9.21 in KnT 1.1422, and hypothesizes that KnT 1.2415-17 may allude to Samson.

Argues that each of the major characters in FranT falls "short of an ideal standard," and that, although the Franklin "recognizes excellence," his Tale expresses an "amused recognition of human inability to live up to ideal standards."

Challenges Matthew Arnold's assertion that Chaucer's poetry lacks "high seriousness," considering the issue in light of game theory and Chaucer's attitude toward characterization. Because Chaucer's viewed character as performative role-playing…

Explores the "ambivalent status" of clerks in the Middle Ages and the significance of clerkly success in "quiting" (defeating, taking vengeance on) carpenters and millers in MilT and RvT. In the latter, Chaucer avoids "quiting" the Reeve and thereby…

Evaluates MerT in light of its sources and analogues, including the "Miroir de Mariage," Boccaccio's "Ameto," and the "Elegies of Maximianus," the latter identified here as an analogue for the first time, with its presentation of "amorous senility…

Introduces to a non-scholarly audience Chaucer's life and works, cast against a background of social, scientific, and intellectual history, with frequent comparisons and contrasts with the modern world. Includes sections on Chaucer's Life, his…

Identifies patterns, details, images, and wording in NPT that direct the "reader's attention not only to basic biblical narrative of Adam and Eve, but also to the theological commentary on the Fall." The overall moral of the Tale is the universality…

Explores the semantic operation of words drawn from the language of courtly love, following J. R. Frith's theory of linguistic context and collocation, and discussing examples from TC.

Analyzes the symbolic import of the numbers used in lines 1-12 of ParsP (29, 4, 11, and 6), considering them in light of medieval number theory, time-telling, and the astrological sign of Libra. Together, the numbers "suggest the approaching…

Reads MerT as a "striking example" of the "tension between the tale and its teller" insofar as the Merchant fails to understand the "true significance" of the Tale. His "moral perception has been disturbed by anger and by a ludicrous…

Presents a late-fifteenth-century analogue to Chaucer's account of Ugolino, titling it "The Legend of Ugolino," found in MS. 6 of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Comments on the relation of the "Legend" to Chaucer's version,…

Argues that Chaucer's "main contribution to English satire" is the "reunification" of "Horace's gentleness, Juvenal's verve, and St. Jerome's moral vision," augmented by his "facile use of the double-entendre" and "his own special combination of…

Describes the commonplace "medieval notion of the hare's sexual peculiarities," locating it in several sources, and explicating its implications when applied to the Pardoner and his staring eyes in GP 1.684.

Considers "gentilesse" (the "quality that makes human relationships most proper and ennobling") to be the main theme of the "Marriage Group" in CT, commenting on the virtue as it is presented in Mel, NPT, WBPT, ClT, MerT, and FranT, and exploring its…

Argues that "Malkyn" in MLP (2.30) refers not to a generic "lewd woman" as suggested by W. W. Skeat but to the character Malyne in RvT, Symkyn's daughter, hypothesizing that Chaucer intended to cancel CkPT and follow RvT with MLPT.

Argues that the Clerk is characterized as a "middle-aged scholar and professional logician," distinct among the other clerks of CT for his age (probably "more than thirty and less than fifty years of age") and wisdom, and unique in the GP as a…

Traces the legacy of gladly learning and gladly teaching, from Plato's "Timaeus" in Chalcidius's translation through Jean de Meun's "Roman de la Rose" to the GP description of the Clerk (1.308), also noting the presence of the legacy in the…

Investigates the combination of serious message (the nature of "love-in-the world") and comic method in HF, exploring Chaucer's shifts in narrative stance, his adaptations of Dante, his uses of irony, and the similarities between his methods and…