Browse Items (16472 total)

Adduces precedents in French for Chaucer's punning in ShT on "cosyn" and its derivatives to mean "harlot" as well as "prospective victim," part of a larger pattern of "mocking irony" in his various uses of the words.

Suggests that the French "Somme le Roi" may be the ultimate source of the reference to "Placebo" in SumT 3.2075 and that "Roman de Fauvel" is a "more likely immediate source."

Identifies an instance of the phrase "Mulier est hominis confusio" (cf. NPT7.3164) in Simphorien Champier's "La Nef des Princes."

Argues that Chaucer's allusions to Argus in WBP, MerT, and TC derive ultimately from Ovid's "Ars Amatoria" and "Amores" and capitalize on the "conventional moral significations" of the moralized commentary tradition, lending resonances to the…

Shows that the humor of applying the phrase" flower of chivalry" to Sir Thopas (Tho 7.901-2) results from Chaucer's change of a "traditionally metaphoric phrase into a literal one."

Suggests that although Chaucer generally follows Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" in his account of the labors of Hercules, one discrepancy may have been influenced by a scholists' gloss to Ovid's "Ibis" 401-2.

Argues for a "plain and straightforward" (i.e., non-ironical) reading of a portion of Canacee's falcon's complaint in SqT, disagreeing with a previous discussion of the passage by Robert S. Haller.

Adduces ParsT 10.445 and "Purity" 1407-8 to argue that the paper castle in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (800-02) has moral implications of luxury and excess.

Discourages pursuit of ironic and sexual implications in details in Tho (7.748-59), suggesting that the mention of "bukke and hare" is best understood as parodic conjoining of two categories of hunted beasts.

Identifies four medieval instances (three from Mel) of collocation of forms of "passen" and "gon" that predate the OED's two quotations for "past and gone," from 1598 and 1897.

Suggests that SqT 5.393-94 (description of the sun) may have inspired a detail in Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner," line 180.

Identifies a reference to the Wife of Bath's equation of friars and incubi (WBT 3.865-80) in Richard Crakanthorp(e)'s "Introductio in Metaphysicam" (1619).

Compares the Wife of Bath's version of the Midas exemplum with Ovid's original in "Metamorphoses," suggesting that the divergences exemplify the Wife's penchant for misquoting and/or misunderstanding authorities and align with her deafness, a…

Argues that Chaucer's characterization of the lovers in TC is marked by their relationships with public opinion, especially with that of "the impersonal mass of Trojans and Greeks" who are the "anti-characters" of the poem. As fortune turns against…

Assesses the five uses of "place" as a locational noun in the description of the tournament in KnT, arguing that it has a "precise technical meaning," i.e., the "grassy ground of the arena within the lists." This meaning is also found in Middle…

Describes a "flicker of humour" in Chaucer's allusion to Boethius in NPT (7.3294-95), indicating that the poet disagrees with his authority on the point of musical sensitivity.

Translates a passage from Ramon Llull's thirteenth-century "De les Maravalles del Mon" (also known as "Felix" or "Livre de Meravalles") that has "marked similarities" with the account of the first deception in CYT.

Using evidence from WBPT, challenges D. S. Silvia's argument (N&Q 1967: 8-10; same title) that the Wife of Bath has lost interest in Jankyn and is looking for husband number six.

Identifies John of Trevisa's "Polychronicon" as the likely source for the Monk's use of "pileer" distinct from "boundes" (7.2126-27) in his account of Hercules, a distinction also made by John Lydgate in his "Troy Book." Comments on the uses of…

Explains the use of "impossible" as a noun in SumT 3.2231, discussing the term as a label for classroom examples of logical sophistry and commenting on Chaucer's familiarity with such academic practice.

Corrects a line number in the citation of CYT in the "OED" definition of "point," and comments on Chaucer's punning use of the term.

Explores relations among details of the GP description of the Squire (CT 1.94-96), the "Roman de la Rose," and a passage from fragment B of the "Romaunt of the Rose," suggesting that Chaucer influenced the fragment and that the two passages derive…

Argues that details in WBP indicate that Jankyn, the Wife of Bath's fifth husband, is alive at the time of the Canterbury pilgrimage, even though the Wife is already "seeking for a replacement for him."

Adduces two instances in Middle English of the use of "point" with musical connotations, and suggests that the use of the term in TC 3.695 gains complexity from such connotations.

Argues that in the GP sketch of the Prioress the reference to saint Loy (1.120) is punningly "redolent of permissiveness."