Browse Items (16472 total)

Can one reconcile in a "single poetic focus" the contradictory voices of MerT? Plato, Claudian, Boethius, and especially Ovid distinguish between true and false fictions on the basis of whether legend is used to recognize cosmological order or to…

The French narrative poems of Machaut and Froissart reveal the source of the voice in Chaucer's early poems. Even though BD imitates the conventions of its French models, it shows how Chaucer adapted the conventions to his own use.

Structure and theme of the Vision are established not only by the "Roman de la Rose" but by Latin poems: (1) visionary setting and (2) questing love-debate for a solution to the turmoil resolved (or unresolved) at (3) a Court of Love. Chaucer's…

The narratives of Trevet and Gower turn the story of Constance into a secular moral fable. Similarly, "the Man of Law exposes himself to Chaucer's irony ...: it is this transcendent freedom from the moral content of the legend that the Man of Law…

Although PhyT and PardT may seem to bear little relationship to each other, a thematic unity rooted in the "Roman de la Rose" links the two tales. Raison's exemplum contains ideas and images of sexual violence and natural generation that Chaucer…

Chaucer's mode of composition of SNT and CYT owes much to the structure of "Roman de la Rose," in which the theme of contradictions and contraries plays a major role.

The interpolated story of Midas's wife evokes Ovidian concern with poetic judgment and suggests Chaucer's perspective on the differing attitudes of the hag and the knight toward love and marriage. Complex Ovidian echoes imply the failure of Midas's…

Linguistic and philosophical notions underlying the idea of "cosyn to the dede" fascinate Chaucer and Jean de Meun, who follow Plato and Augustine in accepting that signs reveal ultimate meaning and that myths relate to eternal ideals.

Chaucer treats NPT in his characteristically ambiguous manner--transcending his sources, denying, or transfiguring them. The Nun's Priest loses control of his argument, but the poet does not. In reducing the Fall of Man to a literal episode, Chaucer…

Considers Chaucer's dream poems in the context of "epithalamic conventions" found in medieval French dream poems and their sources, exploring similarities of "structure, imagery, and theme."

Despite Chaucer's satirical manner, his delineation of the GP Physician demonstrates his respect for physicians and his understanding of medicine.

Comments on the appropriateness of PhyT to its teller, both in its classical learning and in its "gender-related ambivalences," also found among historical physicians.

Traces several iconographical, etymological, and punning associations of cherubs with redness, commenting on confusion with seraphs, and suggesting that these associations underlie details of the Summoner's description in GP.

Locates the earliest efforts to identify Standard English in William of Malmesbury's comments on language and foreignness, arguing that awareness of foreignness (and little more) underlies the ideal of a standard. Comments on various discussions of…

Seven essays by various authors who challenge "orthodox views about dialects and dialectology" while discussing topics of dialect and "standard" in English, especially British English. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Debating…

Nominalism and literature were never parts of a single, seamless discourse; influences between them are at best complex and indirect. Penn surveys research on literary nominalism in late-medieval (mostly Chaucerian) texts, arguing that sources other…

Argues that by "idealizing" reality "into unreality" KnT opens the "question of appearance and reality," a recurrent concern throughout CT which is resolved only in ParsT.

Reads KnT and TC as "tales of fortune's fools" in which the traditional themes of romantic love and knightly chivalry are undercut by verbal play and the trivialization of notions of pity, mercy, grace, and love.

Chaucer's LGW testifies to the disparate views of women prevalent in the Middle Ages. A complex medieval notion of Woman informs the structure of the poem: in the prologue, Chaucer praises conventional ideas of female virtue, while in the legends…

Analyzes the unique marginal annotations in the Harley 2392 version of TC, exploring the role played by the scribe of the manuscript. The marginalia seem to hint at something beyond the task of a copyist, since they entail interpretation of what…

Spanish prose translation of the complete CT, with an introduction to Chaucer's life and the poem, with emphasis on plot summary, and brief bibliography. The Luaces translation was originally published in 1946, 2 volumes.

Introduction to CT that surveys major concerns of the work, including narrative technique, character development, comedy, setting, major themes, reader involvement, and sources and analogues.

Though not a practicing musician, Chaucer had a better-than-average knowledge of late-fourteenth-century French monodic and English polyphonic music. This knowledge is evident in his specific and accurate use of musical terminology.

Observes shifts in tone in NPT 7.2888-2907 (a conversation between Chanticleer and Pertelote), commenting on how these shifts contribute to characterization and drama.

Examines marginal annotations in the surviving manuscripts of TC with the purpose of exploring both the reception of the poem and the role of the scribes in its textual transmission. The marginalia are analyzed not only from a textual, thematic,…