Browse Items (16472 total)

Paradoxically, readers of Chaucer are assumed to respond "intuitively" and yet also to need the aid of specialized academic assistance. The Early English Text Society (EETS) and the Chaucer Society played crucial roles in creating this paradox and,…

Explores the "compositional choices" made in the compilation of the texts included in San Marino, Huntington Library, MS HM 114, and maintains that TC (among others) was copied early and incorporated into this larger collection in response to a…

Uses the "two models" of "genealogy and thing theory" to explore "the generation of meaning in medieval texts," addressing issues of differences between the "Chaucerian" tradition and the "Piers Plowman" tradition and the processes of their…

Phillips investigates "the intersection between unofficial speech, pastoral practice, and literary production in late medieval England," focusing on pastoral and penitential injunctions against gossip, "idle talk," and "janglyng" and on literary…

Gossip transgresses the servant-master relationship in CYP, and CYT indicates that gossip underpins the discourse of official culture as well. Gossip is also fundamental to the exemplarity of Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.

Examines the varying degrees and uses of multilingualism among the Canterbury pilgrims and the characters in their tales, commenting on the facile "linguistic posing" of several speakers (Pardoner, Parson, Wife of Bath, Summoner and his characters)…

Gossip, its meaning shifting from idle woman to idle talk, was treated as sinful and suspect in much clerical literature, including ParsT. Gossip in HF, WBP, and ShT provided Chaucer not only narrative techniques but also a method of experimentation…

Although a scheme identical to that of the Spenserian sonnet was used by Scots sonneteers before Spenser, the rhyme scheme of the "Spenserian" sonnet and the stanza form used in The Faerie Queene derive from Chaucer's Monk's Tale stanza.

Frames and analyzes the pilgrims of CT in terms of the social contexts surrounding their professions in Chaucer's lifetime and the antecedent few decades, interestingly moving directly against perceived social ordering to do so. Begins with the rural…

A reading of the CT as "Chaucer's aesthetic and metaphysical pilgrimage" in which his religious orthodoxy eventually supersedes "alternatives and legitimate philosophical doubts." Follows the Ellesmere order of the tales (defending it on thematic…

There is a parallel between Harry's rule in CT and medieval political theory. Harry progresses from the role of egocentric tyrant ruling amidst chaos to that of a more or less generous public servant ruling amidst social harmony.

Distinguishes between "the Aesopic and the Reynardian" fable traditions, their uses in the sermon tradition, and their impact on various medieval and Renaissance English literary works, including NPT.

A biography of Richard Stury, based on public records, with recurrent attention to his forty-year acquaintance with Chaucer as friend and associate. Touches on the "long unsolved question of Chaucer's relation to Lollardy."

The final three fragments of CT are united in a purposeful pattern by reference to Jeremiah 6. Allusion to testing and failure suggests the alchemical metaphor, enabling correlations between the particulars of specific pilgrims and the generality of…

Examines Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" and Chaucer's TC as "paradigms for the discovery of tragedy in the Middle Ages."

Adapts TC for the stage in modern prose, with Production Notes, a dramaturgical Introduction, and stage directions in the modern-English text. Michael B. Herzog's "Music Score" (n.p.; at end of text) provides musical scores for four lyrics in the…

Dramatic adaptation of portions of GP, KnT, WBT, PardT, FranT, NPT, and MilT, designed for "youth groups and dramatic societies." Includes stage directions, brief production notes and instructions, property list, etc. Musical score for piano, by…

Since the late 1970s, manuscript study has become a major part of Middle English scholarship, but such study has not affected edditorial practice. The "Riverside Chaucer," for example, "is scarcely revolutionary in its method and biases."

Twelve essays by different authors examine the achievements of frequently neglected works, exploring the quality of the poems, their relations to various traditions and genres, and their poetic methods. Brief references to ABC, BD, GP, MilT, and…

Describes, among others, Sion College Library MS E.44, which includes a text of ABC.

Includes traditional concordance--full concordance to some words, sample citations of others--frequency lists, reverse index, and index of rhymes.

Argues that digital imaging of all available reproductions of CT manuscripts is necessary to make a pictorial history of the manuscripts. Reproductions of Hengwrt show changes over time.

Describes how the difficulties and decisions involved in transcribing manuscripts for the "Canterbury Tales" Project parallel fifteenth-century scribal practice.

Describes how the marginal note "Stokes" in the Hengwrt manuscript of CT may have been erased in a conservation project in 1956, arguing that attention must be given to facsimiles and descriptions as well as to manuscripts. Explores the implications…

Investigates the uses and functions of allegory, dialogue, and symbolism in Boethius's "Consolation," Alan of Lille's "De Planctu Naturae," landscapes in twelfth-century literature, and PF, arguing that the latter is a "triumph of allegorical…