In the Middle Dutch "Wrake van Ragisel" (adapted from the Old French "Vengeance Raguisel"), "Walewein, who is transformed into a dwarf, learns what women are exclusively led by their sexual desire," a different answer to the life question than is…
Besamusca, Bart.
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 76 (2016): 89-122.
Offers six case studies of multi-text manuscripts to investigate "medieval concepts of authorship and . . . constructions of authority." Shows that Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Arch. Selden B.24 (including TC, PF, Truth, Mars, Venus, LGW, and…
Bessent, Benjamin R.
Studia Neophilologica 41 (1969): 99-111.
Considers Chaucer's "references to time" in TC in light of parallel passages in Boccaccio's "Filostrato," considering variants in TC manuscripts and arguing that Chaucer's concern with time in the poem results from his "desire to portray Criseyde as…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
New Literary History 22 (1991): 177-97.
Chaucer intended to entertain and edify Bukton by means of a network of biblical allusions that also provide an oblique comment on late-fourteenth-century biblical interpretation.
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Hugh T. Keenan, ed. Typology and English Medieval Literature (New York: AMS, 1992), pp. 183-205.
Chaucer uses biblical exegesis and typology for thematic purposes. In ClT, Griselda is portrayed as "pharmakos," a "figura Christi," through Chaucer's addition of biblical colorings and the typological juxtaposition of her character and actions with…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Chaucer Review 24 (1990): 306-308.
Not only does Troilus's address to the "paleys desolat" of Criseyde echo the lament over the deserted Jerusalem in the first two chapters of Lamentations, but also Troilus's fixation upon that house is designed to evoke the self-punishing behavior…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
New York and London: Garland, 1988.
The main text consists of "Index I: Chaucer's Biblical Allusions--An Annotated List," arranged by Chaucer's works, and "Index II: Scriptural References," a reverse index. The apparatus includes an introduction; an essay, "Research on Chaucer and…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Papers on Language and Literature 22 (1986): 322-25.
Several of Chaucer's worldly pilgrims (the Yeoman, the Man of Law, the Franklin, and the guildsmen) wear girdles, belts, or cords as symbols of wealth and opulence. None of the religious figures, however, is portrayed with a girdle. Since…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
David H. Hirsch and Nehama Aschkenasy, eds. Biblical Patterns in Modern Literature (Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1984), pp. 43-50.
Examines Chaucer's skeptical pose concerning theological and biblical controversies of the fourteenth century: "glosynge," parody, biblical allusion in PardP, PardT, GP, CT, and TC.
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 65-73.
Chaucer used the "Glossa ordinaria" in WBT and MerT; his use of the term "glosing" shows his awareness of fraudulent exegetes. ParsT is more literal than exegetical. Chaucer's attitude toward exegesis was shaped by the antifraternalism of the…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Chaucer Newsletter 1.1 (1979): 15-16.
Argues that GP 259-62, 642-43, and TC II, 36-37 are allusions to the Great Schism: the Friar like a pope in his "'double' worstede"; the pope like a popinjay (of two voices?), and the proverb that more than one way leads to Rome.
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Sanford Budick and Wolgang Iser, eds. The Translatability of Cultures: Figurations of the Space Between. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 68-84.
Augustine's emphasis on charity and cupidity in "De doctrina Christiana" and his discussion of the relations among gospel narratives in "De consensu evangelistarum" suggest that he equates secular and biblical poetics. Similarly, Chaucer justifies…
Thirteen essays originally presented as lectures at the Center for Literary Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between September 1991 and January 1993. Each essay re-examines the relation of a major author, genre, or theme to traditional…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
Argues that the Bible is a far more pervasive influence on Chaucer than has been previously recognized. Chaucer uses the Bible or its glosses in most of his writings, responding--through quotation, paraphrase, or allusion--to traditional notions of…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
North-Western European Language Evolution 34 (1998): 99-153.
Historical assessment of Chaucer's multi-word (or phrasal) verbs, assessing the syntax and semantics of such verbs, the drift to post-positioning of the particles in these verbs (e.g., "wente forth" rather than "forth wente"), and the effects of…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 23: 181-224, 2001.
Various "titles, epithets, and images" in TC reflect Chaucer's "covert engagement" with political and religious contention. Pandarus and the narrator adopt priestly roles, Troilus is like an anti-Lollard zealot, and forms of address such as "madame"…
The original audience of TC would have read the decision of the Trojan Parliament in light of the 1385 Durham Ordinances, clause 3. Since this clause explicitly prohibits the imprisoning of unarmed women, the parallel suggests Criseyde's status as a…
The anti-Semitism of PrT is attributable to the Prioress, not to Chaucer, who would have known Jews through the courts of Castile (referred to in MkT) and who presents Jews as "renowned historians and transmitters of knowledge in the field of…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Chaucer Review 41(2006): 99-104.
Given his interest in Chaucer and his ownership of a copy of TC, Dickens's "comic literary use of the motif of 'Christ-forgives-his-killers'" may be an echo of Chaucer's use of the motif, which is based on Luke 23.34, in TC 3.1577.
Besserman, Lawrence L.
Chaucer Review 12 (1977): 68-73.
Chaucer uses wordplay as a device for establishing the Nun's Priest's resentment of his subordination to the Prioress. The Priest disassociates himself from the anti-feminist sentiment of the tale with his final claim "I kan noon harm of no womman…
Besserman, Lawrence L.
Chaucer Review 36: 48-72, 2001.
Throughout the decades, Chaucer critics have argued their own biases in interpreting Chaucer's ideology--seeing Chaucer as a "Christian poet"; as a "poet first and foremost"; as an "atheist"; as a writer who was "politically incorrect." Eschewing…
