Purdie demonstrates that the layout of Th in several key early manuscripts derives from the traditional layout of Middle English tail-rhyme poetry. Chaucer intended to contribute to the Tale's humor with this arrangement, which reflects his…
Purdie explores "how and why" tail-rhyme romance developed in Middle English and defines the "temporal and geographical limits" of the subgenre. The book includes a version of Purdie's "The Implications of Manuscript Layout in Chaucer's Tale of Sir…
Purdon, L. O.
Studies in Philology 89 (1992): 334-49.
Summarizes the theological tradition of second or eternal death that results from mortal sin. The concept is reflected in the figure of the Old Man, who is paradoxically both in death and deathless.
Purdon, L. O.
English Language Notes 28:2 (1990): 1-5.
When the old man of PardT quotes Leviticus in his reproof of the three rioters, he omits the penultimate clause, "and fear the Lord your God." The omission suggests an Augustinian doctrine that the damned are unmindful of God.
Purdon, L. O.
Papers on Language and Literature 25 (1989): 216-19.
Chaucer's reference to "wod" in "Form Age" 17 not only suggests England's flourishing dyeing industry (lacking in the former age) but also alludes to abuses of that trade.
Purdon, Liam O.
Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney, eds. Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 144-52.
Sted, which begins as a complaint, reveal the poet's "anxiety over the mutable condition of language."
Purdon, Liam O.
Parentheses: Papers in Medieval Studies 1 (1999): 187-204. [Web publication.]
Considers theories that Alison conspired with Jankyn to murder her fourth husband, assessing matters of criminal intent and liability, and exploring ways that WBP situates the reader as a victim of the Wife's special pleading.
Purdon, Liam O., and Cindy L. Vitto, eds.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994.
Twelve essays examine the decline of the feudal ideal, an ideal that may never have existed in practice. Exploring interactions between literature and sociohistorical data, contributors outline various gaps between feudal ideals and realities: …
Purdon, Liam O., and Julian N. Wasserman.
Chaucer Review 33 (1998): 112-15.
Chaucer's somewhat unusual association of his Franklin with food may reflect the frequent migration of the Exchequer from Westminster to York and the prioritizing of the York food trade as a result. The Franklin may have been a York franklin who…
Purdy, Dwight H.
Texas Studies in Literature and Language 23 (1981): 197-213.
Surveys Joseph Conrad's allusions to Chaucer and to the Bible, and argues that in the novel "Victory" Conrad expresses his "sense of radical modern otherness." In Conrad's novel, "Jones's sexual anomaly mirrors a spiritual malaise," as does the…
Eleven essays by various authors and an introduction by the editors focus on the codicology and metrical forms of Middle English romances; the volume includes an index. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Transmission of Medieval…
Putter compares Chaucer's techniques to the "close control" of syllable counting by alliterative poets. Although the metrical goals of these poets differ from those of Chaucer, the means whereby alliterative poets achieve control are similar to…
Putter, Ad.
Christopher Cannon and Maura Nolan, eds. Medieval Latin and Middle English Literature: Essays in Honour of Jill Mann (Cambridge: Brewer, 2011), pp. 166-81.
Pity's "double life" as person and quality "calls attention to the mechanics" of allegory and to one's "ordinary" experience of pity; through word play, pity is both dead to the frustrated lover and alive to others.
Putter, Ad.
Herbert Schendl and Laura Wright, eds. Code-Switching in Early English (Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2011), pp. 281-302.
Explores "how and why Middle English poets switch into French," confronting distinctions between switching dialects (diglossia) and switching languages as well as acknowledging the complicating conditions of social discourse (footing). Discusses…
Observes that in Chaucer's short-line verse, headless lines are much more common than initial inversion, whereas in his iambic pentameter the exact opposite occurs. Argues that Chaucer and his predecessors used such metrical license "very…
Putter, Ad.
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, ed. A Companion to Fifteenth-Century English Poetry (Brewer, 2013), pp. 143-55.
Clarifies why "The Flower and the Leaf," "The Assembly of Ladies," "La Belle Dame sans Mercy" and "The Isle of Ladies" are described as "Chaucerian," noting their attribution to Chaucer in manuscripts and early printed editions, describing their…
Identifies and gives codicological information about Exchequer Records of the King's Remembrancer in The National Archives at Kew, E 163/22/2/24, a portion of Jan van Boendale's Dutch translation of Albertanus of Brescia's "Liber consolationis et…
Putter, Ad.
English Language Linguistics 26 (2022): 471-85.
Treats the scansion of "high" and "sly" in works by Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve--all "careful metrists"--as evidence of the demise of "inflection of monosyllabic adjectives (final -e for weak and plural adjectives)." Posits that irregularities in…
Putter, Ad.
Helen Cooper and Robert R. Edwards, eds. Oxford History of Poetry in English. Volume 2, Medieval Poetry, 1100–1400 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), pp. 128-44.
Catalogues the stylistic choices made by English poets in terms of meter, rhyme, and alliteration, before concluding with examples from Middle English poets, including Chaucer.
Queen, Ellery, ed.
[New York]: New American Library, 1967.
Anthologizes twenty-three short prose narratives by English and American writers, with a brief, appreciative literary biography for each, and an introductory essay on the nature of anthologies. Includes an excerpt from PardT (pp. 3-8) in Percy…
Quennell, Peter
Springfield, Mass.: Merriam, 1973.
Surveys English literature produced in Britain from the late Middle Ages to the modern period. The chapter entitled "The Age of Chaucer" includes a section (pp. 24-32) that surveys Chaucer's life and works, emphasizing Chaucer's dexterity with…
Quilligan, Maureen.
Morton W. Bloomfield, ed. Allegory, Myth, and Symbol. Harvard English Studies, no. 9 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 163-83.
Distinguishing the process of allegory from the nature of allegoresis, Chaucer deallegorizes his sources. He addresses not a reader but an "auditor," who is not asked to judge his own interpretive procedures. Jean de Meun defends the use of slang…
