Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Papers on Language and Literature 15 (1979): 339-57.
The function of wells and streams in Chaucer's use of the garden "topos" suggests that, where the secular materials are drawn from the courtly love tradition, as in PF and very largely in MerT, religious echoes expose the illusiveness or inadequacy…
Taylor, Ann M.
Papers on Language and Literature 15 (1979): 357-69.
Chaucer presents Troilus' appeal to Criseyde as ominous in its accuracy, sincere in its passions, yet faulty in its rhetoric. Troilus fails to appear confident, to inspire Criseyde's good will; through faulty emphasis he loses the effect of his plan…
Rutherford, Charles S.
Papers on Language and Literature 17 (1981): 245-54.
Troilus's final speech in Book IV includes three of the only four proverbs he uses, suggesting a new-found "auctoritee." Troilus casts off idealism, speaking for the first time as a cynic and unhappy prophet. The Troilus who allows Criseyde to…
Martin, Wallace,and Nick Conrad.
Papers on Language and Literature 17 (1981): 3-22.
The Levi-Strauss formula for the structure of myth can be applied to analogues of ShT to illuminate disputed interpretations. In a list of similar actions in columns, not chronological, the ShT shows eight implications of the Levi-Strauss formula.
Hinton, Norman (D.)
Papers on Language and Literature 17 (1981): 339-46.
The disparity between Chaucer's allusion to Lucan in MLT 400-403 and the actual passage in Lucan may be explained by commentaries that Chaucer might have known. The "Pharsalia" shares thematic parallels with Chaucer's story, and may reflect his…
Kiser, Lisa J.
Papers on Language and Literature 19 (1983): 3-12.
Although early, BD shows the development of the Chaucerian persona as narrator--"the shy, self-concious man who seems to know so little about the truths he records so well."
Chance, Jane.
Papers on Language and Literature 21 (1985): 115-28.
These highly unconventional epistolary poems lack well-defined literary antecedents and clearcut sources, instead reflecting the poet's own experiences and opinions on his craft and love and marriage. As universal ironic statements by a naive…
Condren, Edward I.
Papers on Language and Literature 21 (1985): 233-57.
Chaucer celebrates "man's simultaneous transcendence and absurdity": in MilT, Nicholas's psaltery playing may be onanistic; in MerT, January's praise of Damian as "discreet," "secree," and "manly" may suggest his willingness to allow May…
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…
Rex, Richard.
Papers on Language and Literature 22 (1986): 339-51.
The reference at the end of the tale to the offending Jews being drawn by wild horses and hanged (not in the tale's analogues) points out the cruelty of the Prioress. Reserved for traitors, equine quartering was rare in England.
Dane, Joseph A.
Papers on Language and Literature 24 (1988): 115-33. Reprinted in Joseph A. Dane, The Critical Mythology of Irony (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1991), pp. 135-49.
Now a mainstay of Chaucerian criticism, the term "irony" has designated at least three different concepts in literary history, variously emphasizing the authority of the text, the poet, and the critic. Rhetorical irony, the "appeal to an absent…
Hewitt, Kathleen.
Papers on Language and Literature 25 (1989): 19-35.
BD "questions the very nature of the relation between text and interpretation." Each of the four divisions of the poem examines a different relation of source and text.
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.
Griffiths, Gwen.
Papers on Language and Literature 25 (1989): 242-63.
The divergence of critical opinion about MerT attests to Chaucer's success in prompting multiple responses to his text and in allowing no definitive reading. In the tale, "the narrator/narratee relationships are reflected in a multiplicity of…
Hatton, Thomas J.
Papers on Language and Literature 3 (1967): 179-81.
Contends that parallels between the "sacrifices" in FranT and two analogous ones found in Jean Froissart's "Chroniques" 2.137-38 encourage us to see the offer of the Franklin's magician to be illusory and worthless while Arveragus's offer of the…
Lampe, David E.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, summer supplement (1967): 49-62.
Reads "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" as a poem about the power of love and its effects on its lovesick narrator, at points comparing it with works by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and others, observing likely derivations.
Dunleavy, Gareth W.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 14-27.
Explores the pervasiveness of the influence of Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" on Chaucer's works, noting its role as the source of Bo, summarizing its well-recognized impact on Chaucer's "discourses on providence, 'gentilesse,' and truth" in…
Sanders, Barry.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 3-13.
Discusses the theme of distorted love in HF, where "love of self" is depicted as replacing the ideal of "'commune profit,' that is love for others and for the larger order of the universe" held together by the "great chain." Argues that courtly love…
Hatton, Thomas J.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 31-39.
Argues that Chauntecleer's character in NPT "reflects not only the victims in the Monk's tragedies but the Monk himself," focusing on "echoes and parallels" between NPT and MkT, their concern with fortune, and the Nun's Priest's warning to the Monk.
Kolinsky, Muriel.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 40-49.
Tabulates the uses of second-person singular pronouns ("ye" and "thou") in speeches between pilgrims in CT, and focuses on instances in which the Host uses these pronouns to address his fellow pilgrims, observing a concern with rank.
Fifield, Merle.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 63-70.
Argues that the imagery of court revels influenced Chaucer's works: "revels imagery ornaments" MerT, "structures the opening" of SqT, and "motivates choices" in FranT.
Harrington, David V.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 71-79.
Explores rhetorical devices in KnT, and suggests that "analysis of its rhetoric" reveals that the poem is "organized" as a "demande d'amour," identifying how Chaucer adjusted the rhetoric of his source, Boccaccio's "Teseida."
Gardner, John.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 80-106.
Justifies following the Ellesmere order of the CT on thematic grounds, arguing that the arrangement is "probably Chaucer's," taking note of probable stages in Chaucer's process of composition, and observing a "general coherence" of concerns with…
Pelen, Marc M.
Papers on Language and Literature 30 (1994): 132-56.
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…
Woods, William F.
Papers on Language and Literature 32 (1996): 189-205
Explores ways CkPT respond to themes raised earlier in Fragment 1 and focuses on how CkT provides a "powerfully suggestive" urban setting in which the regulated life of Perkyn's master is contrasted by the mercurial, primal, savage world of thievery…
