Browse Items (16364 total)

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…

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.

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…

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."

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.

Assesses the Helen-Deiphebus sub-plot in TC for the ways that it reinforces the poem's theme of inconstancy and anticipates Criseyde's relationship with Diomedes.

Introduces Chaucer's language and its place in English language history, describing his vocabulary (including a list of misleading cognates and obsolete or difficult forms), morphology, grammar, and phonology--all exemplified in the booklet and in…

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.

Includes a brief introduction to Chaucer and his works, with a selection from GP and PrT, NPT, and PardT (without their prologues), accompanied by marginal glosses and bottom-of-the-page notes.

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…

Sixteen stories from medieval French and English literature, adapted for juvenile readers. Includes NPT, WBT, PardT, CYT (Part 2), and FrT, and comments briefly on Chaucer's life and on CT, crediting the poet with the idea of suiting tales to…

Six pamphlets in a slip-folder, each individually paginated, and each summarizing the linguistic conditions and features of a work of English literature and offering pedagogical exercises in understanding the place of the work in linguistic history.…

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.

Offers background and context for various kinds of "unsettling" dreams in literature, mentioning that Pertelote treats Chanticleer's "anxiety dream" in NPT 7.2882ff. "as a cryptic diagnosis [of humoral disorder] which required immediate prescription…

Identifies John of Trevisa's "Polychronicon" as the likely source for the Monk's use of "pileer" distinct from "boundes" (7.2126-27) in his account of Hercules, a distinction also made by John Lydgate in his "Troy Book." Comments on the uses of…

Using evidence from WBPT, challenges D. S. Silvia's argument (N&Q 1967: 8-10; same title) that the Wife of Bath has lost interest in Jankyn and is looking for husband number six.

Characterizes the Canon's Yeoman as "a clever young man, almost too clever for his own good," a comic figure whose renunciation of the Canon and of alchemy is marked by shifting identities and ambiguities which indicate ironically the Yeoman's own…

Resists impulses to denigrate the artistry of MLT and argues that the rhetorical passages--including several of the narrator's apostrophes--achieve "genuinely intense emotion" rather than mere sentimentality.

Argues that PF is "much more critical of human life than has been thought [and] that it finally adopts and orthodox Christian Position." Explores how the structure, details, and style of the poem undermine the narrator's views and work "to suggest,…

Item not seen. A WorldCat record indicates that the four essays, addressed to high school students, consider CT under the following titles: "Chaucer, Society and the General Prologue," "Chaucer and Medieval Thought," "Chaucer and Medieval Tradition,"…

Surveys the conventions of English and French courtly literature, emphasizing backgrounds, setting, plot structure, the contributions of Machaut and Froissart, and the influence of the "Pearl." A closing chapter on BD explores how and in what ways…

Illustrated social history of late-medieval England for a juvenile audience, with occasional references to Chaucer.

Reads HF as Chaucer's "vindication of poetry," even though he comically proposes to eschew it. Identifies the various echoes of classical and medieval sources in HF, particularly Virgil's "Aeneid," Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Alain de Lille's…

Identifies the legal denotations of the word "secte" (suit at law) and argues that the Clerk's use of it when referring to the Wife of Bath (4.1170-71) indicates that his Tale is a reply to hers.

Though he probably knew nothing of the theatre, Chaucer displays the essence of dramatic technique--the ability to create the persons of his characters objectively in CT.