Richardson surveys various interpretations of the Old Man in PardT. Concentrates on the imagery of Mother Earth and of suicide, arguing that the Old Man can be seen as the Pardoner's undying soul.
Richardson, Janette.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 85-95.
Rhetoric is the Pardoner's mode of existence, but, despite his success with rural audiences, evil intentions negate his moral persuasiveness in the eyes of the pilgrims and the modern reader.
Examines the imagery and irony of FrT, RvT, ShT, MerT, SumT, and MilT, focusing on how in each tale Chaucer achieves "organic" unity through transformation of the "conventional formulae" of medieval rhetorical handbooks. Summarizes the practices…
Argues that "imagery and narrative detail" in ShT subtly undercut the Tale's "relish for quick-witted deception" and its "philosophy of money," typical of the fabliau genre. Several image clusters and their points of occurrence in the Tale evoke "the…
Richardson, Janette.
Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 198 (1962): 388-90.
Traces the scribal and editorial history of capitalizing (or not) "S/summoner" in FrT 3.1327, advocating the lower case "s" for the way it maintains the ambiguity of reference to the protagonist of FrT and the Friar's pilgrim-opponent.
Richardson, Janette.
English Miscellany 12 (1961): 9-20.
Argues that Chaucer's use of conventional hunter and prey images in FrT "serves an organic function within the aesthetic whole of the work." Rather than "functioning as mere decoration" it reinforces and deepens "the comic irony both inherent and…
Richardson, Lilla Janette.
Dissertation Abstracts International 24.03 (1963): 1176.
Shows that Chaucer uses "rhetorical figures . . . [to] produce imagery," analyzing the "use of imagery" in FrT, RvT, ShT, MerT, and MilT--in comparison with sources, where available--and focusing on how he uses imagery to create ironic effects not…
Richardson, Macolm
Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation 5.2 (2010): n.p. [Electronic publication]
Recounts the experiences of teaching a British Literature survey at a Louisiana university in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in Fall 2005, exploring why student response to CT was unusually intense at that time, particularly for its concern with…
An examination of the two earliest-known owners of a CT manuscript suggests that Chaucer's secondary audience was literate, secular in its interests, urban, and word-oriented.
Richardson, Peter Kent.
Dissertation Abstracts International 52 (1992): 2936A.
In medieval verse (e.g., Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Horn, and Chaucer's works), tense and aspect of verbs prove more significant than previously recognized. Rather than serving demands of meter and rhyme, Chaucer's verbal…
Like the "Gawain" poet, Chaucer manipulates tense for narrative purposes, often using the historical present to accentuate "key events, characters, and descriptions." Some of Chaucer's endings may have been added by scribes, making his exact…
Richardson, Thomas C.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales". (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 324-39.
Characterizes the Host by examining the social history of his profession as an innkeeper and its possible associations with prostitution. In his interactions with other pilgrims,the Host reveals a "desire to be entertained with merry stories" and an…
Richman, Gerald.
Studia Neophilologica 61 (1989): 161-65.
The rapist-knight's plea to "Tak al my good and let my body go" (WBT 3.1061) highlights his role reversal not only with the raped maiden but also with women bound to legalized rape by the concept of the "marriage debt." Richman suggests that the…
Richmond, Andrew M.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Studies "ways in which medieval British romances conceived of ecological contexts" and identifies a "range of economic, religious, and social values attached to landscape"--hills and mines; seashores and beaches; and foreign, domestic, and fantastic…
Richmond, Andrew Murray.
Ph.D. Dissertation. The Ohio State University, 2015. Open access at http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1428671857 (accessed February 3, 2023).
Assesses the "textual landscapes and ecological details" in various late-medieval British romances, including discussion of seaside and shipwreck in MLT and in Gower's analogous Tale of Constance "as a simultaneously inviting and threatening space…
Richmond, E. B., trans.
London : Hesperus Poetry, 2004.
Facing-page translation of PF and nineteen short poems and lyrics by Chaucer, with introduction and brief notes. The translations maintain Chaucer's metrical forms and, where possible, original rhymes, while normalizing spelling and modernizing…
Facing-page translation of BD, based on the Riverside edition and rendered in modern octosyllabic couplets. Includes brief notes, a biographical note about Chaucer, an introduction by the translator, and a foreword by Bernard O'Donoghue.
Facing-page version of MilPT and the GP description of the Miller, with modernization in iambic pentameter facing the Middle English text from the Riverside edition. Contains a descriptive introduction, brief notes (pp. 53-55), and a biographical…
Modernizes MerPT in iambic pentameter couplets, with brief notes and facing-page text in Middle English. The introduction (pp. vii-xv) emphasizes the bitter tone of the tale and its satire
Richmond, Velma Bourgeois.
Modern Language Quarterly 51 (1990): 427-45.
Modern discussions of Chaucer and Spark deemphasize the clear religious strains in their fictions. The grotesque, the absurd, and the aberrant are present in both as worldly flaws requiring divine transcendence.
Richmond, Velma Bourgeois.
New York: Continuum, 1992.
Biographical review; consideration of the fourteenth-century cultural context; and critical discussion of all of Chaucer's works. Half of the chapters are devoted to the CT, divided by subject and tone into secular romances, fabliaux, religious…
Richmond, Velma Bourgeois.
Papers on Language and Literature 11 (1975): 404-07.
"Guy of Warwick" served as an object of serious imitation as well as parody. The scene in BD engaging the dreamer with the man in black as traceable to this source, as are the deliberately naive questioner and other such devices for achieving…
Marriage has important positive values in medieval narrative, including Chaucer's. The "Marriage Group" constitutes not so much a debate over sexual dominance in marriage as a varied demonstration of the need for mutual consideration and…
Theoretical studies of Chaucer often discourage student interest because of their difficulty and narrow focus. Teaching Chaucer to a diverse population in a small liberal arts college requires materials and activities such as videos, slides,…
