Wimsatt, James I.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 66 (1967): 26-44.
Argues that in BD Chaucer "heavily inlays the Black Knight's long description of his lady with imagery of the Blessed Virgin" and "that the effect produced by such imagery is an apotheosis not inconsonant with the traditional apotheosis of the…
Beach, Charles Franklyn.
Anthony Giffone and Marlene San Miguel Groner, eds. Proceedings, Northeast Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, 2003, Farmingdale State University of New York (Farmingdale, N.Y.: Farmingdale State University, 2004), pp. 5-10.
Comments on various assessments of the Prioress as a figure of false appearances and suggests that Chaucer undercuts PrT through the reference to Hugh of Lincoln, which ironically evokes the twelfth-century Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, who defended Jews.
Somerville, Elizabeth S.
Dissertation Abstracts International 28.08 (1968): 3158-59A.
Illustrates how literary works "can be read existentially from the point of view of the reader's ontological concern with them," discussing James Joyce's "Clay," William Blake's "The Little Black Boy," and WBPT. Reads WBT as a "reflection of the…
Hanna, Ralph, [III].
Studies in Bibliography: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia 53: 163-72, 2000.
Examines variants in WBP 3.115-17 (especially "wight" versus "wright") to identify flaws in applying cladistic theory to manuscript stemmatics. Cladistic analysis underlies the Canterbury Tales Project.
Dwyer, Richard A.
Chaucer Review 8 (1974): 221-40.
Savors the indeterminacies of manuscript transmission, treating them as a form of "anonymous or indeterminate revision" in contrast with strict, modern notions of authorial revision. Exemplifies the variety found in manuscripts of "Piers Plowman," CT…
Ussery, Huling E.
Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 50 (1965): 545-56.
Maintains that the PhyT was "specifically adapted especially to the Physician as teller," arguing that the opening of the Tale and its rhetoric reflect the arts training common to late-medieval physicians, that various details reflect the teller's…
Wood, Chauncey.
Modern Language Quarterly 25 (1964): 259-71.
Argues that the astrological data in GP and MLH establish the date of the beginning of the Canterbury pilgrimage as April 17, the same day as the departure of Noah's ark, evoking notions of sinfulness and salvific baptism, reinforced by imagery of…
Brewer, Derek.
Derek Brewer, Tradition and Innovation in Chaucer (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1982), pp. 1-21.
Characterizes several differences between the archaic (prescientific) and modern mindsets: literal vs. relative, oral vs. literate, mythic vs. scientific. Includes a brief discussion of Chaucer's mixture of the two.
Saito, Mother Masako, R.S.C.J.
Dissertation Abstracts International 25.03 (1964): A1897.
Explores the archetypal imagery of bondage and liberation from bondage in five "clusters" in CT: chivalric prison, animal confinement, "juridical bondage with its emphasis on 'wit,' entrapment, and hell and purgatory.
Roger, Euan, and Andrew Prescott
Chaucer Review 57 (2022): 498-526.
Highlights the amount of potential material in The National Archives as compared to more traditional repositories for high-value manuscripts. Considers approaches to find and use this material with new examples for Chaucer, Gower, and Skelton.
The Pardoner's interruption of the WBP causes shifts in her tone and subject, but also alerts us to parallels between the two characters: wide travels, sermon-like autobiographical prologues, and tales which feature central characters who are…
Brewer, Derek.
Edward Vasta and Zacharias P. Thundy, ed. Chaucerian Problems and Perspectives: Essays Presented to Paul E. Beichner, C. S. C. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979), pp. 221-43.
Recognition of the arming of the warrior "topos" guides us to many formal arming passages: in the Babylonian epic, the "Iliad," The Bible, the "Aeneid," Irish literature, "Beowulf," the "Chanson de Roland," "Erec et Enide," the Arthurian series,…
Papica, Raymund.
Dissertation Abstracts International A78.01(E) (2017): n.p.
Studies "depictions of armor" in CT, Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur," and Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," "exploring how these works help us understand medievalism in contemporary media," and investigating "how armored bodies function as a way to think…
Drimmer, Sonja.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.
Examines the importance of visual images in late medieval manuscripts, and the significance of manuscript illuminators in the development and spread of English literary culture. Discusses illuminated manuscripts of Chaucer's CT, and illustrated works…
Nist, John.
Tennessee Studies in Literature 11 (1966): 1-10.
Coins the term "pathedy" to describe Chaucer's "serene middle ground" between tragedy and comedy, applying the term to the "quality of love" that characterizes Troilus in TC and to the tragicomic contradictions and essential humanity of several of…
Describes the Franklin's grasping "imitation of noble ways" in FranPT and in his GP description. The genre and rhetoric of the Tale are outdated, absurd, and/or obtrusive, while its depictions of ideals of marriage, gentility, and patience are either…
Schlauch, Margaret.
D. S. Brewer, ed. Chaucer and Chaucerians: Critical Studies in Middle English Literature (University: University of Alabama Press; London: Nelson, 1966), pp. 140-63.
Describes and comments on the range and subtleties of Chaucer's prose styles, with recurrent comments on his stylistic adaptation of sources. Treats the "plain" style of Astr, the "heightened" homiletic style of ParsT, the "eloquent" style of Mel,…
Smoot, Maxine Bixby.
Dissertation Abstracts International 35 (1975): 6735A
Chaucer artfully uses meter to support meaning. The tensions between meter and speech rhythm, enjambment and run-on lines, rhyme and alliteration, and denotation and onomatopoeia all display his technical virtuosity.
Nolan, Barbara.
Donald M. Rose, ed. New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism (Norman Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1981), pp. 203-22.
In BD Chaucer skillfully breaks with French poetic practice to produce a new kind of poetry. The enigmatic narrator does not participate in established conventions; an insomniac amateur reader, he does not fully understand the matter he presents.
Notes Chaucer's attention to "loss of sexual power" in the process of aging, commenting on two brief passages in modern translation: WBP (3.198-203) and RvP (1.3879-382, 3887-98).
