Browse Items (16472 total)

Chaucer's presentation of himself as a reader of literature is a metaphor for our own reading of his work, an acknowledgement of his concern with the reciprocal relationship between the reader's mind and the text.

In his first three dream visions, Chaucer employed traditional form to transcend the genre, exploring poetic authority and ironic possibilities.

Presents new evidence that "shows that the author [of Equat] was not Chaucer," connecting the unique manuscript of the treatise (Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 75.I) with the work and life of John Westwyk, a monk of Tynemouth. Includes paleographical…

Concludes that the case for Chaucer's authorship of Equat remains "not proven"; i.e., Equat "cannot be identified as Chaucer's work." This conclusion is built on examination of handwriting, dialect, and style, showing that Equat is a holograph in…

Rejects "unsupported biographical inference" about the lives and personalities of Chaucer and William Langland, arguing that it is illogical to assume that the personae they project in their poetry are autobiographical. Conflation or confusion of the…

Reviews scholarly criticism of TC. Argues that the effectiveness of the work is in part the result of Chaucer shaping the reader's complicity with Pandarus. Also discusses Criseyde's desirability, and the theme of sexuality in TC and LGW.

Describes the English royal interest in the political and military maneuvers in Castile, Navarre, Aragon, and France that involved Pedro the Cruel, Pedro the Bold, Henry of Trastamara, Bernard du Guesclin, the Free Companies, and England's Black…

Since literature is linear and sequential, the reader must reassess each line in terms of all previous lines to influence the total effect and alter perspective. Comparing Chaucer's treatment of the past to "Beowulf," Gower, and Malory, refers to…

Identifies "new Romance analogues" for details in GP, MilT, WBPT, PardT, ShT, and ParsT in three fifteenth-century Catalan narratives: "Disputa de l'ase" ("The Argument of the Ass") by Anselm Turmeda, the "Llibre de fra Bernat" ("Book of Friar…

Surveys ballad scholarship and argues that exploration of medieval ballads has value for broader study, suggesting, for example, that "King Henry" provides useful contexts for the gentility speech in WBT.

Patristic and scholastic writers condemn flattery as misuse of speech and an activity conducive to fraud. Chaucer's stricture on flattery initially appears comic, yet it is more direct and explicit than Langland's harsh condemnation, which Chaucer…

Among the oral-tradition analogues for FranT is the story of the Bari Widow, similar to it in ways that Boccaccio's version is not. Analysis of Chaucer's adept use of it and other oral-tradition stories demonstrates the mastery of his creation.

Suggests that T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" echoes RvT 1.3889-3898, where Chaucer "personifies Death as a bartender."

Comments on each of the BBC television versions of Chaucer's narratives (MilT, WBP, KnT, PardT, ShT, and MLT), exploring how adaptation, updating, and remediation duplicate or change aspects of Chaucer's aesthetics and morality.

The BBC's 2003 adaptation of MLT updates Chaucer's Tale, incorporating plot, character names, and thematic elements such as faith, exile and return, trauma and healing, and time and repetition. Constance, a Nigerian refugee, finds love and fellowship…

As seen in GP, the formal method of characterization is rooted in Cicero, Priscian, and Matthew of Vendome. The physical repugnance of the Summoner symbolizes moral ugliness.

A cross-cultural, transhistorical anatomy of one motif in the "mythology of sex" in literature and film--the "story of going to bed with someone whom you mistake for someone else." Discusses structuralist and psychoanalytic explanations of variations…

TC opens in "high style" comparable with Virgil's "Aeneid" or Milton's "Paradise Lost." This style creates an epic frame for the poem which is sustained by the correlation of Troilus the lover with Troilus the warrior. Donaldson is wrong in…

Item not seen. The WorldCat record indicates that this score is for four unaccompanied female voices, with duration of "about 4 min. 30 sec.", with "Text by Chaucer." and difficulty appropriate to "Advanced high school-college; difficult-moderately…

Claims that writing about painting in England began with Chaucer's "definition of visual art" in PhyT 6.9ff., sketching classical and medieval background to Chaucer's description, particularly Pliny, Bartholomeus Anglicus, John Trevisa, and the Roman…

Surveys the lyric and romance traditions of England and France that most likely influenced Chaucer's early writing, commenting on how Rom, ABC, and BD reflect the possible sources and development of Chaucer's colloquial English style.

The authors consider linguistic and cultural factors in English standardization of the fourteenth century, including the reciprocity of Chaucer's contributions to standardization and the role standardization played in "'the making' of Chaucer."

Nine essays by various authors with an introduction and epilogue that discuss literary and linguistic aspects of early standardization in English. For five essays that consider Chaucer specifically, search for Beginnings of Standardization under…

The stellar phenomenon of TC 3.624-25 certainly occurred in 1385, more likely May 12 (though Saturn was not quite in Cancer, something which Chaucer's Tables may have erred about) than June 9, when a crescent moon may not have been visible in London.

Summarizes the life and legacy of Isabella of Castile, examining in detail her last will and testament (included in Latin and French). Refutes John Shirley's suggestion in his manuscript afterwords to Mars and to Venus that the poems link the…