Browse Items (16470 total)

Reevaluates Pope's adaptation of HF, "The Temple of Fame," focusing on how radically he reworks Chaucer's narrative, shifting it to a more "scenic" poem by introducing elements from "An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries," a piece of…

Comments on HF and TC in chapter 2, "Medieval Literature: Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland" (pp. 47-86). Compares the three buildings that the dreamer visits in HF--the temple in the desert, the palace of Fame, and the twirling house of…

Item not seen. WorldCat records indicate this is a Dutch adaptation of selections from CT in graphic form.

Focusing on literary depictions of maying activities in medieval records and the Roman de la Rose, Bezella-Bond assesses their depiction in Malory and in Chaucer's BD, PF, LGWP, KnT, MerT, and WBPT.

Argues from linguistic evidence that Pratt is wrong when hypothesizing that Chaucer used a French version of the Troy story.

Challenges Robert Pratt's view that "Troilus and Criseyde" was based on Beauvau's French "Troyle", comparing the similarities among Boccaccio's "Filostrato," TC, and the "Roman de Troyle." Includes a detailed historical analysis of the Beauvau family…

Critical reception of Lydgate has been prejudiced by negative comparisons with Chaucer. Fuller appreciation of Lydgate's poetry depends on recognizing that, while moral and political issues in Chaucer are largely exemplary, Lydgate writes to effect…

Not mere ornament, the "effictio,"or physical and spiritual portrait, had become a fixed literary convention by the time of Geoffrey of Vinsauf. Bice analyzes Chaucerian characters from GP, KnT, NPT, and MilT, as well as from "Sir Gawain and the…

Describes the models of verbal portraiture in the "Rhetorica ad Herennium" and works by Geoffrey of Vinsauf and Matthew of Vendôme and their impact on Chaucer, arguing that the portraits of Fortune and Blanche in BD reflect the Black Knight's state…

In context of a larger study of dream visions, uses HF as an example of the ironic dream vision, arguing that it treats authority ironically, whereas other dream visions (e.g., Macrobius on Scipio, Julian of Norwich's mystical visions) offer other…

Considers the "authoritative weight" of dreams and visions in literature, focusing on their connections with other forms of prophetic or revelatory texts and offering a taxonomy of varieties. Includes chapters on the biblical Book of Daniel,…

Focuses on Chaucer's uses of Ovid, specifically his use of the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe in LGW.

In medieval beast fables, including NPT, the fox is a figure of vice. Neither his basic animalism nor his comic villainy qualifies him as an anti-hero, but his consistent distortion of truth does.

Examines the use of prologues and epilogues in several narratives of the Reynard tradition (13th-15th centuries). NPT indicates Chaucer's preference for the prologue and the ambiguity of his assertions.

Analyzes Chaucer's characterization of the birds in PF to explore the process of "distanciation," stemming from two coexisting viewpoints in the poem: the author's and the dreamer's.

Explores the "contemporary consequences of the methods used to initiate medieval studies as an academic discipline in the nineteenth century," particularly how the discipline is "still intimately bound" to the "fathers" of medieval studies.

Reading the loathly lady's discourse on gentilesse (WBT) against the Statutes of Kilkenny (imposed by the English crown on the Anglo-Irish in 1366) highlights the conflict of nobility as defined either by blood line or by behavior (sanguinity or…

Readers err in trying to define the time-scheme of TC too closely, since only a few days of the story's three years are narrated in detail. One must distinguish, therefore, between historical and dramatic chronology, noting Chaucer's emphasis more…

Rooted in Irish analogues, the sovereignty theme is anchored in the queen figure in WBT. The theme reflects "women's integral role in governance," a "wishful vision of a movement toward more egalitarian society," and Anne of Bohemia's role in the…

Surveys references to food in CT, arguing that they capitalize on traditional associations of the "feminized Christ" and butchered animals.

Feminist criticism has changed perceptions of the Wife of Bath. Feminist critics perceive her not as a superficial and "garish caricature" of womanhood but as a serious person attempting to establish her identity, rejecting antifeminist tradition,…

WBT reveals the Wife's idealized vision of society. The Tale answers her society's gender inequities, which victimize both men and women, by depicting a world wherein ultimately women and men are recognized as individuals.

Chaucer employed color adjectives more extensively than did his contemporaries. He preferred basic colors and used them most in connection with human beings. Chaucer's most "colorful" poem is KnT, followed by Rom and GP. Often, his colors are used…

Compares and contrasts Chaucer's and Langland's views of the "lower clergy" (monks, friars, and parish priests) in light of the "religious backgrounds" of their age, arguing that despite their stylistic differences their views are very similar in…

Explores the meanings and implications of the phrase "spiced conscience" in Middle English and later English language history, arguing that in both the GP description of the Parson (1.526) and the Wife of Bath's admonition to her husband (WBP 3.435)…