Browse Items (16472 total)

Contains original-spelling transcripts of all fifty-four manuscripts and four pre-1500 printed editions of WBP, with digitized images of every page of text contained in these sources (1,200 images in all). The transcripts are linked with two…

Articulates the principles of manuscript transcription for the "Canterbury Tales" Project, theorizing about the potential and limitations of transcribing for machine-readable publication and explaining why "graphemic" transcription (rather than…

Compares the advent of electronic editions with the revolution in editing effected by Aldus Manutius in c.1495-1515. Surveys the growing utility of digital photography, the difficulties of machine-readable transcriptions, and the potential for…

Indicates the enormous variation in manuscripts of CT by summarizing variants between the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of WBP--thus providing evidence of the need for computer-assisted collation and recension. Surveys practical difficulties of…

Analyzes textual variants of WBP, using the data and computer analysis available on Robinson's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue on CD-ROM". Corroborates Manly and Rickert's A, B, C, and D groupings and their affiliations, suggests two more (E, F) that…

Surveys evidence-from publications of the Canterbury Tales Project-affirming that the Hengwrt manuscript "has the best text [of the poem], where it has text, but it may not have all the text which Chaucer wrote, nor have it all in the best order, nor…

Despite trends in textual theory and the capability of representing multiple versions of a text electronically, editors should present eclectic, reconstructed texts--not as representations of lost originals but as texts that best explain "all the…

Summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) encoding for electronic texts in the humanities, advocating a middle ground between "realist" and "anti-realist" theories of what can and should be represented. Expresses…

The Canterbury Tales Project takes up where Rickert and Manly left off, presenting extant texts in ways that are accessible to and useful for all readers. Since the manuscripts derive from those copied by a select group of scribes a few years after…

Robinson surveys developments in electronic editing and comments on the strengths and limitations of electronic scholarly editions, calling for greater collaboration among scholars and for increased fluidity and interactivity in the editions. Draws…

Selection from among variant readings should be based on both literary judgment and variant distribution. In the case of MilT, the richest readings are likely to be Chaucer's own. Analysis of them leads to greater appreciation of MilT, "of the…

Generates five general "propositions" about the nature and practice of electronic editing, explaining how the propositions developed from work of Robinson and others on The Canterbury Tales Project and indicating the applicability of the propositions…

Explores the "metaphors, paradoxes, contradictions, and mysteries which link" poetry and money, including description of Purse among examples of fourteenth-to-twentieth-century poetry "in which money is the theme and its absence the concern."

A reading of Chaucer's dream visions as a genre reveal a controlling tension between the narrator's awareness of the demands of Christian doctrine and his human compassion for those enduring the rigors of life on earth. He is sympathetic to human…

Argues that "late medieval dream poets viewed writing as a serious means of therapy, capable of healing both psychological and physiological ailments." Includes discussion of HF where Chaucer combines "performative humor" and "strong sensory imagery"…

Follows Sperber and Wilson's cognitive theory of communication, assessing three Spanish translations of lines from GP. The translator is both an addressee (of the source text) and an addresser (of his own audience).

Arcite breaks his oath of brotherhood with Palamon, the promise he made to Theseus never to return to Athens, and the code of knighthood by doing menial labor disguised as a "povre laborer." The "ignoble, freakish manner of [his] death" thus suits…

Suggests that "spiced conscience" in GP (1.526) means "peppery" moral indignation; "sweet, spiced conscience" in WBP (3.435), a "bland, gentle disposition."

Includes (pp. 8-28) impressionistic appreciation of CT for its fusions of realism and idealism in poetic narrative, discussing it as a prelude to assessment of the Boccaccian tradition of novella writing. Treats PrT and NPT as the two best of the…

Problems of tone--comic versus tragic--make the reader of MLT uneasy. There is also the problem of the weakness of the "literal narrative and the heavy-handed intrusions of the author." One can discern meaningful form, however, if one observes that…

Investigates "how medieval authors implement impaired bodies in service of spiritual exploration," addressing depictions of impaired bodies generally excluded from disability studies, such as "personified sins, aging bodies, and martyrs' bodies."…

Analyzes the aesthetic features--the linguistic, prosodic, and structural form and the aesthetic tradition of MilT--and the vulgar and humorous content of the Tale to emphasize its importance in the canon of popular poetry.

Studies Sercambi's "Novelle" and CT against the background of historical writing, and classical and medieval traditions of "narratio brevis," including the oriental models, in particular the frame stories "in itinere." Analyzes features of short…

Includes four articles related to Middle English manuscripts, CT, and medievalisms. For essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Focus on Old and Middle English Studies under Alternative Title.

Eighteen essays by various authors on language, literature, and scientific manuscripts in Old and Middle English. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Voices on the Past under Alternative Title.