In its evocations of a "locus amoenus," "fin' amors," and Aeneas, the dream chamber in BD serves as a "structural analogue" to the Man in Black's autobiography, which narrates an idyllic youth, describes falling in love, and refers to the duties of…
Boethius's "prosimetrum" lets readers experience the "consolation of temporality" that Philosophy offers. In Bo, Chaucer demonstrates his understanding of this consolation by highlighting Philosophy's references to time; however, by rendering the…
Horobin, Simon.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 31 (2009): 109-24.
Paleographical analysis of the text of Astr in Bodley MS 19 reveals that it was produced not by a professional astronomer, but by Stephen Dodesham, a professional scribe who became a Carthusian monk. Other features of the manuscript encourage…
Herman, Jason Michael.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.04 (2009): n.p.
Suggests that Ret should be considered as a rhetorical appeal for the prayers of readers, who are encouraged to reflect on their own readings of CT and to engage in the self-scrutiny that Ret exemplifies.
Winstead, Karen A.
Chaucer Review 43 (2009): 239-59.
By assigning his English translation of Raymund of Pennaforte's "orthodox" yet "contritionist" "Summa de poenitentia" to the Parson, Chaucer subtly resists the emphasis on oral confession to priests that characterized the doctrine of penance of his…
Friedman, John B.
Marlene Villalobos Hennessy, ed. Tributes to Kathleen L. Scott. English Medieval Manuscripts: Readers, Makers and Illuminators (London: Harvey Miller), pp. 83-100.
CYPT shares details and concerns found in other late medieval and early modern English alchemical treatises, part of the genre of "alchemical autobiography." Like CYPT in considering the function of organic material (especially excrement) in…
Legal proceedings following the 1390 roadside theft from Chaucer while he was on the King's business demonstrate the folly of any medieval challenge to hierarchical prerogative by a gang representing antihierarchical attitudes. Theoretically…
Robinson, Carol L., and Pamela Clements
Studies in Medievalism 18 (2009): 55-75.
Notes (on pp. 65-67) a BBC One production of six tales in CT that aims to present the Wife of Bath as "a wonderful, feisty, bawdy, independent woman who is very much alive and living in the 21st century"; a Canadian (Baba Brinkman) who has…
Horobin, Simon.
Yearbook of Langland Studies 23 (2009): 61-83.
Palaeographical differences between the hands of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of CT and of Additional 35287 are more compelling than are the similarities. Horobin suggests that Pinkhurst "was not Chaucer's personal copyist" and focuses on…
Gutiérrez Arranz, José María.
Pedro P. Conde Parrado and Isabel Velázquez, eds. La filología latina: Mil años más. Actas del IV Congreso de la Sociedad de Estudios Latinos, Medina del Campo, May 22-24, 2003 (Madrid: Sociedad de Estudios Latinos, 2009), pp. 1579-1601.
Surveys Ovid's influence on medieval literature and assesses Chaucer's use of Ovidian myths.
Thaisen, Jacob, and Orietta Da Rold.
NM 110 (2009): 283-97.
The authors review previous scholarship concerning Cambridge MS. Dd.4.24 and evaluate the linguistic stratification indicated by orthographic variants. They argue that the manuscript appears to date from the late fourteenth century, that it…
Horobin exemplifies how Chaucer used traditional methods of word formation to expand English vocabulary, creating new words and meaning by adding prefixes and suffixes, shifting grammatical function, and compounding words.
Considers Chaucer's idea of nature in CT, assessing its relationship to Renaissance humanism, to scholarship and various arts, and to conceptions of the celestial world and natural science. Also gauges the influence of Chaucer's view of nature on…
Late medieval manuscript illuminations show Danes and other northern pagans with costumes and weapons that are emblematic of the Near East. Like MLT and Gower's Tale of Constance, these images indicate that the term Saracen included various…
RvT "confronts the paradoxical status of women's desire" in medieval Christian and feudal systems. The Tale's "significant divergences from the fabliau tradition" and several resemblances to the story of Theseus and Ariadne help undercut KnT; its…
Considers Mel as an allegory of translation, proposing that Chaucer applies legal theory drawn from Henry de Bracton's "De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae" to questions of ownership. In MelP, Chaucer uses "thyng" as a legal term pertaining to an…
Hernández Pérez, María Beatriz.
SELIM 16 (2009): 103-20.
Analyzes HF in light of Saint Augustine's understanding of memory, showing how Chaucer proposes a dialogue with history and literature of the past in which the author and the reader are recipients of a common legacy.
Boro, Joyce.
Mary Ellen Lamb and Valerie Wayne, eds. Staging Early Modern Romance: Prose Fiction, Dramatic Romance, and Shakespeare (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 188-202.
Includes comments on Fletcher's sources for his "Women Pleased": WBT and "Grisel y Mirabella" by Juan de Flores.
A series of twenty-four lectures (each 30 minutes) about the topography and social conditions of London. Lectures 4 and 5, entitled "Economic Life in Chaucer's London" and "Politics and Religion in Chaucer's London" describe the physical, economic,…
A book "about the different aspects of words" (etymology, morphology, language acquisition, language and cognition, etc.), designed for a popular audience and arranged as a series of 121 topical pieces of varying lengths. Item 54 ("Chaucer's Words,"…
Cornelius, Michael G.
Blake Hobby, ed. Human Sexuality (New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2009), pp. 95-104.
Introduces MilT as a fabliau, contrasts it with KnT, and comments on the "punishment" received by each of the major characters, including Alisoun, who is victimized by being a wife and through whom Chaucer critiques marriage.
Davis, Carmel Brendon.
Estela Valverde, ed. A Universal Argentine: Jorge Luis Borges, English Literature and Other Inquisitions (Sydney: Southern Highlands Press, 2009), pp. 105-14.
Investigates the validity of Jorge Louis Borges' claim (1949) that Chaucer effected or recorded the "definitive shift from allegory to novel" when translating a line from Boccaccio's "Teseida" in his KnT. Davis focuses on the "slipperiness of…
Reads the Wife of Bath as "Chaucer's construction of the . . . female body as a literal and metaphoric text," and explores how depictions of the Wife in modern films respond to her critical reception as well as his original creation.
