Rumble, T. C.
Philological Quarterly 43 (1964): 130-33.
Interprets "chiere" of KnT 1.2683 as "frame of mind" or "state of feeling," and maintains that this obviates the question of the whether or not the preceding two lines on the fickleness of women are spurious.
Severs, J. Burke.
Philological Quarterly 43 (1964): 27-39.
Re-examines the narrator's eight-year sickness in BD, surveying previous commentary, and arguing that, unlike in Chaucer's French sources, the illness is insomnia rather than love-sickness and that God rather than a paramour is his only physician. As…
Clogan, Paul M.
Philological Quarterly 43 (1964): 272-74.
Suggests that the explanation of Cybele as the "flower of spring" in the "Liber Imaginum Deorum" of Albricius I (also known as Mythographer III, perhaps Alexander Neckham) may be the source of Chaucer's reference to Cybele in his praise of Alceste…
LaHood, Marvin J.
Philological Quarterly 43 (1964): 274-76.
Identifies changes that Chaucer's made to his source, Ovid's "Fasti," when shaping his version of the story of Lucrece in LGW, changes that "Christianized" the account.
Argues that the KnT is "especially suitable for the beginning of the pilgrimage" in CT because it "presents the continual subversion of noble efforts to bring order out of disorder" and because, in comparison with its sources," it poses a "pagan…
Investigates the "active tension" between the characterization of the Manciple and the nature of ManT, analyzing differences between the Tale and its sources and analogues (especially characterizations and moralizations) to show how Chaucer…
Proposes punctuation for CkT 1.4394-96 that renders Perkyn's "sober-living master" as "not altogether above reproach," offering the reading as "yet another token of Chaucer's sophisticated art."
White, Gertrude M.
Philological Quarterly 44 (1965): 397-404.
Assesses the "chilling savagery" of the Merchant's attitude toward January in MerT as well as January's materialism, sensualism, and self-delusion, arguing that the character generates a kind of pathos that verges on the tragic.
Devereux, James A., S.J.
Philological Quarterly 44 (1965): 550-52.
Identifies similarities between Criseyde's address to Troilus in TC 3.1309 with "levation" prayers, i.e., popular devotional prayers aligned with the "looking at the host at the elevation of Mass."
Considers medieval knowledge of tidal patterns and details about astrology and the seasons in FranT to support the argument that the clerk of Orleans predicts rather than magically causes the rise of the sea, disguising the presence of the coastal…
Characterizes the Canon's Yeoman as "a clever young man, almost too clever for his own good," a comic figure whose renunciation of the Canon and of alchemy is marked by shifting identities and ambiguities which indicate ironically the Yeoman's own…
Rea, John A.
Philological Quarterly 46 (1967): 128-30.
Offers the "tempting hypothesis" that Adenet le Roi's "Berte aud Grans Pies" is a source of the "coincidence of . . . three motifs" in GP ("pilgrimage, spring, framing device"); also observes several "interesting verbal similarities" between the two.
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Philological Quarterly 46 (1967): 433-56.
Explores free will in Mars, KnT, TC, and CT, focusing on the relative balance of astrological determinism and character complexity. The "compulsions of astrology" in Mars are lessened in KnT, replaced by the "searching" for examples of providence in…
Garbaty, Thomas Jay.
Philological Quarterly 46 (1967): 457-70.
Explores parallels of plot and detail found in "Pamphilus de Amore" (or "Pamphilus and Galatee"), "aspects" of the "Roman de la Rose," "parts" of Juan Ruiz's "Libro de Buen Amor," and the first three books of TC, demonstrating that the "'Pamphilus'…
Examines the allusion to Constantinus Africanus's "De Coitu" in MerT 4.1810-11, suggesting that knowledge of the treatise helps us to understand that January's consumption of aphrodisiacs is "manically compulsive" and sinful.
Di Pasquale, Pasquale, Jr.
Philological Quarterly 49 (1970): 152-63.
Contends that both Troilus and Criseyde submit to Fortune in TC by pursuing a form of worldly "sikernesse" (security), reflecting their lack of the awareness advised by Philosophy in Boethius's "Consolation." Only after leaving the world does Troilus…
Von Kreisler, Nicholai.
Philological Quarterly 50 (1971): 16-22.
Shows that Chaucer's description of the garden in PF 204-10, part of the tradition of "locus amoenus," also "engages the conventional elements and rhetorical style of medieval pictures of heaven or paradise." Such adjustments to Boccaccio's…
Surveys the characteristics of the genre of the Breton lai in French and English, and argues that Chaucer labeled FranT as such in order to "minimize the religious implications of certain elements in the story" and encourage response to its courtly…
Laird, Edgar (S.)
Philological Quarterly 51 (1972): 486-89.
Explores the astrological term "valunse" as it seems to mean something approximating lack, want, or non-being, used by Chaucer in this sense at Mars, line 145.
Wright, Constance S.
Philological Quarterly 52 (1973): 739-46.
Treats Chaucer's use of the humility topos in FranP as an example of "mannerist style," focusing on his uses of the terms "crude" and "excused" and his reference to Mount Parnassus. Exemplifies the rich classical background of these features, and…
Argues that in translating Renaud de Louens's "Le Livre de Mellibee" in his own Mel, Chaucer created an "overtly rhetorical style for purposes of parody." Probably an expansion of an earlier, abridged translation by Chaucer, Mel is characterized by…
Ebin, Lois A.
Philological Quarterly 53 (1974): 321-41.
Reads "The Kingis Quair" as a "direct response" to Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and to TC and KnT, taking up their concerns with Fortune. "Quair" shares the concern with worldly love found in Chaucer's two poems, although it presents love…
McGalliard, John C.
Philological Quarterly 54 (1975): 1-18.
Chaucer's characterization is sophisticated. The monk, merchant, and wife are complex personalities rather than flat stereotypes. The merchant is not duped or punished because of character flaws; he has none. The tale emphasizes the success of the…
Pratt, Robert A.
Philological Quarterly 54 (1975): 19-25.
Manuscript evidence indicates that Chaucer intended the title of his longest work to be "The Tales of Caunterbury." During the fifteenth century, however, the work became known popularly as "The Canterbury Tales."
Cowgill, Bruce Kent.
Philological Quarterly 54 (1975): 670-79.
The tournament described in Part IV is archaic. Chaucer's purpose is to dissociate the Knight from the ideals of his age and thus align the tale with its narrator's portrait in the GP as an implicit reproval of the Hundred Years' War.
