Economou, George D.
Philological Quarterly 54 (1975): 679-84.
The uses to which Chaucer put the Bird-in-the-Cage image (in MilT, SqT, and ManT), which he derived from Boethius and Jean de Meun, reveal the precision and complexity of his literary adaptations.
Jungman, Robert E.
Philological Quarterly 55 (1976): 279-81.
The theme of the Pardoner's sermon, "Radix malorum est cupiditas," comes from 1 Tim. 6:10. Appropriately, the dispute between the Pardoner and the Host following the sermon illustrates Paul's assertion in 1 Tim. 6 that teaching based on "cupiditas"…
Marshall, Linda E.
Philological Quarterly 56 (1977): 407-13.
Identifies parallels between Chaucer's dream visions and the one depicted in Osbern of Gloucester's "Liber derivationum" or "Panormania": the reading of a book inspires the central dream and there is a significant concern with Macrobius's concept of…
Knapp, Peggy Ann.
Philological Quarterly 56 (1977): 413-17.
Chaucer's treatment of Cassandra in TC illustrates his changes in the tone and import of Boccaccio's "Filostrato." Whereas Boccaccio's portrayal provides interesting psychological study, Chaucer's Cassandra introduces a philosophical context by…
Pratt, Robert A.
Philological Quarterly 57 (1978): 267-68.
Jankyn's theories of the dissemination of sound and odor coincide precisely with those of medieval science as presented by Albertus Magnus in his "Liber de sensu et sensato." Chaucer draws upon these widely disseminated medieval views rather than…
Though Chaucer obliquely refers to the positive interpretation of the Mars-Venus-Vulcan myth (in the gift by Vulcan to Harmonia of a brooch), he stresses the negative--that the martial man is best advised to avoid the temptations of love. The…
Slocum, Sally K.
Philological Quarterly 58 (1979): 16-25.
Evidence suggests Pandarus is a peer to Troilus and hardly older than Criseyde, probably around thirty. The younger age eliminates harsh judgments on his involvement in their love affair and on behavior deemed lecherous in an older man.
Benson, C. David
Philological Quarterly 58 (1979): 16-25.
The letter read by Helen and Deiphobus is an example of "special foreshadowing"; it pertains to King Thoas of Greece (derived by Chaucer from Guido delle Colonne), who later (4.138) will be part of the prisoner exchange that sends Criseyde to the…
Deals with relationship of PhyT to FranT and PardT and suitability of tale to teller, treating the sources in Titus Livius and Jean de Meun's "Roman de la Rose," as well as the theme of justice.
The last eighteen stanzas are doomed attempts to forge a fixed moral for the tale--the reader must do it himself. The "contemptus mundi" theme is tried unsuccessfully to unify it. The last nine stanzas are compared to "Paradiso's" cantos 13 and 14…
In contrast to the painful stasis of the temples of Mars and Venus, which Chaucer found in Boccaccio's "Teseida," the invented Temple of Diana emphasizes mutability and transformation, revealing the "hidden, more original concern" of KnT with the…
Knapp, Peggy A.
Philological Quarterly 65 (1986): 387-401.
Discusses four readings of WBP: (1) Alison as a shrewd, aggressive entrepreneur, (2) Alison as a feminist in a society that constantly maligns her, (3) Alison as an archteypical Eve guilty of the sin of pride, and (4) Alison as a sociopath. These…
Woods, William F.
Philological Quarterly 66 (1987): 287-301.
The central tension in KnT involves the relationship between love and arms. The dialectic pits Theseus against Saturn; on all levels, the story moves from division to harmony, strife to union, and war to marriage through a series of compromises…
Chaucer's use of sources, traditions, and images leaves his text too open-ended and ambiguous to admit of any single interpretative pattern for the "matere" of BD. Diverse incidents of the poem are united by Chaucer's "structural integrity,"…
Chaucer's MkT and "Le Chevalier de la charrette" illustrate variations on the character Ugolino from Dante's "Inferno." Chaucer manipulates Dante's story to emphasize the Monk's exemplum: the fall of a a great man beset by adverse fortune.
Harwood, Britton J.
Philological Quarterly 67 (1988): 409-22.
Chaucer's Pardoner is the ultimate "confidence man," a mask layered over the persona of the character and the authorial voice. Yet, his very distance from the other pilgrims provides him a kind of opennes. For purposes of contrast, and to emphasize…
Chaucer's Pardoner owes a debt to Jean de Meun's Fals-Semblant ("Roman de la Rose"), whose false-seeming depends on clothing. In PardT, clothing metaphors become symbols for the relationship between body and soul. The Pardoner's reliance on the…
Suggests that saints' lives, "in which demons converse with saints," provide a context and structural pattern that informs the dialogue between the Summoner and the devil. The tale inverts the usual threefold pattern of the saint's victory over the…
Silar, Theodore I.
Philological Quarterly 69 (1990): 409-17.
The epithet "joly" or "jolif," used seven times to characterize Absolon in MilT, is inadequately translated as "jolly." Chaucer makes use of many Middle English meanings of the word to portray Absolon as "happy and light-hearted, amorous, a…
Removing attribution of the phrase "al stille and softe" from the monk and reading the phrase instead as narrative discourse eliminates ambiguity, enhances our perception of the monk's character, and extends the tale's thematic concerns.
