Browse Items (16472 total)

Encourages study of the classical-medieval theory and practice of artificial memory, i.e., memory training that depends on associating ideas with familiar places, whether real or imagined. Comments on the important work of Frances Yates and…

While we cannot be sure of Chaucer's pronunciation of "Berwyk" (CT 1.792), one manuscript version of Bradwardine's memory treatise may suggest the loss of medial (w).

Surveys several classical, oriental, and exegetical traditions of the symbolic or exemplary value of the cock, variously an emblem of wisdom, pugnacity, or stupidity. Chauntecleer of NPT is unusual in combining many qualities, for later literary…

Chaucer's reference to "ferses twelve" in BD remains a tantalizing problem. He may have been thinking of a non-standard version of chess, such as the Courier game, which includes twelve pawns; or the narrator may be thinking of draughts. In any case,…

Tallies Birney's contributions to Chaucer scholarship, particularly his studies that pertain to irony and close reading, and assesses their importance in the tradition of twentieth-century Chaucer criticism.

Identifies elements of MilT that burlesque the Annunciation, the Incarnation, and the Flood, explaining imagery and allusions derived from the biblical narratives and mystery plays.

Argues that PhyT was designed to critique the Man of Law, an extension of the ancient "feud between law and medicine." Explores this tradition in classical and medieval sources, and identifies ways that Chaucer evoked it through adjustments to Livy…

Surveys major works of Chaucer criticism, focusing on works published between ca.1960-1970 and identifying trends. The bibliography lists some 40 works.

Challenges characterizations of the Wife of Bath that treat her as an icon or as a representative figure. Reads WBP for the ways that it may be regarded as a "modern case history" that reflects a complex personality rife with desires and regrets.

An alphabetical listing of animals, mythical and actual, with discussion of their iconography and symbolism in oriental, classical, biblical, and medieval traditions. The index includes nineteen references to Chaucer and his works.

Studies various aspects of Chaucer's animal imagery (particularly mammals), describing their traditional associations, and exploring Chaucer's uses of these conventions, drawing on natural history, exegesis, and popular lore as well as the animals'…

Sketches the obscurities of Pandarus's character and motivations in TC, and, examining patterns of imagery and allusion, argues that he is both a voyeur and a Tantalus-figure whose "punishment [is] to endure for ever the agonies of unfulfilled…

Traces the legacy of the mill as a metaphor for creativity, child-bearing, and sexual activity, drawing examples from WBP (3.384-90), HF (1798-99), and RvT (1.4313-14), among other sources.

Provides context for the Parson's image of a she-ape in the "fulle of the moon" (10.424), showing how the image deprecates the "purpose as well as appearance" of the "fashionably-dressed man."

Explores the implications of the name "Malle" that is given to the widow's sheep in NPT 7.2831: the sheep is a ewe and suggests the widow's "simplicity, her poverty, and one of the ways in which" she is a dairy woman.

Suggests that -- in light of details of Chaucer's career and of medieval chess-playing -- the significance of "fers" in BD 741 may be "threefold," referring to Blanche, to the chess piece, and to "Chaucer himself, the commoner promoted from pawn to…

Comments on the prevalence of horse-and-rider imagery in Western culture, and explores Chaucer's uses of the imagery in BD (the hunt), TC (Bayard and Troilus's ride-bys), Wife of Bath (spurs, bridles, and other sexualized images), and various other…

Suggests that in making the Black Knight 24 years old in BD (rather than 29, the age of John of Gaunt), Chaucer "assigned his own age to his patron."

Contends that the WB's reference to grinding at a mill (WBP 3.389) capitalizes on traditional sexual associations of mills with women, anticipated at her reference to "barly-breed" (WBP 3.144).

Surveys Chaucer's references to dogs, showing that his depictions of the animal are generally "pejorative," following a tradition of denunciation by satirists, homilists, and the writers of romances. Argues that the whelp in BD 389ff. is not…

Aligns Chaucer's juxtaposition of owls and apes in NPT 7.3092 with the "moral obliquity" of the two animals in medieval art and sculpture, identifying origins in patristic commentary.

Exploring the "bukke and hare" of Th 7.756 for their "traditional attributes" rather than as suggestive game animals, documents that their associations with timidity and, reading "bukke" as "goat rather than "male deer," sexual pursuit.

Argues that Chaucer's references to a swallow in Alison's song (MilT 1. 3257-58) and to a dove in the Pardoner's claim about preaching (PardP 6.397) are suggestive, and may well derive from his familiarity with the two birds.

Adduces "popular lore" to show that Chaucer's references to a hare and a goat in the GP description of the Pardoner (1.684 and 688)--corroborated by other details from the actions and descriptions of the Pardoner--characterize him as a "testicular…

Surveys Chaucer's various metaphoric uses of animals, from "simple and conventional ideas about animals to throw light on man" to more elaborated or developed characterizations through more detailed comparisons.