Browse Items (16472 total)

Characterizes the "alba scene" of TC (3.1408-1533) as "in many ways the culminating point in the medieval development of the genre," even though Chaucer places the scene in the context of tragic mutability, a context unique for the genre. Considers a…

After a full review of criticism, Savoia explores Chaucer's use of motifs found in other romances. KnT exploits traditional romance only to transcend it, setting the "romance" of Palamon in the perspective provided by the "tragedy" of Arcite and…

Describes seventy-five Chaucerian examples of the verb "bid" from semantic and syntactic points of view, and examines the extent to which it is a causative or an auxiliary.

Tallies uses of "that" clauses and "to" clauses after the verb "command" in Chaucer's works, documenting their frequencies in various syntactic contexts.

Studies medieval reading of verse manuscripts and includes analysis of canonical Middle English verse texts, such as works by Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, and Lydgate, as well as lesser-known fourteenth-century northern religious manuscripts. Argues…

Considers John Metham's "sonnet," which presents the first sonnet-like form in English. While disputing that Metham's poem should be viewed as the first sonnet in English, its similarities and interpretations help to advance considerations about form…

Presents new evidence, particularly the Wycliffite Bible, and disagrees with J. A. Burrow that Custance's speech in MLT when she reaches Northumbria is a debased kind of Latin. Argues the speech is not a mercantile "lingua franca" and claims that…

Assesses Chaucer's Ret as an adaptation of rhetorical and literary conventions of prologue, epilogue, and literary confession, arguing that his uses of the conventions in both ParsP and Ret indicate that he is resisting traditional rejections of…

Discusses the progressive changes in versions of the Griselda story from Boccaccio's "Decameron" to ClT. Chaucer's poetic version, the culmination of these changes, reveals many of the problems in the original story.

Surveys and comments on English poetic translations of Dante's "Commedia" from Chaucer to Laurence Binyon, opening with mention of the Ugolino episode from MkT (based on "Inferno" XXXIII 1-90), followed by quotation of SNP 8.36-56, calling it a…

Surveys and comments on English poetic translations of Dante's "Commedia" from Chaucer to Laurence Binyon, opening with mention of the Ugolino episode from MkT (based on "Inferno" XXXIII 1-90), followed by quotation of SNP 8.36-56, calling it a…

Sayers reviews commentary on the Wife of Bath's deafness; suggests that we treat it more literally than metaphorically; and posits that, through the deafened Wife, Chaucer "does not resolve the opposition between experience and authority, but rather…

A verbal/visual social history of late-fourteenth-century England, particularly London and Canterbury, organized by topics drawn from Chaucer's life and works, especially CT. Topics include various social types, pilgrimage, plague, war with France,…

Examines books of medieval maritime law (e.g., the "Oakbook of Southhampton," the "Tavola Amalfitana," and the "Consulat de Mar") to argue that the Shipman of GP knew the law, "worked the system," probably engaged in smuggling, and exploited…

Explores the complex workings of an allusion to the Wife of Bath in Joyce's "Ulysses " that resonates with Irish mythology, Yeats, and Irish political power.

Linguistic and economic background to uses of ivory in medieval decoration, including the saddle of Sir Thopas (Th 7.875-78).

Chaucer's depiction of the legendary battle of Actium likely reflects both his understanding of contemporary naval warfare technology and his awareness of military treatises by Vegetius and Giles of Rome.

Glossed in "The Riverside Chaucer" as "illusionists, magicians," tregetours cause their subjects to experience "a fall from cognitive certitude to amazement and bafflement," a result that is captured in the "associational field" that includes both…

The varying senses of "lewed" in Chaucer's works point out the myopia of the received view of the word's history as an easy progression from "lay" to "lascivious."

Chaucer's use of the interjection "Oo" in KnT (2533) is adduced as a stage in the history of "Ahoy" going back to the Anglo-French verb "oir" (to hear, listen).

Examines Chaucer's limited use of "blew"/"blue" in depictions of color, focusing on the phrase "teres blewe" in Mars, 8. Notes that the connotation of "blue" with melancholy surfaces later, and traces Chaucer's usage of "blewe" to its Gallo-Romance…

Traces the etymology, usage, and implications of the word "trout" and its derivations in medieval literature and later tradition. Includes comments on "Trotula" (WBP 3.677), "trotte" (WBP 3.838), and "virytrate" (FrT 3.1582).

Sketches the rise of mercantilism in medieval Europe, and details the presence of the "bourgeois spirit" in Boccaccio's "Decameron" and Chaucer's CT, evident in realism, economic motivation, and challenges to aristocratic privilege. Similar in their…

Later medieval literature (as represented by Chaucer and others) demonstrates "cultural anxiety," manifested through marginal glosses, commentary, and illumination that make each manuscript unique, unlike modern printings.

Nine essays by various authors and an introduction by the editors "look beyond the absolute horizon of Marxist historicism in ways that display concern with how we know, with the limits of our knowledge, and with ourselves as presumably knowing…