Browse Items (16364 total)

Explores the thematic implications of several verbal ambiguities or double meanings in KnT: "array" (dress and predicament), "hert" (heart and hart), "wele" (joy and wheel), nuances of "turne," "boone" (reward and bone), and "righte way" in…

Adduces several passages from "thirteenth century 'De Arte Venandi cum Avibus' of Frederick of Hohenstaufen" to argue that in the setting and details of his bird parliament in PF Chaucer "may have been concerned as much with authentic bird lore as…

Offers a "psychography" of Chaucer, using biographical records, contemporaneous events, and Chaucer's works to describe his appearance, habits, personality, opinions, and attitudes. Focuses on the personae in Chaucer's literary works; on his…

Contrasts MerT, PrT, and PardT with their respective analogues, contending that Chaucer's Tales are inconsistent in time, setting, and character motivation, reflecting "Chaucer's lack of concern for real people and real objects." Similarly in TC,…

Interpretive, evaluative, tale-by-tale reading of CT, focusing on how Chaucer's "mingling" of various styles, tones, genres, conventions, source materials, and world views come together as a unifying perspective that supersedes any one perspective .…

Demonstrates Chaucer's extensive dependence upon French love poetry, tracing the development of "dits amoreux" from Guillaume de Lorris's portion of the "Roman de la Rose" to Chaucer's contemporaries and identifying where in BD Chaucer was influenced…

Adduces evidence from various sources to show that the Wife of Bath has characteristics of the archetype of the old bawd, itself rooted in the earlier figure of "sorceress-intermediary" and associated with aging, trade, extravagant dress, and…

Glosses "almoost a spanne broode" in the GP description of the Prioress (CT 1.155) as "almost four inches high," exploring its ironic implications.

Explains how the scene that involves Gerveys the smith (1.3772-89) is "structurally crucial" to MilT by creating an effective lull between "two bits of explosive comedy," helping to characterize Absolon, and gathering the threads of several important…

Explores the factors involved in assessing Chaucer's rank among literary greats, summarizing parts of CT, describing difficulties of teaching the poem, suggesting the use of Nevill Coghill's translation, and offering other pedagogical comments.

Item not seen. The WorldCat record indicates that this filmstrip "Uses contemporary prints and paintings to illustrate fourteenth century England as reflected in the works of Chaucer" and that the "Recording includes The tale of the wyf of Bathe read…

Investigates the "plurality of meaning" in a number of Biblical and classical allusions in MerT, comments on sources, and discusses the setting of the Tale and the names of its characters, arguing that the cultural context of the Tale is a major…

Shows how Biblical narratives underlie the CT, not only allusively but in narrative plots and figural schema, focusing on how materials from Genesis are present in GP (springtime creation), KnT (brotherly conflict similar to Cain and Abel), MilT…

Dialectical analysis of "listeth" in Middle English indicates that in using the term to mean "listen" in Tho (particularly at 7.833) Chaucer alters his source and strikes for his London audience the "right jarring note" since that meaning was "no…

Defines "ballad tragedy" in comparison with late-medieval "De casibus" tragedies, using ballads collected by Francis James Child and, among other works, Chaucer's MkT and TC.

Explores the relations between style and Christian morality in MilT, RvT, FranT, MLT, MerT, ClT, and NPT, gauging the moral outlooks of the narrators of the Tales.

Explores the relations between style and Christian morality in MilT, RvT, FranT, MLT, MerT, ClT, and NPT, gauging the moral outlooks of the narrators of the Tales.

Surveys rhetorical criticism of Chaucer, exploring medieval and modern concepts of rhetoric, and assesses the "interruption by a pilgrim of his own narrative" in SqT, ManT, MerT, and NPT for the ways that such interruptions help to characterize the…

Argues that in the GP sketch of the Prioress the reference to saint Loy (1.120) is punningly "redolent of permissiveness."

Suggests that there can be "little doubt" that Chaucer thought the term "vavasour" (GP 1.30, applied to the Franklin) signified "a man noted for hospitality," adducing evidence from Chrétien and other sources.

Explores the "double-contextual development" of characters and their actions in beast tales and beast fables, investigating double meanings (animal and human) in such narratives. Includes discussion of how NPT follows the Renart tradition in this…

Adduces two instances in Middle English of the use of "point" with musical connotations, and suggests that the use of the term in TC 3.695 gains complexity from such connotations.

Tallies similarities in the works of Chaucer and of Juan Ruiz (themes, sources, allusions, details, etc.) that they share as "representatives of the fourteenth century."

Argues that concern with Providence is a major factor in the "high seriousness" of Chaucer's poetry, exploring relations between theological and poetic formulations of Providence before Chaucer and in a variety of his works.

Traces the character development of the Host in CT (following the Ellesmere ordering of the parts) and reads NPT as his "turning point" when he abandons comic "crudity, violence, and carelessness" for "capable leadership." Assesses Harry Bailly's…