Browse Items (16472 total)

Investigates Chaucer's concept of "gentilesse" in light of his sources in Boethius, Dante, and Jean de Meun, and compares his notion with those found in the poetry of his contemporaries. Treats "gentilesse" as a secular virtue, although similar to…

Surveys medieval attitudes towards women, with comments on Chaucer's depictions.

Speght's edition of Chaucer (1602) included an extensive glossary of "hard words." Later lexicographers, including the editors of the OED, have missed the fact that Jacobean dictionaries of "hard words" borrowed extensively from Speght--entries,…

Experimental juxtapositioning of Virginia's rape in PhyT, Chaucer's interaction with Cecily Chaumpaigne, and "The Story of O" (1954), presented as a text caught in the act of being edited, complete with palimpsests of strikeouts, text additions, and…

Argues that the Cleopatra legend in LGW is the source of details in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra." Also argues that Chaucer derived information about Cleopatra's marriage to her brother(s) from Vincent of Beauvais' "Speculum Historiale," not…

In his shameless self-revelation the Pardoner confuses and angers his audience by mixing boasting and confiding with their contrary expectations of approval and mitigated disapproval.

Readers resolve conflicts by readjusting genre expectations. NPT is a beast fable "told in the rhetoric of epic. The homely moral of the tale is comically inconsistent with the implications of high seriousness in the language."

Since the speech acts of Alison consist of arguing, insisting,challenging, and confiding, the message is that she is always struggling against the givens of her world. She is Lady Philosophy "manque" since her views of behavior are hardly proper and…

In modern reader reception, ClT produces either "Paduan" pity for Griselda or "Veronese" disbelief in woman so virtuous. Schaum examines the "negative capability" needed in reader response because of the character of the GP Clerk, the manner of…

Surveys the history of indulgences in Church history as background to Chaucer's character of the Pardoner, commenting on abuses and critiques of the practice recorded in English documents as corroboration of Chaucer's depiction.

Reads the opposition between the Clerk and the Wife of Bath in light of Derrida's opposition between the structuralist desire to decipher signs and the poststructuralist impulse to play with the "instability of signs." The Wife is an "anachronistic…

Assesses the morning-scene in TC 3.1415ff. in light of source-and analogue materials in Ovid's "Amores," Boccaccio's "Filostrato," and elsewhere, arguing that Chaucer combines elements from various genres and forms ingeniously to produce something…

Influenced by Dante, Chaucer's TC represents the "dramatic interplay" of three kinds of love: "the courtly, the natural, [and] the rational." Chaucer departs from his sources, however, adapting the love of Troilus and Criseyde to an English,…

Chaucer's changes to Boccaccio's "Teseida" in KnT introduce a concern with Cathar heresy. Until Theseus's final speech, the plot reflects cosmic dualism (Saturn and Jupiter), determinism, and pervasive sterility and evil. The poem is also touched by…

Chaucer's HF, an allegory, is his "one major excursion in the territory usually associated with Dante." Schembri explores Augustinian iconography in the poem, looking particularly at Chaucer's treatment of the Dido story, the Proem to HF 2, and the…

Analyzes the relationship between meaning and literary structure in Old French fabliaux.

For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Code-Switching in Early English under Alternative Title.

Discusses the main functions of code-switching in the poetry and drama of medieval England. Emphasizes how the friar in SumT uses the French phrase "je vous dy" to increase his authority and learnedness.

Exemplifies the recurrent concern with alchemy in western culture and literature, including description of Chaucer's depiction of it in CYPT, along with his reputation for scientific knowledge.

Studies commentaries on the biblical Song of Songs written before the sixteenth century, and explores the motif of spiritual marriage in various literary works, including works by Chaucer.

Argues that the rational absurdity of the plot of NPT and the inapplicability of the various morals applied to the Tale expose the ridiculousness of the fable genre; the Tale is an "anti-fable," as Th is an "anti-romance."

Internal evidence about Harry Bailly's literary aesthetic suggests that he would have chosen the Nun's Priest as the winner of the "soper" at the Tabard. The priest's "sentence," "solaas," conviviality, and obvious masculinity are the deciding…

All major poets of the fifteenth century in England and Scotland considered themselves disciples of Chaucer. The extent to which they actually emulated Chaucer in their works, however, is questionable. Additional studies involving the Chaucer…

Reads the Man of Law's materials in CT as an unfolding characterization of the lawyer, commenting on the relationship of tale to teller, the narrator's use of law and legalistic rhetoric, and the relation of MLT to other rhyme royal tales in CT. The…

Nonce words in CT illustrate a correlation between conventionality in subject matter and conventionality in diction. Because nonce words increase as Chaucer's career progresses, their frequency can be used for relative dating. Following this…