Burrow, J. A.
Review of English Studies 22 (1971): 54-58.
Adduces textual and rhetorical evidence to show that Tho divides into three fits of proportionately diminishing size: eighteen stanzas, nine stanzas, and four and one-half stanzas, achieving a "mathematical harmony of form."
Duncan-Jones, Katherine.
Review of English Studies 25.98 (1974): 174-77.
Suggests a possible "echo" of HF and PF in Philip Sidney's "Old Arcadia," where "philosophical reflections by the dreamer are partly burlesqued" in the vision which follows.
Sundwall, McKay.
Review of English Studies 26 (1975): 313-17.
Inclusion of Diomede's taking Criseyde's rein, original with Chaucer, dates "The Destruction of Troy" after 1385-87. A probable compression of Lydgate's reference to TC suggests a date after 1420 and closer to Luttrell's dating of the alliterative…
Nokes, David.
Review of English Studies 27 (1976): 180-82.
Argues that Pope's copy of Chaucer--the Hartleby copy of Speght's 1598 edition of Chaucer's "Works"--gives evidence of Pope's plan for reworking HF into his "Temple of Fame." Elsewhere in the volume, Pope's reader's marks are light.
Bishop, Ian.
Review of English Studies 30 (1979): 257-67.
A framework for the function of the medieval world of learning in NPT can be found in the scheme of the Seven Liberal Arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, astrology, arithmetic, geometry, and music). Although arithmetic and geometry are too abstract…
Burrow, J. A.
Review of English Studies 30 (1979): 385-96.
Implicit in the proverb are two distinct views of the order of human development: the order is either a 'high norm to be achieved" or a "low norm to be transcended." Although Chaucer never directly cites the proverb, evidence found in KnT and PrT,…
Hardman, Phillipa.
Review of English Studies 31 (1980): 172-78.
Chaucer's contemporaries were familiar with his "tyraunts of Lumbardye" (LGW, G. 353), notorious for their cruelty. The Lombard setting of ClT suggests proverbial Lombard tyranny for Walter, an imperfect mixture of tyranny and pity, for he rues…
Bennett, J. A. W.
Review of English Studies 32 (1981): 294-96.
"The Meroure of Wisdom" (1490), by John of Ireland, contains a previously overlooked allusion to TC and ParsT. This work is followed in the manuscript by "Oracio Galfridi Chaucer," written by Hoccleve but possibly attributed to Chaucer because of…
Neuss, Paula.
Review of English Studies 32 (1981): 385-97.
For Chaucer poetry and love are closely related: both are creative arts to which the verb "make" is applied. Chaucer uses writing and book imagery to symbolize a creative love act.
Rothschild, Victoria.
Review of English Studies 35 (1984): 164-84.
The symbolic structure of PF reinforces meaning; its three sections mirror the divisions of time; allusions to time and nature point toward a natural rather than social hierarchy. As an epithalamium, PF involves the natural world in a…
Godman, Peter.
Review of English Studies 35 (1984): 291-300.
Reassesses several "flaws" perceived by J. A. W. Bennett in his analysis (1982) of Robert Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid," and argues that each has a "proper function" in the poem. Compares and contrasts Henryson's characterization of Cresseid…
Hardman, Phillipa.
Review of English Studies 37 (1986): 478-94.
Studies Chaucer's sources, invocations to, and use of the muses in Anel, HF, TC, and CT. The use in CT is humorous. In HF, the muses are a "metaphorical model" for the "art poetical." In TC, muses chart the changing attitudes of the narrator.
Seymour, M. C.
Review of English Studies 37 (1986): 528-34.
Argues that missing quires, rather than Chaucer's abandonment of LGW, account for its incompleteness and that a redactor, not Chaucer, revised LGWP in MS Gg.4.27.
Rooney, Anne.
Review of English Studies 38 (1987): 299-314.
Reviews scholarship and examines the hunt in BD in the context of other portrayals of the hunt in medieval literature. Because of its portrayal of sudden and shocking death, the "ubi sunt" tradition is an appropriate context: the poem ends with the…
Harwood, Britton J.
Review of English Studies 39 (1988): 413-17.
The haberdasher, carpenter, weaver, dyer, and tapestry maker of the GP must each have belonged to his own "communitas," or mystery, and the five could not (by law and custom) be members of a sixth company. Harwood shows that the "fraternitee" was…
Stanley, E. G.
Review of English Studies 48 (1997): 157-67.
Geoffrey Chaucer, traditionally thought to be an early resident of Woodstock, and John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough, are united by geography. Together they represent English glory and are thus commemorated in minor verse of the eighteenth…
Wilcockson, Colin.
Review of English Studies 50: 345-50, 1999.
The initial thirty-four lines of GP divide into two sections of sixteen lines joined by a couplet and emphasized by capitalization in the Ellesmere manuscript. The first section treats general matters; the second, particulars. Chaucer structures the…
Straker, Scott-Morgan.
Review of English Studies 52: 1-21, 2001.
Lydgate appropriates Chaucer not so much to pay tribute as to distance himself from anticlericalism, to redeem the narrative and monastic voice, and to assert its freedom from authority, as represented by Harry Bailly. Lydgate's apparent compliance…
King, Andrew.
Review of English Studies 52: 22-58, 2001.
Spenser calls attention to his sources and models in "The Faerie Queene." SqT, "Orlando Furioso," and English medieval romances are specific sources, while narrative collections such as CT, anthologies of romances, or perhaps Malory's "Morte Darthur"…
Wilcockson, Colin.
Review of English Studies 54 : 308-12, 2003.
The subtlety of Arveragus's use of the second-person singular pronoun (FranT 5.1479-86) invites readers' sympathy. Here and in ClT, Chaucer adapts his source by varying the register between the formal (plural) and familiar (singular) forms of the…
Morgan, Gerald.
Review of English Studies 56 (2005): 1-36.
Following Aristotle, medieval poets consider poetry a branch of moral philosophy. Whether or not Chaucer knew Boccaccio's own glosses on the "Teseida," he adapts the Italian work to his own treatment of allegorical figures and so justifies Usk's…
Biggs, Frederick M.
Review of English Studies 56 (2005): 497-523
Difficulties in dealing with the role of the three tubs (along with other issues) suggest that Chaucer's MilT is the source for the Flemish version. Chaucer may have originated this Tale to reflect on the theme of God's control, an idea also…
Dimmick, Jeremy.
Review of English Studies 57 (2006): 456-73.
Greene uses Chaucer and Gower to represent licentious comedy and moral literature, respectively. In manipulating the debate between the medieval authors, Greene displays subtle awareness not only of his own literary persona but also of the authorial…
Stubbs, Estelle.
Review of English Studies 58 (2007): 133-53.
Codicological analyses of the structure and details of Corpus Christi 198 support early suggestions by Carleton Brown, Charles Owen, and John Fisher about Chaucer's ongoing revision of CT, especially when considered in light of other early…
