McKenna, Isobel
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 45 (1975): 244-62.
Investigates the relations between the sketch of the Sergeant of the Law in GP and historical evidence of contemporary members of the "Order of the Coif." Surveys the nature, activities, garb, and affiliations of fourteenth-century legal sergeants,…
Wurtele, Douglas (J.)
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 47 (1977): 478-87.
Ironic references to Solomon, who is typologically identified with Christ, as well as to the "Song of Solomon," makes January something of an anti-Christ figure, just as May is a blasphemous counterpart of Mary, and January's garden a degraded…
Reed, Thomas L. [Jr.]
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 50 (1980): 215-22.
The bird parliament accords with scholastic and literary forms of the debate, including the terminology which characterizes the tradition. Typical of the literary debate, PF ends without any clear decision on either side. The initial "demande…
Luengo, Anthony E.
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 50 (1980): 223-32.
Chaucer's treatment of "sententiae" in ParsT is best understood in terms of the schema provided by Thomas Walleys in his 14th-century "De modo componendi sermones." The Parson adopts many of Walleys' 14 methods of linking "senteniae" to control…
Rowland, Beryl.
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 51 (1981): 163-71.
Chaucer's address to Thought in the Invocation to book 2 stresses the function of memory in his art. Love tidings are words from old books. Books are still the activator of new poems, even though "auctorite" may be enriched by "experimentum." The…
Clark, George.
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 52 (1982): 257-65.
Whereas Chauntecleer was caught by the fox on the third of May,Arcite's escape from prison and Pandarus's first visit to Criseyde took place on the fourth. These differences in date have different meanings according to medieval "lunaria,"…
Black, Robert.
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 55:1 (1985): 23-32.
MilT 3589-92 alludes to Matt. 5:27-30, where Christ condemns lechery, using the images of hand and eye. Chaucer uses the same imagery to condemn the lecher Nicholas, whose punishment is to be burned a "hand-brede aboute" his "nether ye." The same…
Wurtele, Douglas (J.)
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 55:1 (1985): 33-43.
The Prioress's synthesis of elements from the legends of the martyred schoolboy suggests that she is complying with papal bulls that prohibit accusing Jews of kidnapping and ritual murders, but muances of PrT, and association with Hugh of Lincoln,…
Eldredge, Laurence.
Revue de l'Université de Ottawa 39 (1969): 132-51.
Observes evidence of "ring composition" in BD, especially in parallels among the Dreamer, Alcyone, and the Black Knight, and a centralizing focus on the "conflict between Fortune and Nature." Also considers love, the he(a)rt-hunting motif, and the…
Eldredge, Laurence.
Revue de l'Université de Ottawa 40 (1970): 441-59.
Describes three positions on the topic of universals versus individuals (ultra-realism, moderate realism, nominalism), and argues that the depictions of nature, love, common profit, and fortune in PF align approximately with moderate realism, and…
Cartier, Normand R.
Revue de Littérature Comparée 38 (1964): 18-34.
Reviews attempts to clarify Chaucer's reference to Morpheus's companion "Eclympasteyr," found in BD line 167 and also found in Froissart's "Paradys d'Amour" as "Enclimpostair." Argues on linguistic and literary grounds that the name in "plain…
Silvia, D. S.
Revue des Langues Vivantes 33 (1967): 228-36.
Considers "gentilesse" (the "quality that makes human relationships most proper and ennobling") to be the main theme of the "Marriage Group" in CT, commenting on the virtue as it is presented in Mel, NPT, WBPT, ClT, MerT, and FranT, and exploring its…
Larson, Charles.
Revue des Langues Vivantes 43 (1977)
The origin of SqT is traced to Chacuer's experimental period of Anel in 1380. The source of SqT is believed to be an unidentified Oriental tale "Europeanized" by Chaucer.
Engel, Claire-Eliane.
Revue des Sciences Humaines 120 (1965): 577-85.
Comments on the historicity and relative chronology of the military campaigns mentioned in the GP description of the Knight, observing how the events are out of sequence and how Chaucer's may have known of them.
Aloni, Gila.
Rhetoric Society Quarterly 29.3: 31-43, 1999.
Argues that in the LGW account of Lucrece (a tale of enforced copulation), Chaucer uses the word "myght" as a noun, a verb, and a copula to suggest the ultimate triumph of the heroine's seductive rhetoric. The story is less about rape than about…
Argues that Proserpina's angry response to Pluto in MerT (4.2264–70) "highlights the historical relationship between Chaucer's depiction of women's speech, medieval grammatical [classroom] instruction, and theories of delivery" that derive from…
Weiss, Judith.
Rhiannon Purdie and Michael Cichon, eds. Medieval Romance, Medieval Contexts. Studies in Medieval Romance (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2011), pp. 121-34.
Surveys representations of male and female fainting in medieval romances and "chansons de geste," and describes the medieval medical status of fainting ("syncope"). Considers Troilus' swoon in TC 3, observing that the "precision of Chaucer's medical…
Klein, Joan Larsen.
Rhoda Schnur, gen. ed.; J. F. Alcina et al., eds. Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bariensis: Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies, Bari, 29 August to 3 September, 1994. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, no. 184 (Tempe, Ariz.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998), pp. 361-69.
ClT is, in some ways, more like Boccaccio's version of the Griselda story than like Petrarch's, and it goes even further than its predecessors in eliciting pity for Griselda and her children.
In the context of a broader discussion of late-medieval depictions of people reading, Driver mentions illustrations that depict Chaucer reading. Fourteen illustrations
Sutton, Anne F.,and Livia Visser-Fuchs.
Ricardian 7 (June 1987): 421-32.
Describes an anthology (now Longleat MS 257, fifteenth century) owned by Richard, duke of Gloucester, which contains KnT and ClT, Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes," "Ipomedon," and Old Testament stories--all emphasizing the concepts of order and loyalty.
Williams, George G.
Rice Institute Pamphlet 44, no. 1 (1957): 126-46.
Argues that the "chief characters" of TC "were probably modeled from real people" and, exploring alterations from Boccaccio's "Filostrato," speculates that Troilus is based on John of Gaunt, Criseyde on Katherine Swynford, and Pandarus on Chaucer…
Wallace, Kristine Gilmartin.
Rice University Studies 62.2 (1976): 99-110.
For Walter and Griselda clothing has both "political/social" and "spiritual/personal" meanings which symbolize stages in their relationship. When Walter sees that Griselda remains virtuous beneath the array of fine clothing and social status which…
Clark, Susan L.,and Julian N. Wasserman.
Rice University Studies 64 (1978): 13-24.
Constance is that rarity, a romance "heroine," who, like the more familiar hero, learns through trials and difficulties. The tale is thus perhaps one of those narratives that marks the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy in European culture. …
