Browse Items (16472 total)

An introduction to Chaucer and his works, with attention to his sources and influences. Includes a brief bibliography.

Pitard comments on William of St. Amour's "Tractatus brevis" and assesses SumT as a vernacularized adaptation of it--one in which fraternal pretenses are satirized for their Latinate elitism. The satire occurs because "it is hilarious that the friar…

When applied to eyes in Middle English literature, the adjective "grey" is best seen as synonymous with "bright" and "clear."

Assesses the textual history and canonicity of two ballads of a manuscript owned by John Shirley, now British Museum Additional MS 16165.

Identifies a medieval tradition in which singing through the nose is a "sign of weak faith and lack of devotion," contributing to the satire of the Prioress in her GP sketch.

Argues that the name Eglentyne ("rose") connoted sexual dalliance to Chaucer's audience. Fourteenth-century property records indicate affiliations between property owned by the priory at Stratford-at-Bow and the Bankside brothel, the Rose.

Examines historical and literary backgrounds of details in the GP sketch of the Prioress to argue that Chaucer leads us to judge her harshly. In her dress, mannerisms,and actions, the Prioress "is characterized by false piety and hypocrisy,and she…

Curtius sought to "cleanse" the study of medieval texts from emerging aesthetic and sociological readings by demonstrating the superiority of philological scholarship in his extensive review of Hans H. Glunz's study, "Die LiterarĐsthetik des…

Recent works of Chaucer scholarship depict a bourgeois Chaucer articulating contemporary American ideology; thus, they work to reproduce that ideology.

Surveys the critical application of nominalism to medieval literary texts, suggesting three main approaches: nominalist text as source, as coeval philosophical substratum, and as historical corroboration of modern perceptions.

Argues that Spenser emulated a four-part mythic pattern of Chaucer's KnT in his own version of SqT, as well as elsewhere in Books 3-4 of "The Faerie Queene," where Spenser also reflects the influence of Chaucer's concerns in the Marriage Group…

Reads Spenser's address to Chaucer in "The Faerie Queene," Book 4, as a declaration of independence as well as an acknowledgement of influence and dependency, arguing that Spenser "locates himself beyond the Middle Ages by invoking medievalisms"…

Verse modernization of most of CT (except CkT, Mel, and ParsT), based on the 1963 edition of A. C. Baugh; meter and verse forms parallel Chaucer's. Additional material includes brief notes (pp. 484-502), a summary of Chaucer's life, and comments on…

An edition of the complete CT, with selective foot-of-page glosses, and "Extra Material" that includes a life of Chaucer, and plot summaries of BD; HF; PF; TC; and, more extensively, each of the CT. No editor is identified, but a note says that the…

Comments on the historical, religious, social, literary, and linguistic contexts necessary to understand Chaucer's subtleties and subversions throughout CT, but especially in GP. Includes close reading of GP 1.1-18.

Examines the tragic, comic, and ironic features of TC, comparing it with MkT in the genre of tragedy, and assessing its tragic, comic, tragicomic, and ironic aspects of theme, situation, characterization, and dialogue.

Halfim summarizes social conditions of Jews in early English society and assesses the depiction of Jews in PrT (pp. 22-34), Marlowe's "The Jew of Malta," and Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." The authors of all three works reiterate Christian…

Dor explores Chaucer's punning from the vantage point of a translator of CT into French. Puns known as "traductio" and "adnominatio" during the Middle Ages are less easily translatable than are "significatio," perhaps because of the cultural and…

The figure of the miller has a dual tradition as it develops from oral to literary presentation: that of a carnivalesque artisan and that of a social-climbing tradesperson. Porter traces literary depictions of millers from the fourteenth to the…

Kamath and Copeland survey the legacy of philosophical allegory and secular allegory--largely inspired by the "Roman de la Rose"--in late medieval France and, by extension, England. They focus on Machaut, Froissart, and Deschamps and their relative…

Aligns Chaucer's depictions of classical culture and his attitudes toward pagan belief, arguing that his "remarkable degree of cultural relativism" and his "reluctance to resort to simplistic forms of Christian triumphalism" are "delimited" only by…

Claims that by composing his poetry in English, Chaucer participated in the European movement of promoting the vernacular literatures. Argues that Chaucer's neutral depiction of dialectal features in the two clerks' speeches in RvT affirms the…

Despite Chaucer's satirical manner, his delineation of the GP Physician demonstrates his respect for physicians and his understanding of medicine.

Compares and contrasts RvT and Boccaccio's version in the Decameron with their respective sources: Le meunier et les II. clers and De gombert et des II. clers. Plots and characterization in the works are similar, although outlook and purpose vary.

Uses the "chunnel" as a metaphor of the literary and cultural interconnections between England and the European continent,assessing classical and medieval influence on HF: Virgil, Ovid, and Claudian, along with medieval writers of Italy, France, and…