Browse Items (16472 total)

Identifies the earliest mention of Chaucer in Italian criticism, in the preface to Paolo Rolli's translation of Milton's epic, "Del Paradiso Perduto" (1729). Rolli's comments include recognition, perhaps the first, that Chaucer refers to Dante in…

Argues that aspects of the beginning of MerT (including January's ill health, the names Placebo and Justinus, etc.) may have been inspired by details and sentiments found in "Livre du Chevalier de la Tour-Landry."

The section of FranT in which January makes his decision to marry exemplifies Chaucer's use of materials from the 'Miroir de Mariage'.

Assesses the gate in PF, exploring "remarkable parallels which the inscriptions on the gate and the further description of the garden" in PF "have to certain sections of the Fifth Dialogue" of Andreas Cappellanus's "Art of Courtly Love."

Examines aspects of orality in CT (MilT, PardT), Boccaccio's "Decameron," and "Les cent nouvelles," focusing on features of transmission, secrecy, confession, and authentication. Considers HF.

Considers the dates of BD and Jean Froissart's "Dit dou Bleu Chevalier" and explores their similarities, arguing that Froissart's poem inspired the central idea ("l'idée centrale") and many other features of Chaucer's poem--aspects of…

Interprets Troilus's failure to take action to keep Criseyde in Troy as a lack of "mesure," a courtly quality praised by troubadour poets. His lack, however, evinces the depth of his love and he, at times, "takes on the role a troubadour" by seeking…

Review of "Legenda femeilor cinstite si alte poeme" (1986). Dan Dutescu, praised as a highly sensitive translator possessing the "quintessence" of the art of translation, has given Romania its first complete Chaucer translation--of LGW.

Uses two of the "modes of existence" theorized by Bruno Latour--technological and fictional--to examine medieval manuscripts, arguing that the "affordances and ecologies" of codices as technology encouraged the "proliferation" of fictional beings in…

Discusses Chrétien's "Knight of the Cart," including several points of comparison with TC: the poems as command performances, their inclusion of songs of love, and the possibility that the heroes are presented as humorous.

In MilT, identity is a matter of theatrical impersonation, encouraging the audience to recognize that Alisoun is depicted as a man playing a woman.

A detailed comparison of the Job story and Boccaccio's Decameron 10.10. Boccaccio's novella is seen as a variation of the biblical Job story that lacks the justification of God's divine attributes. Schöpflin argues that Boccaccio and subsequent…

Analyzes the text of BD found in the 1807 collected edition "The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer," showing "that it is fair to consider the work a new edition," based on John Urry's 1721 edition of BD and loosely following Thomas Tyrwhitt's…

An introduction to CT, including discussion of Chaucer's life, the structure of CT, plots and themes of the tales, analyses of the pilgrims and major characters in their tales, and Chaucer's language and meter. Includes bibliographies for each…

Chaucer's dream poems reflect the self-consciousness of "mise en abyme"--literally, "setting of the abyss"--used here to identify Chaucer's means of drawing attention to structural and thematic circularity and to poetics. …

Examines law and literature in the works of Chaucer, Gower, and Langland, focusing on three major topics: marriage, crime, and covenants. An introductory chapter explores the relations between law and literature. Throughout, there is comparison of…

Seventeen previously published essays study rhetoric, color imagery, genres--fabliaux, lyrics, ballads--Latin poetry, Dante, cosmic lore, Chaucer's TC.

Analysis of the versions of the Troy story by Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, with attention to earlier versions and to the impact of the story and its main characters on western culture. Gauges the importance of ancient stories in shaping…

Addressed to high school students. Surveys Chaucer's life and works, with emphasis on CT, emphasizing Chaucer's counterpoint between romance and realism.

Explores relations between Franklin--the tale-telling character of "Arden of Faversham"--and Chaucer's Franklin as narrator of FranT, concentrating on scenes in the play attributed to Shakespeare, and focusing on the "subject matter and literary…

Argues that Chaucer's reception of native romance in TC is more positive and artistically significant than has been previously recognized. After examining the elements of metrical romance in Th and arguing that it parodies one extreme of Chaucer's…

Surveys the treatment of classical material in medieval romances (arranged by topic), exploring where and how the romance authors engage the status and validity of their pre-Christian material. Comments on KnT and TC.

Wallace considers Eustace Deschamps's attitudes toward the English occupation of Calais and reads Deschamps's ballade 285 (which praises Chaucer) as a "spirited act of reverse or returned colonization." Identifies parallels in the careers of…

Identifies ways Dante influenced the invocations in TC, as well as TC's depictions of love and hell. Also explores the words that Chaucer invented to rhyme with "Troie" and with "Criseyde."

Dryden's translation of KnT "tidies, clarifies, and modernizes" the text for its eighteenth-century readers, turning Chaucer's "subversive parodies back into the illusory heroic idealizations" of Statius and Boccaccio. Greenwood focuses on the…