Brown, Dorothy H.
New Laurel Review 12 (1982): 6-16.
The Yeoman is an unreliable narrator who seems to confess only his own sins, holds contempt for the Canon; in his pride he is a "caricature of repentance."
Argues that female bodies in CT represent texts that are unreadable by husbands, and suggests that ultimately, this is symptomatic of an impossibility of "cognitive seeking."
Huppé, Bernard F.
John P. Hermann and John J. Burke, eds. Signs and Symbols in Chaucer's Poetry (University: University of Alabama Press, 1981), pp. 179-94.
Inconsistencies are found in the poems, in the tone of the narrator, and in the discrepancy between the comic mode of TC and the seriousness of the conclusion. The design of the poem either "employs inconsistency and incongruity, or conversely is…
Surveys anti-chivalric sentiment in literature, including polemics and sermons as well as satires and "anti-romances." Includes discussion of Th, among other works.
Garrison, James D.
SEL: Studies in English Literature 21 (1981): 409-23.
Fire imagery and the theme of order in Dryden's adaptations of Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio, and Chaucer (KnT, WBT, NPT, and Parson) evince that his "Fables" centers thematically on "natural order characterized by the paradox of constant change."
Morgan, Gerald.
English Studies 58 (1977): 481-93.
The portraits in GP cannot be at once individual and typical. The details cannot be taken as individual because they have been determined by the general conception. Recognition of the reality of the universal is necessary for an understanding of the…
Mandel, Jerome.
Hebrew University Studies in Literature and the Arts 16 (1988): 27-50.
Explores parallels of character and structure (councils, marriage agreement, feast, tests, restoration) used to establish the architectonic unity of the fragment. Clothing imagery in the tales strengthens these connections.
Investigates what makes TC "so alive for us today," assessing the poem's psychologically rich depictions of the characters' (including the narrator's) engagements with their own experiences and their detachments from them. Tinged with…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Studies in Bibliography 41 (1988): 177-88.
Examination of the twelve manuscripts of Anel suggests that the work is not incomplete but rather two separate poems. Only the Complaint (lines 211-350 in modern texts) is Chaucerian; the narrative (which follows the Complaint in some manuscripts)…
Baltzer, Rebecca A., Thomas Cable, and James I Wimsatt, eds.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Five essays, and introduction, and a commentary on accompanying musical selections survey the interdependence of music and poetry in Provencal and medieval French and English: in the troubadour tradition, Old English poetry, French "formes fixes,"…
Grossi, Joseph L., Jr.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 298-309.
Grossi compares details of SNT with Jacob of Voragine's version in the "Golden Legend" and the Franciscan "abridgement" of the life of Saint Cecilia, arguing that Chaucer "sought to widen the intellectual divide between Roman paganism and primitive…
Harrington, David V.
Discourse: A Review of the Liberal Arts 8 (1965): 80-89.
Argues that the satire in NPT is "better interpreted as general satire of Chaucer's age" than attributed to the character of the Nun's Priest. So-called "dramatic" readings of the tale falter because, for example, its "gentle satire of courtliness is…
Kerr, John.
Stephen Gersh and Bert Roest, eds. Medieval and Renaissance Humanism: Rhetoric, Representation, and Reform (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2003), 185-202.
In HF, Chaucer poses "epistemological instability" as a condition of the sublunar realm, which he characterizes as hellish through associations with Proserpina in her triple manifestation, references to Claudian, and allusions to Virgil and Dante.
Taylor, Paul Beekman.
English Studies 72 (1991): 209-18.
Chaucer's knights reflect three errors in their service of love: (1) the subjection of women's bodies to male wills for the sake of public order and honor (KnT, FranT, PhyT); (2) the rapine pursuit of women's bodies for pride or lust (MLT, WBT,…
Gaylord, Alan T.
Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters 47 (1962): 613-36.
Surveys readings of PrT as a reflection of the Prioress's GP character, and explores the relations of these readings to dramatic approaches to the CT. Argues that there is "devastating satire" of the Prioress in GP and in PrT: the Tale fits the…
Compares and contrasts Pandarus's wooing of Criseyde (for Troilus) with Diomede's, assessing their patterns and details for the ways they reflect the design of the poem, its concern with time, and the "unchanged character" of Criseyde.
Evaluates the evidence for the proposition that Sercambi wrote two versions of his tales--the "Novelliero" and the "Novelle," arguing that that this evidence is ambiguous and that it offers no concrete support for the notion that Sercambi may have…
Economou, George D.
Ferrante, Joan M., and George D. Economou, eds. In Pursuit of Perfection: Courtly Love in Medieval Literature (Port Washington, NY, Kennikat, 1975), pp. 17-50.
Distinguishes two kinds of love associated with Venus in the Middle Ages, both of them subsets of earthly love: one "legitimate, sacramental, natural, and in harmony with natural law; the other, illegitimate, perverted, selfish, and sinful." Traces…
Elliott, John R., Jr.
Tennessee Studies in Literature 9 (1964): 11-17.
Argues that MerT "characterizes the Merchant" consistently, attributing several "awkward" passages in the Tale to the Merchant's engagement with an ongoing "debate" about marriage and considering his "pretensions" and "intense personal involvement"…
Mosser, Daniel W.
Studies in Bibliography 39 (1986): 112-25.
The description of the manuscript in Manly-Rickert is not wholly dependable; there were two scribes, not three; it was produced by independent craftsmen, not in a shop. The originally intended order of CT is uncertain.
Arrathoon, Leigh A.
Ball State University Forum 25 (1984): 18-40.
The Sara mentioned in MerT may not refer to Sara the wife of Abraham, as is commonly thought, but to Sara of Rages from the book of Tobit--a symbol of ideal marriage and a strong thematic contrast to January and May. The Merchant's late reference…
Gardner, John
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 67 (1968): 594-611.
Surveys theories of why Chaucer altered LGWP from the F-version to the G-version, and seeks to explain "every single change" he made in creating anew a complete, "organic" poem. The revised version better accords with the poet's treatment of love in…
Mitchell, Edward R.
Modern Language Notes 71.8 (1956): 560-64.
Considers the two "observances" of May ritual in KnT (Emelye's at 1.1041-45 and Arcite's at 1491-1512), neither found in Boccaccio's "Teseide," identifying various French analogues that may have inspired Chaucer, while noting that he may also have…
