Browse Items (16472 total)

Combines literary history with linguistic and statistical analysis to demonstrate how Chaucer's pentameter verse is closer to the Italian "endecasillabo" than to the French "vers de dix."

Argues that "from Chaucer onwards rhyme is used consistently as a prosodic device in English verse." Differentiate systematic rhyme from sporadic rhyme and notes that this fourteenth-century "era of systematization was preceded by an era of sporadic…

Thomas Gray's article "Metrum" "castigates John Urry's edition of Chaucer for its arbitrary insertion of words and syllables to regularize perceived defects" and discounts "George Puttenham's strictures against so-called Chaucerian 'riding rhyme'…

Not just a pun on beef and burping, "buf" derives from French "buffer," which refers to puffing up one's cheeks and, later, to being stuffed with food.

Contains twenty-five essays, five of which are written in English; the rest, including the preface and epilogue, are in Japanese. The first group of essays centers on Chaucer and his works. The second series of essays ranges from the Old English…

Examines Chaucer's notion of "gentilesse" and its importance by looking into instances of its use in KnT, SqT, FranT, WBT, ParsT, and Gent. In Japanese.

Investigates the frequency and function of "this" as a pragmatic marker in MilT, RvT, FranT, KnT, PrT, and MerT, in relation to each narrator's social class and narrative genre. In Japanese.

Discusses swoons or relevant scenes in Rom, BD, Anel, Mars, TC, LGW, KnT, MilT, MLT, and WBT to reveal how the swoon creates comical effects throughout Chaucer's poetry. In Japanese.

Examines the meaning of the expression concerning the seating order in GP (1.52) by considering a similar expression in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Reviews contemporary illustrations and historical records related to the feast. In Japanese.

Introduces the historical context of pilgrimage in both the West and Japan in order to interpret the opening lines of GP. Argues that "kejime" as represented in pilgrims in "Tokaidochu Hizakurige," written by Jippensha Ikku, can also be read in the…

Focuses on contrastive characterizations of the husband figures in MerT and ShT. Considers the common motif of the untruthful wife in relation to the theme of mutability. In Japanese.

Examines connotations of words concerning oaths and mutilation of body in PardT in relation to contemporary attitudes toward the worship of relics. In Japanese.

Points to the position of ParsT as the last tale of CT, and discusses reasons for this placement by taking into account Harry Bailly's attitude toward the Parson, the meaning of evening time, and Chaucer's adoption of prose rather than verse for…

Drawing on the fact that George Eliot read BD when she faced the death of her partner, George Henry Lewes, this essay reflects on how Eliot receives the deep sorrow and "pathetic sympathy" of the knight in black in BD. In Japanese

Examines the notions of nature and chance represented in TC in light of medieval philosophical and cosmological theories. In Japanese.

Compares Criseyde with Dido and Aeneas in the works of Ovid and Virgil to shed light on the unique characterization of Chaucer's heroine in the context of classical Trojan literature.

Traces Criseyde's mental and emotional movement through the plot of TC, and argues that, for Chaucer, Fortune does not have to do only with the change of external world, but also with man's interiority.

Examines the plot of PrT in relation to the patterns of the saints' legends as well as relevant historical contexts, and discusses Chaucer's intention as well as narrator's and characters' roles. Compares PrT and Marian miracles in Oxford,…

Examines the meaning of "meat and drink" in Chaucer's texts, referring to the "OED" and biblical uses. Discusses the "process of idiomatization" of this expression by looking into its uses through Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Dickens.

Argues that medieval English literature in general, and Chaucer's poetry in particular, is primarily a product of a cross-cultural and multilingual experience. Compares multilingualism in Chinese with aspects of medieval English culture, and…

Chaucer's use of ME "glareth" in HF and "glose" in ParsP supports Williams's larger argument that the central theme of "ocular scepticism" in "Pearl" is extended into its formal alliterative structures, especially in polysemous ME "gl"- words.

Addresses landscape descriptions in Middle English Breton lays. Focuses on two literary categories of landscapes: romance and magical settings.

Despite the widely accepted claim that French and Middle English Breton lays are concerned primarily with love, argues that the English poems pay relatively little attention to romantic love, and are more concerned with identity, family separation…

This volume focuses on historical, mythical, and literary heritage of Breton lay narratives. For ten essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for 'Gode is the lay, swete is the note' under Alternative Title.

Assesses the theme of keeping one's word in Breton lays, including FranT, focusing on the theme's Middle Ages: pledging and keeping one's word, and its opposite, breaking one's promise or betraying one's pledge.