Browse Items (16472 total)

Explores the role of textiles in Breton lays and FranT, while focusing on narratives, character development, and theatricality.

Starting with the clear similarity between PardT and the tale of "The Three Brothers" in the last of the Harry Potter books, argues that the series as a whole, like CT, is "framed by death," and by the fear of spiritual death. The terrible condition…

Studies several versions of the story of PardT, identified as tale type AT 763 ("The Treasure Finders who Murder One Another"). Assesses the functions of the characters, the genres in which it has been written, and the purposes of the story…

Offers ShT as an example of how the use of fabliaux aids an understanding and exploration of marital dynamics, suggesting that the tale presents the merchant's marriage as a sort of economic contract between equals.

Edits and translates a hitherto unknown Anglo-Norman analogue to PrT. The "Hugo de Lincolnia" is the only vernacular version of the story of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln produced contemporaneously with Chaucer's hagiographical tale.

Th is told between PrT and Mel, two stories that feature violence. While Th is often read as an innocent parody of romance, there are suggestions of potential violence. In his encounter with the elf queen. Sir Thopas represents the threat against the…

Investigates uses of the words of address "heren," "herken," "herknen," "listen," and "listenen" throughout CT to find out differences of usage among them. Points out the peculiarity in the choices of such words in Th and discusses Chaucer's…

Reviews Prudence's "allegorical reading practices" and argues that Mel is based on the "relationship between the literary mode of moralizing allegory and contingent reading practices."

The Prioress's portrait in GP and NPT both draw from aspects of the Lancelot story. The Prioress partially models her own life on that of Guinevere without the full religious conversion that Guinevere undergoes after the death of Arthur. The Nun's …

Contends that in SNT Cecilia's "sense of incongruity between inner self and social definition" is directed to a pious lay audience. Argues that the Second Nun's use of the word "bisynesse obfuscates" what the tale has to convey to her lay audience

Contrasts Gower's and Chaucer's depictions of alchemy in, respectively, the "Confessio Amantis" and CT, and analyzes what these narratives reveal about the poets' views of money and economy. Unlike the depiction of money in Book V of the "Confessio,"…

Differentiates "literary" uses of alchemical terms from those of alchemical treatises and shows that Chaucer's CYT is one of the seven most frequent alchemical sources in the seventy citations within the "MED."

Suggests that PrT is the source of George Eliot's reference in "Middlemarch" to a "legend" that Ladislaw believes to have influenced Dorothea.

Addresses both Chaucer's motivation and the meaning behind the poet's crediting the divine in Ret.

Examines HF in context of architectural descriptions in early English texts, and connects Chaucer's inspiration to an actual building in Westminster.

In context of a larger study of dream visions, uses HF as an example of the ironic dream vision, arguing that it treats authority ironically, whereas other dream visions (e.g., Macrobius on Scipio, Julian of Norwich's mystical visions) offer other…

In both HF and LGW Chaucer adapts the story of Dido in a way that does not exclusively privilege Virgil's text. Though Gavin Douglas objects to Chaucer's "Legend of Dido" in his translation of the "Aeneid" (providing a humanistic model of reading…

Details two meanings of Chaucer's idea of "fame" in lines 1873-82 of HF: either living a "private, unnoticed life," or not looking for "glory as a poet." Compares Book II to Alexander's Pope's "The Temple of Fame."

Contemplates the personification of Imagination (as in the cases of personified Nature and Reason) from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, with attention to the particulars inherent in the process of characterization. Focuses on "uncertainty of…

Considers the role of the nonsense word as "material supposition"; as prayer; and, in HF, as "tydynges" (rumors), which allows the previously mute poet to speak.

Focuses on Chaucer's position as lay controller of customs and argues that HF constitutes an attempt to change the field of literature to benefit--in socioeconomic and aesthetic senses--someone in his "liminal" professional position.

Examines three interiors within HF, and the use of the "catalogue" as a way of articulating and revealing the spatial relationships within the poem. Compares the "navigation of space" in HF to classical and medieval techniques of a "memory palace."

In HF the response of "Geffrey" to being asked if he is seeking fame is a version of the proverb "One must drink as one brews."

Explores the connection among name, birth, and personal achievements. The study is based on "Lybeaus Desconus," but also draws on other medieval sources such as HF.

Examines LGW within the sociocultural and intellectual contexts of the late fourteenth century, paying especial attention to early humanist and late courtly traditions. LGWP may be juxtaposed with Richard de Bury's "Philobiblon"; and the legends…