Analyzes John Fletcher's and William Shakespeare's collaboration on "The Two Noble Kinsmen," an interpretation of KnT, and offers how "The Two Noble Kinsmen" represents a "meditation . . . of the vernacular literary canon," as it allegorizes the…
Examines how the Jailer's Daughter of Shakespeare and Fletcher's play, a character not found in KnT, reflects a complex form of influence derived not only from KnT, but from MilT and RvT as well. Considers water imagery and liquidity, and "madness,…
Bradbrook, M. C.
Shakespeare Quarterly 9.3 (1958): 311-19.
Argues that "[c]ompression and inversion direct Shakespeare's use of" TC in "Troilus and Cressida," particularly, "the clear inversion of every idealistic feeling save those of Troilus is so relentless that a 'mirror image' emerges." Shakespeare…
Identifies an allusion to HF (lines 703-4) in "King Lear" (5.3.17), arguing that, although Chaucer's poem was "marginalized" in sixteenth-century editions because of its stance on literary fame, Shakespeare read it and echoed it "unconsciously,"…
Argues that Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" alludes to KnT (particularly the figures of Emelye and Arcite) in ways that "perforate the boundaries" of the chronology of Shakespeare's borrowings the from the tale in "Dream" and in "The Two…
Argues that two of Chaucer's emphases in SqT modify source material from Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and thereby undo the "binary divide between humankind and animal kinds." The "falcon's species vacillation" and Canace's "cross-species…
Contrasts the characterizations of Theseus and Emily in "The Two Noble Kinsmen" and KnT, focusing on how the play challenges the principles of romance by manipulating Chaucerian material and perspective. Revised slightly as "(Mis)Appropriating the…
Examines various possible sources for Shakespeare's play, including KnT, arguing that such sources must be considered in light of the audience's perception.
Andreas, James R.
Shakespeare Yearbook 2 : 49-67, 1991.
Traces the "progressive desacralization" of the "Matter of Thebes" from KnT to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Two Noble Kinsmen. The gods have power in KnT, but they diminish comically and then tragically disappear in Shakespeare's…
Gillespie, Stuart.
Shakespeare's Books: A Dictionary of Shakespeare Sources. 2nd ed. (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016), pp. 70-78.
Synopsizes critical opinion about Chaucer's influence on Shakespeare, especially the impact of TC, KnT, and MerT, with attention to other works. Comments on the knowledge and status of Chaucer in Shakespeare's age and includes a bibliography updated…
Jasper examines Petruchio's use of clothing as a form of gender control in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, comparing it with similar uses of clothing in versions of the Griselda story-Boccaccio's, Petrarch's, ClT, and John Phillips's "The…
Robertson, Elizabeth.
Sharon Farmer and Carol Braun Pasternack, eds. Gender and Difference in the Middle Ages. Medieval Cultures, no. 32 (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), pp. 322-51.
A revised version of the author's essay, "The 'Elvyssh' Power of Constance: Christian Feminism in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Man of Law's Tale" (SAC 23 [2001], pp. 143-80).
Scott, Anne M. Vergasser.
Sharon Farmer, ed. Approaches to Poverty in Medieval Europe (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 229-52.
Explores enigmatic medieval attitudes toward poverty through the allegorical figures of three "loathly ladies"--Lady Poverty (Franciscan "Sacrum commercium"), Chaucer's Wife of Bath's hag, and Glad Poverty (Prologue to Book III of Lydgate's "Fall of…
Fein, Susanna.
Sharon M. Rowley, ed. Writers, Editors and Exemplars in Medieval English Texts (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), pp. 15-41.
Claims that "dreamlore and other prognosticative arts in the Harley Scribe's library" make the Harley Scribe "somewhat of a proto-type for Chaucer's clerks and squires""in CT; focuses on Chaunticleer in NPT and the Clerk in ClT.
Astell, Anne.
Sharon M. Rowley, ed. Writers, Editors, and Exemplars in Medieval English Texts (Cham: Macmillan Palgrave, 2021), pp. 43-78.
Argues that allusions to Mary in ClT "disturb a reception of Grisildis as Stoic heroine and Chistian saint." Claims Griselda is a "failed Pietá and that the tale is "caught between two worlds, critical of its own sacrificial gestures."
O'Neill, Rosemary.
Sharon M. Rowley, ed. Writers, Editors, and Exemplars in Medieval English Texts (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), pp. 101-24.
Explores marital struggles and "postnuptial renegotiation of marriage obligations" in WBPT and "The Book of Margery Kempe." Presents "contemporary feminist theories of contracts, consent, and choice" to reveal limitations of "choice" and negotiations…
Adams, Jenny.
Sharon M. Rowley, ed. Writers, Editors, and Exemplars in Medieval English Texts (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), pp. 79-99.
Examines how Chaucer's characters in CT, particularly the Clerk in ClT and Nicholas in MilT, reveal "intersections of debt and education" and, therefore, are shapedby their participation in "late medieval England's educational economy."
White, Patrick
Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies 12 (1992): 213-28.
Adds FranT to the list of possible sources of George Bernard Shaw's "Candida." Evidence for the influence includes a similar tone in the two works, concern with a "rash promise" or "reckless declaration," plot resolution through "magnanimity," and…
Twenty essays by various authors, plus a forward (pp. 13-25) by Lester that describes the career and lists the publications of Norman Blake. The essays consider Middle English language, literature, editing, and publishing, with eleven essays…
Study guide to MilPT, designed for adolescents, with Middle English text and facing translation in modern verse and a variety of background materials: GP descriptions of Miller, Wife, of Bath, and Pardoner; an introduction to Chaucer's life and…
Jones, Timothy S.
Sheila Delany, ed. Chaucer and the Jews: Sources, Contexts, Meanings (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 109-32.
Surveys various allusions to and summaries of the story of David in English medieval tradition (including allusions in MLT, MerT, and Mel), arguing that treatments of the story reveal simultaneous desires: to embrace Hebrew Scripture as authentic and…
Turner, Nancy L.
Sheila Delany, ed. Chaucer and the Jews: Sources, Contexts, Meanings (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 133-44.
Both in his emphasis on particular Christian issues and in his stereotyping of Jews, Dominican writer Robert Holcot reflects the lack of Jews in England. Holcot may have influenced Chaucer's understanding of Jews.
Depres, Denise L.
Sheila Delany, ed. Chaucer and the Jews: Sources, Contexts, Meanings (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 145-64.
Unlike the isolated narrative of Jews in CT (PrT), various narratives in the Vernon manuscript investigate the Jew in markedly different ways, going beyond demonization of Jews to debate their essential nature.
