Browse Items (16472 total)

The general editor of the Variorum Chaucer discusses the genesis of the project, its progress, methodology, funding, and goals.

Establishes relationships between CYP and parts of CYT. The Yeoman shows himself as unstable as alchemy, caught between desire for success and fear of losing his soul.

Shakespeare's play, though derived from Chaucer, differs from its source in many ways. Shakespeare's Pandarus is a less tender, more hardened figure; his Cressida is psychologically and socially more vulnerable; his Troilus is more openly sexual. …

Constructed in contrast to Criseyde of TC, and despite the narrator's veneration, Alceste of LGWP is an unacceptable model for womankind. Even though she is usually regarded as self-serving, Criseyde is a positive model in TC.

The imagery of falling reinforces CT's penitential motif at the end of PardT, in NPP, in ManP, and in Ret, affectively leading the reader "through art to morality."

Psychological studies of pain help us understand the Pardoner's personal suffering, his abuse of others, and his "harassment" of Paul's letter in PardP. His intent, style, and argument subvert his biblical model.

Chaucer's translation of "Roman de la Rose" and his indirect references to Oiseuse (Idleness) in his own poetry illuminate her significance, normally explained by critics as having exegetical or courtly meaning. LGWP, KNT, SNT, and ParsT reinforce…

Discusses three topics - Ford Madox Brown's painting of Chaucer reading from MLT to a decadent court at a time of dynastic crisis, the current Middle Eastern situation, and the story of Noah's Flood - in relation to Chaucer's portrayal of Custance's…

Cites the folk motif of "burying Death" under an oak tree and identifies "numerous parallels" between the Old Man of PardT and Odin from Norse mythology to argue that Odin is the "prototype" of the Old Man.

Tabulates the plots and motifs of twenty-one modern Irish tales purported to be analogues of the pear tree episode in MerT, suggesting that those accounts which include the motif of optical illusion (rather than blindness) should not be considered…

Assesses Chaucer's "vulgarisms" for the ways that they "reveal" his "expert insight into the uninhibited lives of the folk." Comments on Chaucer's depictions of incest, claims that Chaucer's uses 119 "bawdy terms," and focuses on his robust…

Considers theories of the nature of the Old Man in PardT, suggesting that he might be thought to combine feature of the Good Angel and the Bad Angel of medieval mystery and morality plays insofar as he seems to be "extra-human," advising and…

Exemplifies Chaucer's "homely vocabulary" and "naturalistic choice of words," identifying roots in both French and native English, and commenting on instances of idiomatic phrases, rogues' speech, "zesty vocabulary," "oaths and imprecations," sexual…

Assumes that the Death and the Old Man in PardT are "one and the same person," and provides evidence from Scandinavian literature that Odin was an analogous figure, perhaps even a distant source, although Christianized.

Traces the legacy of the mill as a metaphor for creativity, child-bearing, and sexual activity, drawing examples from WBP (3.384-90), HF (1798-99), and RvT (1.4313-14), among other sources.

Explores the sexual connotations of "deth" (death) in TC (3.63 and 1577), both instances helping to characterize Pandarus as unscrupulous and the latter encouraging us to see incestuous relations between Pandarus and Criseyde.

Suggests that the placing of the "greyn" on the tongue of the clergeon in PrT (7.622) is a reflex of the ubiquitous folk motif of the soul-as-bird being held, lured, or released from the body.

Assesses narrative suspension and crossing motivations in MilT and three analogous U.S. version of the "misdirected-kiss and branding story," including two folktales and George Milburn's "Old John's Woman" (also titled "Julie"; 1956). Suggests that…

Chaucerians have reached no consensus on specific written sources for NPT, PardT, MilT, and RvT, similarities between which and their Ozark analogues (all reprinted here) point to a common source in Anglo-American oral folktales.

Pandarus is a persuader, not a philosopher; so he sees before him not existential problems so much as materials to be shaped to a happy resolution. An earthly maker, at points an imitation of the Divine Creator, he tries but fails to achieve a human…

Suggests Chaucer's borrowings from "Roman de la Rose."

Argues that Chaucer's influence on Edmund Spenser's "Shepheardes Calendar" is "deeper and far more extensive" than previously recognized. In particular, manipulations of the "hidden narrator" in Spenser are similar to similar techniques in CT and…

WBT is a tale of transformations best understood by applying to it Jung's concept of anima. The knight's quest is really a search for understanding of his inner self, the feminine psyche. The transformation of the hag at the end mirrors his own…

The focus of ManT is not adultery and murder but rather talebearing. Chaucer returns to Ovid for janglery as a serious crime. If janglery causes murder, the janglerer is as guilty as the murderer because he is the cause of the crime.

Assesses depictions of the working class by Langland, Chaucer, Gower, and the chronicler Walsingham, considering what they disclose about conditions and attitudes at the time of the 1381 Uprising (Peasant's Revolt). Sharply criticizes Gower's and…