Browse Items (16364 total)

Associates the Wife of Bath with the antic "rogue figure of wife" from conventional "low comedy" or "pantomime," more lively and vivid than realistic. Derived from the "topsy-turvy" world of conventional comedy, the Wife gains readers' sympathy…

Identifies "structural similarities" among BD, PF, and HF, arguing that each poem is an "elaborate narrative orchestrating a moral theme from some work of antiquity . . . foreshadowed in [its] preamble." Each is reminiscent of Macrobius's "enigmatic…

Uses allegorical interpretations from Hugh of St. Cher to show how the exegetical equation of cock and preacher is consistently upended in the description and actions of Chauntecleer in NPT, offering a mock allegory where "fruit is chaff."

Characterizes Criseyde in TC as a good, even perfect, courtly heroine until she is unfaithful to Troilus, a result of the very human "weakness in the face of death." More than does Boccaccio in "Filostrato," Chaucer creates a sense of inevitability…

Suggests that in the drama of CT the Summoner's idea of friars residing in Satan's arse (SumP) was prompted by the demon's promise to the summoner in FrT that he would know the devil's "privetee" (3.1637), an echo of the Miller's claim about "Goddes…

Suggests that behind several legal maxims found in RvPT stands the broader principle of measuring one law by another: "the old by the new, the Continental by the English, the private by the public, the Mosaic by the Christian."

Details way in which the dialogue between the Dreamer and Black Knight in BD "closely follows the pattern of the first two books" of Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," with the Dreamer paralleling Philosophy and the Knight the character…

Describes the contents of a page in Nottingham University Library, MS ME LM 1, that includes a "genuine witness" to Gent and several English and Latin proverbs,; also shows that the version of Gent in Cambridge University Library Gg. 4.27.1b "has no…

Rejects exegetical readings of BD that construe the poem as a wholesale Christian allegory, but argues that Christian consolation is nevertheless conveyed through resurrection imagery (birds, horns, harts, etc.) and details of "sleeping, dreaming,…

Identifies a "number of medieval commonplaces" in KnT that support the notion that "greater idealism" is what distinguishes Palamon from Arcite, i.e., a "loftier" view, more a matter of theodicy than determinism.

Analyzes the relations between verse form and meaning in ShT and PF. In the first, patterns of closed and open couplets (where rhymes do or do not "coincide with syntactical closure") align with sententiousness and its uses; in the second, the…

Shows that in the Wife of Bath's account of her three "goode" husbands Chaucer "adopted a means of amplification which he found described and illustrated in the 'Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi' . . . attributed to Geoffrey of…

Argues that the Monk was the original teller of the MerT, a response directed against the ShT as told originally by the Wife of Bath. Discusses puns and implications in the GP description of the Monk to characterize the Monk is an "amorous man," a…

Reports on book length-studies, articles, and dissertations in progress, arranged in topical categories.

Transcribes witnesses to three of Chaucer's short poems--"For," "Truth" (both from Leiden University Library Vossius 9), and Gent (from Cambridge University Library Gg 4 9.27.1b)--all previously unpublished and here supplied from, perhaps, "the final…

Shows that in details and atmosphere the relation between RvT and its analogue, Jean Bodel's twelfth-century "Gombert et les Deux Clers," is a "good deal closer than has been realized." Suggests that Chaucer's source combined details of "Gombert" and…

Contrasts the consummation scene of TC with its source in Boccaccio's "Filostrato," arguing that the changes produce a "far greater emotional intensity," largely because the narrative puts the reader through the process of partial fulfillment…

Argues that the Wife of Bath is a distant source (not necessarily intentional) for the characterization of Molly Bloom in James Joyce's "Ulysses." Both characters are sensual, hedonistic, heterodox, touched by despair, shrewish, and unfaithful--part…

Uses TC to show why Boethius "so compelled Chaucer's imagination" and demonstrates that the outcome of Chaucer's plot is "fitting" to the characters as established earlier in the poem. Focuses on Troilus's Boethian soliloquy and on Criseyde's…

Identifies physiognomic details in NPP and NPE that characterize the Nun's Priest as a "healthy and handsome young cleric, of temperate disposition." He "has the virtues of the widow" of NPT- (good health and moral rectitude) which counterpoint the…

Observes evidence of "ring composition" in BD, especially in parallels among the Dreamer, Alcyone, and the Black Knight, and a centralizing focus on the "conflict between Fortune and Nature." Also considers love, the he(a)rt-hunting motif, and the…

Considers the diction and details of the description of the Host, Harry Bailly, in GP, especially as they are developed in the dramatic action of GP in anticipation of the Host's comic slips later in CT. Discusses his merriness; his concern with…

In Japanese; accessible online at CiNii Articles [http://ci.nii.ac.jp/]. Abstract in Italian included in the back matter of the volume (pp. 3-4), under the title "L'Incontro del Chaucer e la Letteratura Italiana."

Grammatical description of Chaucer's pronouns, with examples. In Japanese.

Describes Chaucer's depictions of Criseyde and the Wife of Bath as "marred" by unconscious "psychic blinders" of his male-dominated age, each lacking a "life all her own." Alison is one of Chaucer's "great comic actors," but not psychically a woman,…