Burrow, J. A.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Burrow explores the functions and rhetoric of praise in classical, medieval, and Renaissance poetry, with commentary on its relative paucity in modern tradition. Focuses on medieval English panegyric verse, love poetry, and devotional poetry, with…
Considine, John.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Surveys the making of English, German, Latin, and Greek dictionaries from 1500 to 1650, including the contributions of Franciscus Junius (among others). Discusses the unpublished manuscript of Junius's glossary to Chaucer and the place of Chaucer's…
Breen, Katharine.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Describes late medieval efforts to "formulate vernacular languages that could stand in for Latin grammar as a first and paradigmatic 'habitus'," i.e., as a rule-based discipline of the mind that shapes cognition and moral action. Dante, the…
Sims, David
Cambridge Quarterly 4.2 (1969): 125-49.
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…
Reads Dryden's version of WBT (from his "Fables") and his comments on the tale as reflections of his sensitivity to Chaucer's wit, humor, "genial irony," "gentle sarcasm," and especially his clever juxtapositions--the "imaginative setting of one…
Whiting, Bartlett Jere, with the collaboration of Helen Wescott Whiting
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1968.
Lists proverbs, proverbial phrases, and sententia from early English writings, arranged alphabetically by topic, with quotations and citations of multiple occurrences in chronological order and indexes of important words and proper nouns. Chaucer is…
GP, KnT, MilT, RvT, WBT, SumT, ClT, FranT, PardT, and NPT in comic-book style, with watercolor-and-ink drawings and synoptic modern English text. Middle English phrases included in illustrations. Designed for children / early readers (grades 3-7).
Durling, Robert M.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965.
Treats the "significance of the Narrator's changeability or instability" in Renaissance epics by Boiardo, Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, with prefatory discussions of works by Horace and Ovid, Chaucer, and Petrarch. The chapter on Chaucer (pp. 44-66)…
Jordan, Robert M.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Describes the "aesthetic implications" of the medieval world view, rooted in Plato's "Timaeus" and based on notions of quantity, ordered hierarchy, and analogy rather than "organic" unity. Developed by Boethius, Macrobius, and Augustine, this view…
Frank, Robert Worth Jr.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972.
Evaluates LGW as a series of brief narrative poems, assessing LGWP as an account of Chaucer's experiment with choosing a new subject matter for poetry (one that is "essentially alien to the code of courtly love") and gauging the importance of the…
Economou, George D.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972.
Traces the uses and development of personified Nature in classical and medieval traditions, focusing on Boethius, Bernard Silvestris, Alain de Lille, Jean de Meun, and Chaucer's relations with all of them in PF. Following tradition, Chaucer presents…
Benson, Larry D., ed.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974.
Twenty-five essays by various authors, plus an appreciation of the teaching of Bartlett Jere Whiting, a list of his publications, and a poetic analogue to "Thomas of Erceldoune." For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Learned and the…
Friedman, John Block.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Drawing from art, iconography, literature, canon law, theology, and cartography, Friedman examines the impact upon European culture of monstrous races.
Strohm, Paul.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Using a variety of contemporary texts, including statutes, poll taxes, and political treatises as well as fictional narratives, Strohm studies the structure of late-medieval social relations to provide an interpretative context for events in…
A series of interlinked webpages that provides a variety of texts, translations, glossaries, selected essays and graphics, instructional aids, and supporting information about language, analogues, social conditions, and other backgrounds to Chaucer's…
Dean, James M.
Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy, 1997.
Surveys the "senectus mundi" topos in late-medieval literature, particularly in Latin, French, and English literature, from Jean de Meun to Chaucer. Separate chapters address the topos, Middle English historical writing, Jean de Meun, Dante, "Piers…
Marx, William.
Cambridge; and Rochester, N.Y. : D. S. Brewer, 1999.
Describes, among others, five manuscripts that contain Chaucer material: National Library of Wales MSS 3049 and 3567 and Peniarth MSS 359, 392, and 393.
Trotter, D. A., ed.
Cambridge; and Rochester, N.Y. : D. S. Brewer, 2000.
Thirteen essays on the interactions of English, French, Latin, and Welsh in late-medieval English records-literary, mercantile, religious, and governmental. One essay pertains to Chaucer: William Rothwell, "Aspects of Lexical and Morphosyntactical…
Beidler, Peter G., ed.
Cambridge; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1998.
An introduction by the editor, plus seventeen essays by various authors. The collection includes one essay on the Host, thirteen on CT, and three on TC. For the individual essays, search for Masculinities in Chaucer: Approaches to Maleness under…
Hussey, Maurice, ed.
Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Presents CYPT in Middle English (following Robinson's 1957 edition) with end-of-text notes and glossary and a one-page appendix of the spurious link between CYT and PhyT. The Introduction (pp. 1-22) considers the "surprise" of the presence of CY…
