Bodden, M. C.
Jennifer C. Vaught, ed., with Lynne Dickson Bruckner. Grief and Gender: 700-1700 (New Yorl: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 51-63.
In FranT and ClT, masculine grief is aligned with courtly ideals of gentility; feminine grief, with courtly suffering. By complicating these associations and disallowing consolation of grief, Chaucer intervenes in the "discursive practices" of the…
Bodden, M. C.
Susannah Mary Chewning, ed. Intersections of Sexuality and the Divine in Medieval Culture: The Word Made Flesh (Burlington, Ver.: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 51-73.
The carnal quest in MerT has as its goal an erotic union in the "paradys terrestre." This desire is fulfilled in an inverted via mystica, enforcing the ambiguity of mystical language as a mode of knowing.
Historical analysis of early women's speech; describes early modern England's regulations of women's speech and women's subversive strategies to represent themselves as subjects in masculine discourses (including court depositions). Examines speech…
Bodi, Russell John.
Dissertation Abstracts International 58 (1997): 234A.
Literary uses of play and game both subvert and reinforce social order while encouraging readers to become involved. Medieval works tend to relate chivalry and war to game and play, while Platonism questions their value. Considers TC among works…
Boehler, Karl E.
Dissertation Abstracts Interbational 66 (2005):1348A
Boehler employs the concept of "shame culture" (which emphasizes satisfaction and honor over personal happiness, or even survival) as a means to examine medieval heroes (including those in KnT.) Ultimately, shame culture contributes not only to the…
Boehme, Timothy Howard.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60 (1999): 121A.
Analysis of WBPT, FrT, SumT, ClT, FranT and Ret indicates that Chaucer was "a realist with regard to religion and a nominalist with regard to language and epistemological issues."
Boenig, Robert, and Andrew Taylor, eds.
Buffalo, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 2008. Rev. ed. 2012.
Complete text of CT newly edited from the Ellesmere manuscript, with an introduction (pp. 9-38), brief bibliography, and eleven "background documents" that include selections from sources and historical records. Glosses to the Middle English are…
Boenig, Robert, and Andrew Taylor, eds.
Buffalo, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 2009.
Selections from Boenig and Taylor's 2008 edition of CT (SAC 32 [2010], no. 16), including GP, KnT, MilPT, RvPT, WBPT, SumPT, ClPT, SqE, FranPT, PardPT, PrPT, NPPT, and Ret. Also contains an introduction (pp. ix-lviii), brief bibliography, and fifteen…
Boenig, Robert, and Kathleen Davis, eds.
Lewisburg, Penn. :
Eleven essays by various authors, a bibliography of Bolton's publications, and an index. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon under Alternative Title.
The Pardoner ironically depicts his musicians playing the wrong instruments for a successful performance, thereby indicating the inherent (and disastrous) competitive nature of their fellowship.
Boenig, Robert.
English Language Notes 28:1 (1990): 7-15.
Medieval convention and iconography support the view that the rebec is associated with the female voice (and thus suited to Absolon's effeminate character). It is implied that Absolon neither sings nor plays very well.
Traditions of simultaneous affirmation and negation found in pseudo-Dionysian mystical theology account for Ret's treatment of the reader and its relation to CT.
Boenig, Robert.
American Benedictine Review 36 (1985): 263-77.
Chaucer transforms Bede's commentary on the symbolism in Saint John's vision. Chaucer twists the beryl, the eagle, the four beasts, the seven stars, and numerology, giving a sense that Lady Fame is an unlawful ruler. HF is purposely unfinished.
Boenig, Robert.
English Language Notes 21 (1983): 1-6.
The medieval bagpipe was featured in Nativity scenes, depictions of angels, and royal occasions. The Miller's bagpipe was a soft, pleasant, courtly, even celestial instrument--in subtly ironic contrast to his character.
Boenig, Robert.
Lewisburg, Penn.: Bucknell University Press, 1995.
Similarities between Chaucer and the Middle English mystics do not imply a conscious intention on his part either to imitate the mystics or to parody them ironically.
Boenig, Robert.
Notes and Queries 241 (1996): 261-64.
MkT is not fragmentary, although the Knight misunderstands its common fourteenth-century technique of closure. Boenig provides parallel examples from Chaucer and Machaut.
Boenig, Robert.
Ann Hurley and Kate Greenspan, eds. So Rich a Tapestry: The Sister Arts and Cultural Studies (Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1995), pp. 181-99.
Like the "Cloisters Apocalypse," HF depicts the Day of Judgment. Both works "select, rearrange, and fragment" the biblical account of the apocalypse, reminding us that interpretation is necessary for sinners.
Boenig, Robert.
Notes and Queries 244: 321-26, 1999.
Discusses Chaucer's use of "Alma Redemptoris" rather than "Gaude Maria" in PrT, arguing that the choice may have influenced his characterization of the clergeon. The option was available in Chaucer's sources.
As found in "The Golden Legend" ("Legende Aurea") and the "South English Legendary," the life of St. Kenelm offers striking parallels with both PrT and NPT, in which Chaucer refers to it (7.3110-21). Kenelm was murdered at age seven, perhaps the…
Boenig, Robert.
ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 13.4: 9-15, 2000.
Examines the almost ubiquitous assumption that hypocrisy is reflected in PardPT and suggests an alternative reading in which the Pardoner's words do not reveal his morality but parody WBPT.
Boenig, Robert.
Robert Boenig and Kathleen Davis, eds. Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon: Essays on Literary and Cultural Transmission in Honor of Whitney F. Bolton (Lewisburg, Penn: Bucknell University Press; and London: Associated University Presses, 2000), pp. 96-110.
Surveys medieval representations and understandings of the psaltery, a musical instrument, as background to reading its meanings in MilT. The psaltery clashes ironically with Nicholas's amorous escapades, and his playing it to accompany his singing…
Boenig, Robert.
Curtis Perry, ed. Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, no. 5 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), pp. 1-15.
For medieval poets, the "hyperreality of musical instruments" was "more significant" than was their reality. In "Beowulf," the harp signifies Hrothgar's agenda of political conquest and order; in Machaut's "Remedy of Fortune," the "instruments…
Boenig, Robert.
Bruce L. Edwards, ed. The Taste of Pineapple: Essays on C. S. Lewis as Reader, Critic, and Imaginative Writer (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988), pp. 138-48.
Reads C. S. Lewis's essay on TC, "What Chaucer Really Did to 'Il Filostrato'" (1932), as an index to how Lewis adapted H. G. Wells' novel "The First Men in the Moon" in his own "Out of the Silent Planet." Because of Chaucer's changes to Boccaccio's…
