Scott, Kathleen L.
Carol M. Meale and Derek Pearsall, eds. Makers and Users of Medieval Books: Essays in Honour of A. S. G. Edwards (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2014), pp. 150-77.
Examines records of medieval book ownership by focusing on inscriptions in manuscripts and early printed books, wills, and other inventories of collections from fifteenth-century merchants and craftsmen. Features two listings of merchants with book…
Horobin, Simon.
Carol M. Meale and Derek Pearsall, eds. Makers and Users of Medieval Books: Essays in Honour of A. S. G. Edwards (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2014), pp. 214-23.
Beaupré Bell (1704-45), member of a noble Norfolk family, was known as a careful, if not exhaustive, annotator of Chaucer manuscripts (Cambridge,Trinity College, MSS R.3.19 and R.3.15). Now it is clear that two printed editions of Chaucer in the…
Diamond, Arlyn.
Carol M. Meale, ed. Readings in Medieval English Romance (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1994), pp. 65-81.
Examines the intersection of gender, genre, and history in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and KnT to argue that "the inversion or refusal of generic conventions, enabled by the self-conscious use of a rich tradition of courtly narratives, points…
Riddy, Felicity.
Carol M. Meale, ed. Women and Literature in Britain, 1150-1500. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 104-27.
Contrasts Julian of Norwich's "Revelation of Love" as an "insider's" representation of feminine literary subculture with Chaucer's depictions in PrT and SNT and with materials in the Vernon manuscript. Even Chaucer could not achieve the "inwardness"…
Wayne, Valerie.
Carole Levin and Jeanie Watson, eds. Ambiguous Realities (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1987), pp. 48-65.
Dealing with "gender difference, injunctions on sexual pleasure, and domestic role," Wayne offers a feminist analysis of Zenobia, used as an exemplum by many writers, including Chaucer in MkT.
Ellis, Deborah S.
Carole Levin and Jeanie Watson, eds. Ambiguous Realities (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1987), pp. 99-113.
Associations of the home and domestic situation with "ambiguity, insecurity, and women's vulnerability" are most effective in TC and ClT. In the medieval home, the hall was the domain of the male and open to public affairs; the chamber was the…
Hill, Archibald A.
Caroline Duncan-Rose and Theo Vennemann, eds. On Language: Rhetorica, Phonologica, Syntactica. (London: Routledge, 1988), pp. 66-78.
The search for Chaucer's puns has increased dramatically in modern scholarship, particularly John Gardner's. By adopting some conservative principles, we can curb the "extravagence of pun-hunting." First, puns should be distinguished from innuendo…
Bawcutt, Priscilla.
Caroline Macafee and Iseabail Macleod, eds. The Nuttis Schell: Essays on the Scots Language Presented to A. J. Aitken. (Aberdeen, Scotland: Aberdeen University, 1987), pp. 54-61.
Lexicographical study of Dunbar with occasional reference to Chaucer.
Meier, Hans H.
Caroline Macafee and Iseabail Macleod, eds. The Nuttis Schell: Essays on Scots Language Presented to A. J. Aitken (Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1987), pp. 116-23.
Describes several literary representations of Older Scots language; includes RvT because Older Scots and Northern English "are not generally considered as distinct" in the late medieval period. Commends Chaucer for his comprehensive "imitation of…
Dinshaw, Carolyn.
Carolyn Dinshaw. Getting Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre- and Postmodern (Durham, N.C., and London: Duke University Press, 1999), pp. 100-142.
Explores how the Pardoner and his interruption of WBP challenge the heteronormativity of CT. The opening lines of GP and WBT establish a heterosexual norm that the presence of the Pardoner challenges by making clear the constructed and contestable…
Archibald, Elizabeth.
Carolyn Muessig and Ad Putter, eds. Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages. Routledge Studies in Medieval Religion and Culture, no. 6 (London and New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 222-36.
Archibald surveys Italian, French, and English literary instances of love compared to heaven, hell, paradise, or purgatory, commenting on Chaucer's uses in CT (WBT, KnT, and especially MerT) and LGW and exploring the more sustained use of this set of…
Quinn, William A.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 1-32.
Quinn describes the "performance" features of each of the manuscripts and printed editions of LGW, exploring ideas of oral composition, performance theory, and performativity. Addresses how each witness to the text of LGW shapes the "protocols of…
McCormick, Betsy.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 105-31.
McCormick outlines game theory and summarizes the medieval rhetorical tradition in which debate and dream vision were memorial and ethical media. She describes how exempla were used in the "Querelle des Femmes," arguing that LGW engages the…
Meecham-Jones, Simon.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 132-56.
In LGW, Chaucer sets classical action in the context of Christian notions of moral intention; he poses a range of subtly differentiated portraits of difficulty in recording truth in human terms and human time. Knowability, the narrator's presence,…
Fumo, Jamie C.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 157-75.
Intertextual connections among LGWP, Ret, and the end of TC capitalize on the medieval scholastic literary theory of the co-authorship of books by human authors and God ("duplex causa efficiens"). All three works remind audiences of authorial…
McDonald, Nicola F.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 176-97.
McDonald describes the principles and operation of two late medieval ribald games of "amorous divination" - Ragman Roll and Chaunce of Dice - as a means to explore the female audience for such games and related literature, particularly LGW. "Demandes…
Coleman, Joyce.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 33-58.
Coleman surveys the betrothals, marriage, and literary patronage of Philippa of Lancaster, suggesting that she may have given Chaucer a copy of Deschamps's "Ballade 765," which may have helped to inspire Chaucer's interest in flower and leaf debates…
Edwards, Robert R.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 59-82.
Explores the "political erotics" of LGWP, especially the G version, assessing how Cupid's treatment of the narrator and Alceste's intercession reflect political conditions, concepts of tyranny, and notions of loyalty and fidelity.
Warren, Nancy Bradley.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 83-104.
The "Amazonian" associations - legendary and figurative - of the women in LGW and KnT align the two narratives and suggest that the passive or intercessory roles of royal women in Chaucer's society entailed the "absent presence" of threat to that…
Van Dyke, Carolynn.
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 101-12.
TC includes references to animals through frequent analogy and extended imagery, but these are often generically inappropriate. Dreams about animals are largely unexplored. Comparison of Troilus to the horse Bayard not only emphasizes the hero's…
Schotland, Sara Deutch.
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 115-30.
In SqT Chaucer practices a form of anthropomorphism that acknowledges its representational limits. The relationship of Canacee and the falcon shows "a commonality among living creatures" and offers a model of female friendship. Canacee nurses the…
Fradenburg, Aranye.
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 13-31.
In some modern views, and in John of Trevisa's "On the Properties of Things," animals have feelings and communicate. Similarly, CT and PF demonstrate "the value and pleasure of minds speaking to other minds," whether human or avian. Late medieval…
Wang, Laura.
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 131-42.
Classical and medieval antifeminist texts disparagingly compare women and animals. In WBP, Alisoun "redeploys animal similes" to claim the privileges of animal-like status because she is naturally crafty and sly, impatient, and cannot be held…
Roman, Christopher.
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 143-55.
Animals figure prominently in BD but are more than mere symbols. Ceyx's dead body is also an "unnatural animal." The birds, horse, whelp, and hart invite, but also resist, interpretation. The juxtaposition of death and animalistic vitality evokes…
