Bowers, John M.
Chantilly, Va.: The Teaching Company, 2008.
Audio-visual recording of thirty-six lectures by Bowers (on topics ranging from the Bible to Tolkien and postcolonialism), illustrated with occasional still pictures and linguistic examples. One thirty-minute lecture (Lecture 17, "Chaucer--The Father…
Bowers, John M.
Tison Pugh and Marcia Smith Marzec, eds. Men and Masculinities in Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2008), pp. 9-27.
Chaucer's "portrayal of Troilus as a soliloquizing, swooning lover . . . reads like a fulsome apologia" for Richard II. TC reflects Richard's relationship with Robert De Vere and reveals his "sexless marriage" with Anne. SNT and LGW defend sexless…
Bowers, John M.
Susanna Fein and David Raybin, eds. Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010), pp. 116-31.
Bowers describes Chaucer's treatment of Latin texts throughout his "literary insurgency against [a] foreign incursion"--a kind of postcolonial resistance that is also consistent with Lollard vernacularization. Reads MLT as a "rejection" of Bede's…
Bowers, John M.
Elisabeth Dutton, with John Hines and R. F. Yeager, eds. John Gower, Trilingual Poet: Language, Translation, and Tradition (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010), pp. 276-87.
Bowers describes LGW as "work-in-progress" of the 1390s and dates the G-prologue between 1392 and 1394, offering various comments to help justify these datings and explore their implications: LGWP emulates Gower's Ricardian prologue to "Confessio…
Bowers, John M.
R. F. Yeager and Toshiyuki Takamiya, eds. The Medieval Python: The Purposive and Provocative Work of Terry Jones (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 105-17
Dates HF in the mid-1380s, positioning it as a "transitional work" between TC and CT and a reflection of Chaucer's status at the time as a king's man. Argues that LGW was written concurrently with CT, with LGWP-F as early as 1392, and revised as…
Bowers, John M.
Andrew James Johnston, Ethan Knapp, and Margitta Rouse, eds. The Art of Vision: Ekphrasis in Medieval Literature and Culture (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015), pp. 55–76.
Explores Chaucer's uses of ekphrasis as "expressions of an increasingly anxious desire to allow literary images to speak for themselves" in KnT, BD, and HF.
Bowers, John M.
Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2012.
Places the "Gawain"-poet "within the context of Richard II's court and its numerous intrigues" (ix), with chapters on each of his poems (including "Saint Erkenwald"); a life; "A Survey of Sources and Influences"; and a chronology, glossary of…
Bowers, John M.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Reconstructs Tolkien's efforts to co-edit (with George S. Gordon) a Clarendon student edition to have been titled "Selections from Chaucer's Poetry and Prose"--never finished and long lost. Observes how Tolkien's extant notes and glossary to this…
Bowers, John M., ed.
Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992.
Includes editions of Lydgate's Prologue to the Siege of Thebes, The Ploughman's Tale, an expanded version of CkT, eight spurious links, and a combination of The Canterbury Interlude and the Merchant's Tale of Beryn. For each, Bowers provides an…
Bowers, R. H.
Notes and Queries 205 (1960): 370-71.
Identifies several sixteenth-century statements of censorship of romances (one that mentions TC) and describes several early modern "justifications" for the "perennial itch to censor."
Bowers, R. H.
Modern Language Notes 73.5 (1958): 327-29.
Transcribes (with modern punctuation, capitalization, and commentary) a 26-line compilation of proverbial misogynistic sentiment from London, British Library MS Harley 7333, fol. 121v-122r, attributed there to "Impingham," identified by Manly and…
Assesses the first-person narrator of CT as a "portrayal of a poet in the act of constructing a poem," focusing on how diction and syntax call attention to the narrator.
Awareness of narratological levels helps us understand differences in intent in Gower and Chaucer. Comparison of Gower's "Tale of Florent" and Chaucer's WBT illustrates these differences. Overall, Gower has a purpose and achieves closure; Chaucer…
Bowker, Alvin W.
Modern Language Studies 4.2 (1974): 27-34.
Comments on the "theatricality" of MilT and explores how the comic characteristics of each of the main characters have darker sides, especially in the cases of Nicholas, Alisoun, and Absolon.
Bowker, Alvin Willington.
DAI 33.09 (1973): 3336A.
Identifies the "dark spirit" in MilT, RvT, FrT, SumT, MerT, and ShT, focusing on their "violence, deception, and sense of continual flux rather than their comedy.
Bowler, Bill.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Pedagogical workbook for language learners of modern English, centered on modern prose adaptations of selections from CT (GP, KnT, MerT, ClT, FranT, WBT), with accompanying vocabulary exercises and comprehension activities. Illustrated by Natalia…
That the passage describing the Prioress's habit of wiping her mouth clean (GP, 133-36) has been misunderstood is shown in the translations by all modern translators, except Coghill, of "hir" in the phrase "hir coppe: (133) as "her" when it should be…
There is a distinct difference between Dorigen's sensibilities and those of the men who speak for and about her. Considered from her perspective, the "generous" male acts are less generous, serving only to exaggerate her emotional suffering.
Includes brief comments on MilT as an example of "a carnival-like rejection of hierarchies," aligning it with Alenca Zupančič's theory that "comedy creates what we understand 'human' to be."
Box, Terry.
College Language Association Journal 37 (1993): 42-54.
Chaucer's MilT and Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' are analogues because each satirizes the conventions of courtly love. Absolon, John, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek are "genuine fools" because they can be so easily duped, while Orsino and Viola "manifest…
Boyar, Jenny.
Dissertation Abstracts International A78.01 (2016): n.p.
Traces "the creative potentials of technologies of memory in the rise of English lyric poetry," focusing on Chaucer and Thomas Wyatt, and including assessment of how "innovations of lyric form are introduced" in TC "at moments in which memory is most…
Discusses Marian identification in PrT, in particular Marian miracles, as well as connections to the Virgin Mary in SNT, Th, and WBPT. Emphasizes development of Middle English Marian miracle texts, and Mary's "symbolic connection to Jews." Claims…
Discusses unity in PrP, PrT, and the GP description of the Prioress, focusing on their liturgical references and allusions: the canonical hours, the Prioress's "service dyvyne" (1.122), and the plea for aid from Hugh of Lincoln at the end of the tale…
Boyd, Beverly, ed.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.
Relying on Hengwrt as the basic text, Boyd--in the manner of all editors in this variorum series--surveys both manuscripts and printed editions, emending in light of both. The introduction provides critical and textual commentaries, the former…
