Brandom, Lisa, ed.
Siloam Springs, Ark.: Moon Lake Publishing, 2005.
Presents the personal and pedagogical diary of Dr. John Panage, including his teaching career at John Brown University. The CD records a class session of October 9, 1972, conducted by Panage, that pertains to Chaucer's GP, including the teacher's and…
Brandt, Bruce E., and Michael Nagy, eds.
Brookings, S.Dak.: English Department, South Dakota State University, 2006.
Thirteen papers on topics ranging from Old English to eighteenth-century British literature. For three papers that pertain to Chaucer, search for Proceedings of the 14th Northern Plains Conference on Earlier British Literature under Alternative…
Brandt, Paul R.
Uuniversity of Dayton Review 22:2 (1993-94): 113-21.
Aware of his own failings and mortality, the Pardoner is more honest than the rest of the Pilgrims. He is a "messenger of Death" to them, although they do not know it. The only one without delusions, he is perhaps the "most worthy of forgiveness."
Anthologizes selections and excerpts from medieval literature and history (most in modern English), offered for use as a textbook in social history. Includes GP, lines 1-274 (pp. 228-48), in normalized Middle English, with no notes or glosses,…
Brantley, Jessica.
Paul Strohm, ed. Middle English (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 315-34.
Brantley describes "texts that record acts of looking" as a "distinct medieval literary genre and a distinctly medieval way of knowing," addressing dream visions (including BD, PF, HF, and LGWP), mystical visions, and the parody of a visionary…
The artist of the Fairfax frontispiece manipulates similarities between traditional depictions of Venus "rising from the sea" (anadyomene) and Christ in baptism. The visual echoes express a form of "Christian skepticism" that parallels questions…
Observes that the tail-rhyme meter's layout on the manuscript page alludes not to romance but to a range of other forms, including liturgical hymns, vernacular lyrics, and drama. Examining Th in these contexts suggests that the text perhaps parodies…
Brantley, Jessica.
Susanna Fein and David Raybin, eds. Chaucer: Visual Approaches (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016), pp. 139-53.
Considers FranT as a commentary on the "sister arts" of poetry and painting, linked in the tale's engagement with rhetoric, to form Chaucer's "theory of the imagetext." Unlike later theorizations that differentiate the visual from the verbal, the…
Brantley, Jessica.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022.
Offers "a general introduction to manuscript studies for readers whose particular interests lie in medieval literature," commenting on material concerns, paleography, decoration and illustration, codicology, and principles of manuscript description,…
Discusses Chaucer's characterization of the Summoner in GP and asserts that, despite modern assumptions, it is based on the confluence of medical and astrological theories prevalent during Chaucer's time.
Discusses a "fourteenth-century lending law" as a possible source of Chaucer's ShT, with its depiction of a "bourgeois financial triangle." More work needs to be done on Chaucer's knowledge of municipal ordinances.
Braswell, Laurel.
English Studies in Canada 2 (1976): 373-80.
Two narratives of the "Legenda aurea" are likely sources for the anti-mendicant satire in WBP and WBT. Imagery in the legends of Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Francis of Assisi parallels the Wife's anti-mendicant satire, and provides a close…
Lists all pieces of Middle English prose in the Douce collection, giving about fifty words of the beginning of each text and twenty at the end, with an index of incipits and explicits.
Braswell, Laurel.
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 209-21.
In SNT and PrT, hagiography is used in an orthodox form, while in MLT and ClT, the devices of hagiography are used to amplify the moral character of secular tales. Hagiographic devices indicate that these tales are serious, not satire.
Braswell, Laurel.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 8 (1986): 145-56.
A survey of medieval medical documents indicates that GP's Physician conforms accurately to expected medical practice; the astronomical position and astrological meaning of the moon provide a basis for medieval medical theory and practice.
Argues that medieval allegory and "much of science fiction" share a common "presupposition" of conveying an "abstract message" or "vision of truth," comparing various themes and devices of science fiction with examples drawn from medieval…
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
Medievalia et Humanistica 14 (1986): 81-101.
In the contexts of medieval misogyny and penitential manuals, Braswell examines Chaucer's treatment of the sins of women in ParsT. The Parson denounces excess in dress among lords more severely than among ladies.
Braswell surveys the mechanical devices in late-medieval culture and traces their origins in Continental and Arabic lands. She asserts that Chaucer was knowledgeable about machinery and its prevalence and that the magic tricks in FranT correspond to…
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 55-70.
Chaucer's influence on Faulkner is evident in the similarities between PardT and "Lizards in Jamshyd's Courtyard." Both stories concern three treasure seekers who make an ironic vow of loyalty and are guided in motion by a figure who represents…
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1983.
From thirteenth-century sermons and confessional manuals we see attitudes toward penance and moral behavior reflected in the works of Langland, Gower, the "Pearl" poet, and Chaucer. Chaucer treats CT sinners with unusual humor and irony. Penitential…
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 11 (1981): 101-12
Far from being "entirely tropological" or imaginative, the descriptions of the Temple of Venus and the House of Fame and Rumor accurately reflect the forms and details of contemporary structures. As Clerk of the Works and perhaps an acquaintance of…
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 16 (1994): 29-44.
Chaucer's office as Justice of the Peace necessitated his close familiarity with the forms and styles of court proceedings available to us in the records of the "Court Baron." Braswell notes in such records the frequency of figures similar to…
