Laird, Edgar S.
Chaucer Review 6.3 (1972): 229-31.
The astrological details of "Complaint of Mars" indicate that in the anthropomorphic action of the poem Venus betrays Mars and becomes the mistress of Mercury, "eternally re-enact[ing] the eternal myth."
Shows that double entendre "invests the entire narrative action" of RvT, explicating individual puns and demonstrating the prevalence of the sexual implications of flour, milling, and grinding throughout the tale and in later works by John Heywood…
Miller, Clarence H., and Roberta Bux Bosse.
Chaucer Review 6.3 (1972): 171-84.
Examines the "distorted reflection or negative image" of the Christian mass in PardPT and in the GP description of the Pardoner, showing how the language, imagery, and details of the liturgy of the mass run throughout the Pardoner's materials,…
Treats PhyT as an instance of Chaucer's use of "indirection" when applying a moral to an exemplary narrative. Like ManT in this respect (also ClT, NPT, and part of TC), and unlike its analogues in Livy, Gower, and the "Roman de la Rose," PhyT closes…
Utley, Francis Lee.
Chaucer Review 6.3 (1972): 198-228.
Explores how and where features of various genres inform the characterization, tone, atmosphere, and meaning of ClT, treating it as a scene in the "Canterbury drama," an exemplum of worldly and cosmic obedience, a fairy tale, a realistic novella, and…
Eliason, Norman E.
Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1972.
Evaluates the "style and structure" of Chaucer's poetry, exploring the interaction of pronunciation and versification and the limitations of medieval and modern rhetorics for describing and gauging Chaucer's techniques. Includes scansion of lines and…
Carpenter, Nan Cooke.
Explicator 30.06 (1973): Item 51.
Comments on the portentousness of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and on the moon as the cause of the rainstorm in TC 3.624-28, when Criseyde decides to stay at Pandarus's home.
Carruthers, Mary (J.)
Journal of Narrative Technique 2 (1972): 208-14.
Argues that FrT and SumT "explore the question of true meaning in far-reaching ways." Concerned with "externals" only, the Friar's summoner ignores intention, while the Friar himself (a "false glossator" though described as worthy) "cannot properly…
Delasanta, Rodney.
Essays in Criticism 22 (1972): 221-25.
Critiques James Smith's essay "Chaucer, Boethius, and Recent Trends in Criticism," while admiring his sensitivity to nuance in Chaucer's quotations of and allusions to Boethius in KnT and TC; argues that Smith mistakenly attributes the attitudes of…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Book Collector 21 (1972) 380-85.
Recounts the details of various transactions involving the theft, acquisition, and sales of the Cardigan manuscript (now University of Texas Humanities Research Center MS 143), focusing on information derived from the papers of Henry Noble…
Suggests that details of ShT may reflect historical incidents involving Pedro I ("the Cruel") of Castile, his various marital scandals, and a Spanish-English naval battle near Bruges. Comments on Chaucer's connections with Spain.
Assesses the likelihood of Chaucer's familiarity with Peter Abelard's "Historia Calamitatum" and his knowledge of the story of Heloise and Abelard via Jean de Meun, arguing that the "Historia" has parallels with Chaucer's treatment of virginity…
Harwood, Britton J.
Modern Language Quarterly 33 (1972): 257-73.
Analyzes the Wife of Bath's sense of guilt for her life of lust and rapaciousness, reading details of WBP as evidence of this guilt and WBT as a reflection of her "thirst for innocence" which has not been satisfied. The characterization is a rich…
Haymes, Edward R.
South Atlantic Review 37.04 (1972): 35-43.
Affirms Chaucer's familiarity with native English romances by identifying a number of formulaic phrases (some of them oral remnants) that recur in native romances and in a variety of Chaucer's works. Includes comments on Thop as evidence of Chaucer's…
Gauges the implications of the wide range of musical images in GP, exploring the exegetical roots of Chaucer's uses of these images, and assessing concord, discord, and silence as indicators of moral approval or censure. Chaucer's uses are not…
Peeters, L[eopold].
Amsterdammer Beitrage zur Alteren Germanistik 3 (1973): 25-65.
Provides context for the allusion to "Wades boot" in MerT (4.1423), observing in a thirteenth-century Latin homily on humility connections between Wade and Hildebrand, both Germanic heroes, and further associations with the Irish St. Brendan.…
Rowland, Beryl
Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 209 (1972): 273-82.
Studies details, allusions, and shifts in speech patterns in WBP, especially those connected with the Wife's false dream of blood and the "tantalizing ambiguous" circumstances of the death of Wife's fourth husband, arguing that they indicate a…
Rutherford, Charles S.
Annuale Mediaevale 13 (1972): 5-13.
Characterizes Pandarus as "a public figure, a chameleon, a consummate actor" who plays various roles, including that of "unrequited lover." His unusual moment of private lovesickness at the beginning of Book 2 is Chaucer's device for underscoring the…
Schleiner, Winfried.
Comparative Literature Studies 9 (1972): 365-75.
Argues that the theme of testing female patience, found in ClT, Chretien's "Erec and Enide," and Robert Greene's "Friar Bacon and Friar Bongay," "demonstrates the interdependence of traditional motif, aesthetic sensibility, and societal structure."…
Smith, James.
Essays in Criticism 22 (1972): 4-32.
Focuses on close analysis of words and details in GP description of the Knight ("worthy") and in KnT ("erthely," 1.1166) to argue that Arcite is a morally flawed lover, Theseus is an "anti-hero," and the Knight pompous--especially when read in light…
Wimsatt, James I.
Mediaeval Studies 34 (1972): 388-400.
Summarizes similarities between BD and Jean Froissart's "Dit dou Bleu Chevalier," and argues that Froissart imitated Chaucer's poem, commenting on the occasions of the poems and their relative chronology, narrative and linguistics details, and the…
Burjorjee, D. M.
Annuale Mediaevale 13 (1972): 14-31.
Surveys nautical imagery and pilgrimage-on-the-sea-of-life metaphors in the sources to TC, and discusses book by book Chaucer's uses of such figures in his poem, especially the sailing heart image, arguing that the varieties of imagery cohere to…
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…
Ando, Shinsuke.
Earl Miner, ed. English Criticism in Japan: Essays by Younger Japanese Scholars on English and American Literature (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1972), pp. 3-18.
Comments on Chaucer's formal descriptions of women in Rom, BD, RvT, and MilT, focusing on his uses of rhetorical conventions, Continental models, and native English alliterative phrases and vocabulary.
Steadman, John M.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
Studies the "flight episode," Troilus's laughter, and the location of the eighth sphere in TC "against the background of the apotheosis tradition [Lucan, Cicero, Dante, Boccaccio, and various commentaries] and the conventions of classical…
