Browse Items (16476 total)

Examines precedents and proposes an electronic discussion group for Chaucer scholars.

Reports on research in progress using computer collation for the textual tradition of WBP.

The name "Damyan" in MerT alludes to St. Damian, whose healing talents support a pun on "lechour." Explores Chaucer's sources of knowledge of the saint.

Even though the Hainault Forest in Essex derives from Old English "hyneholt" ("monastic forest"), owned by the Benedictine abbey of Barking, Chaucer's many connections with Flemish Hainault are evident even here since John of Gaunt contributed to the…

Considers a potential crisis in the teaching of Chaucer and suggests attending more to the pragmatic matters of teaching and less to theoretical problematizing.

With the aid of new electronic tools, Chaucer courses are making an evolutionary leap. These media foster interactive learning and provide access to materials from archives around the world.

Chaucer uses herbal imagery of licorice and cetewale, breath sweeteners associated with love in MilT, to establish the theme of character dependence on them. Cetewale is aphrodisiac; licorice quenches thirst; love is reduced to the physical and…

In his prologue to his edition (1484) of CT, Caxton apparently borrows some of Chaucer's phrases to describe Chaucer's poems.

A variorum editor should record "fully and impartially, the history of what people have 'thought' that his author wrote and meant." And he "should not 'editorialize' at all."

Shows that MED's definition of "mevyng" is correct, and that the word is not a scribal error for "menyng" but exists in its own right.

Variations in the ink color of MSS. Ellesmere and Hengwrt have yet to be accurately described and may provide information concerning the order in which the parts of the mss were written.

Explains how computer technology could allow continual updating of and access to information pertinent to a variorum edition.

Holcot is a source for the conclusion of "Lucrece": his "In Librum Sapientie" includes (1) the statement, not in the Gospels, that Christ found greater faith in women than in men, and (2) a catalogue of pagan good women including Lucretia and others…

The Friar, who does not want Thomas to divide his money among several confessors, argues that likewise an ill man should not divide his among several physicians. He thus materializes the penitential injuction not to divide one's confession among…

In Truth the reference to Vache is not to Sir Philip de la Vache but to Chaucer. "Vache, leve" translates the OF phrase "reis, vache!" which is (e)Chavsier spelled backwards. The reversal of letters points to a real conversion in Chaucer.

Licorice, according to medieval herbals, quenched thirst (thus allowing Nicholas to stay in his room for a long time?). Cetewale, as zedoary, dispels gas (Nicholas' fart?). It is also an aphrodisiac and the "nardus" of Canticles, a symbol for the…

"Ovide Moralise" is a source for Chaucer's depiction of Jupiter and Nimrod in Form Age.

Argues for a pun on nonce-word "ape-ese." The Cook has drunk "wyn ape." If appease (ad pacem) is merely ape-ease, then clearly wine is no real remedy for the pilgrims' dis-ease ("whan that they were seke").

The verb "troiledest" ("deceived"; "Piers Plowman," C, xxi, 321), a "hapax legomenon" introduced in 1393 when TC was at its most popular, may be a reference to the treachery recorded in Chaucer's poem. Langland uses it to refer to Satan's temptation…

Suggests that after studying in CT the relationship of different poetic styles to different social or cultural classes, one might examine the visual art of the Limbourgs' Calendar in the "Tres Riches Heures." The stylistic iconographics of the poet…

Provides a broad outline for an undergraduate course in Chaucer and a complete syllabus for a graduate course, the latter based on the author's conception of the development of CT.

Disputes Lowe's interpretation of KnT 1534-39. Arcite's sudden changes of mood, that of Chauntecleer (on a Friday) in NPT, the meaning of "gere" (a wild or changeful mood), and the first Adam's fall on the sixth day all suggest that Friday is not…

Transcription and English translation of the Latin exemplum discussed in Nicholson's earlier article on the FrT analogues (English Language Notes 17 (1979): 93-98).

Stresses the need to reconcile literary and linguistic approaches.

Reviews history and problems of translating Chaucer into French.