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."
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Chaucer Newsletter 2:2 (1980): 14.
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.
Waller, Martha S.
Chaucer Newsletter 2.1 (1980): 10-12.
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…
Crowther, J. D. W.
Chaucer Newsletter 2.1 (1980): 12-13.
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.
Nitzsche, Jane Chance.
Chaucer Newsletter 2.1 (1980): 6-8.
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…
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…
Owen, Charles A.,Jr.
Chaucer Newsletter 2.2 (1980): 7-10.
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.
Hoeber, Daniel R.
Chaucer Newsletter 2.2 (1980): 8-10.
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).
An overview of research in progress on the mythographic tradition in the Middle Ages (primarily commentary on the works of Virgil, Lucan, Statius, Martianus Capella, Boethius, and Ovid) and examples of its applicability to Chaucer.
Anecdotal revisitation of Harbledown, Bobbe-up-and-down, a mile from Canterbury. Chaucer himself likely traveled the Blean in official duties. As a type of Dante's "selva oscura," the Blean may have been in Chaucer mind in BD, TC, KnT, FrT, NPT,…
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.
