Lawrence, William W.
Modern Language Notes 72.2 (1957): 87-88.
Disagrees with R. L. Chapman's argument (1956) that the Shipman was the original teller of ShT, offering further evidence that Chaucer first assigned the narrative to the Wife of Bath.
Lynch, James J.
Modern Language Notes 72.4 (1957): 242-49.
Reviews arguments that identify and explicate "Seinte Loy" in the GP description of the Prioress (GP 1.120) as a reference to St. Eligius, and suggests an alternative possibility: St. Eulalia. Explores resonances of the reference--thematic and…
Montgomery, Marion.
Boston University Studies in English 3 (1957): 177-78.
Suggests that "for the nones" in LGWP (F 292-96 and G 194-98), rather than meaning "for the occasion," refers to the canonical hour of Nones, i.e., for the ritual of the "celebration of Nones."
Considers Chaucer's uses of bird imagery in TC, contrasting them at many points with other, more anthropocentric literary birds, and generally commending his bird (and animal) imagery for its rhetorical range and evocation of precise emotion.
Muscatine, Charles.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957.
Describes aspects of medieval French poetry that influenced Chaucer's style, high and low, tracing the idealizing, nonrepresentational conventions of courtly romances from the early twelfth century to their epitome in Guillaume's de Lorris's portion…
Focuses on Chaucer's uses of "this" to "create narrative tone and dramatic meaning" in CT, discussing a variety of examples and exploring metrical, rhetorical, and syntactic features as they help in characterization. Includes comments on the six uses…
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Modern Language Notes 72.3 (1957): 164-65.
Accepts that the manuscript of Equat is Chaucer's own draft, with revisions, and suggests that evidence from TC indicates that "Chaucer did not wait till he had finished his work to have parts of it copied out fair by his scribe."
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Modern Philology 55.1 (1957): 1-5.
Explores how several of Chaucer's putative additions to or revisions of TC (posited by R. K. Root) strengthen the poem's structural and thematic symmetry.
Robinson, F. N., ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Edits the complete works of Chaucer from various manuscripts, with end-of-volume explanatory notes, textual notes, and glossary. A general Introduction summarizes Chaucer's life, the canon and chronology of his works, his language and meter, and the…
Suggests that "spiced conscience" in GP (1.526) means "peppery" moral indignation; "sweet, spiced conscience" in WBP (3.435), a "bland, gentle disposition."
Slaughter, Eugene Edward.
New York: Bookman, 1957.
Classifies various kinds of love in Chaucer's works--religio-philosophical, courtly, heroic, and syncretistic--with sub-categories of virtues, vices, and sins in each. Describes the sources, characteristics, and overlapping of the classifications,…
Stavrou, C. N.
South Atlantic Quarterly 55 (1957): 454-61.
Rejects Matthew Arnold's claim that Chaucer lacked "high seriousness," commenting on the "close interrelationship between the ironist and moralist" in the older poet's works, and suggesting that, though genial in his acceptance of human variety and…
Re-arranges the sequence of the descriptions in GP to align with the order in which the pilgrims tell their tales. Includes descriptions of pilgrims who tell no tales at the end, along with the colloquies or speeches of the pilgrims in the links…
Provides detailed background for Petrarch's ekphrastic descriptions of pagan gods in his "Africa" (iii.138-264), and argues that Chaucer's related descriptions in HF (131-39) and in KnT (1.1955-66) derive from the "Libellus de deorum imaginibus"…
Williams, George G.
Modern Language Notes 72.1 (1957): 6-9.
Proposes that the facade of the thirteenth-century "Maison des Musiciens" in Reims may have inspired Chaucer's description of the exterior of Fame's palace in HF 1189-1266, hypothesizing how and when Chaucer may have seen the historical building.
Williams, George G.
Rice Institute Pamphlet 44, no. 1 (1957): 126-46.
Argues that the "chief characters" of TC "were probably modeled from real people" and, exploring alterations from Boccaccio's "Filostrato," speculates that Troilus is based on John of Gaunt, Criseyde on Katherine Swynford, and Pandarus on Chaucer…
Wright, Herbert G.
London: University of London, Athlone, 1957.
Surveys the influence of Boccaccio's Italian and Latin works on English writers and literary tradition through the nineteenth century, with extensive analyses of Chaucer's uses of the "Teseida" in KnT, "Filostrato" in TC, and "Decameron" in ClT.…
Anthologizes translations of selections and excerpts from English poetry and prose into Esperanto; by various translators. The selection from Chaucer (Purse and a portion of WBP 3.35-134) is translated by William Auld.
Long, Clarence Edward.
Ph.D. Dissertation. University of New Mexico, 1957. Fully accessible via https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/248 (accessed April 24, 2026).
Traces the "shapeshifting motif" in English literature from "Beowulf" to the late-medieval metrical romances, focusing on the latter. Chapter five includes attention to WBT as an example of the "human-to-human type of shapeshift," along with seven…
Dyson, George, composer.
London: Oxford University Press, 1958. Original composition 1930. Reprinted several times.
Includes scoring for oratorio of fifteen cantatas: GP I, GP II, Knight, Squire, Nun, Monk, Clerk of Oxenford, Guildsmen and the Merchant, Sergeant at Law and Franklin, Shipman, Physician, Wife of Bath, Parson, and L'Envoi. Performed and recorded…
