Surveys criticism of ClT in order to show the "inadequacy" of this criticism and reads the Tale as a "typological allegory" even though it goes steps beyond its sources in depicting the plot realistically.
Surveys the literary and philosophical backgrounds of fortune, nature, and grace, and assesses their roles in CT, with particular attention to PhyT, PardT and the unity of Part 6. Includes an appendix that explores nineteen analogues to PardT
Harig, Sister Mary Labouré, S.N.D.
DAI 32.08 (1972): 4465A.
Surveys the rise of the garden topos in western literary traditions--classical and medieval, idealized and courtly. Then assesses Chaucer's uses of the traditional iconography of garden conventions in Rom, BD, PF, LGWP, HF, TC, and CT.
Explores three kinds of love in PF (transcendental, lustful, and natural), arguing that their deployment in the poem constitutes gentle mockery of courtly love.
Describes and exemplifies the Renaissance genre of epyllion (minor epic), including, as background, discussion of KnT and TC as examples of works that dramatize a hero's "confrontation with the tragedy of mutable love" presented by a distancing…
Outlines the "kinds of ambiguities in Chaucer's verbal and narrative technique" based in his commitment to epistemological "indeterminacy." Then examines MLT and its changes to its source in Nicholas Trevet to show that the "theme of the limitation…
Surveys anti-chivalric sentiment in literature, including polemics and sermons as well as satires and "anti-romances." Includes discussion of Th, among other works.
Studies aspects of style in understanding medieval literature, examining features of the "Roman de la Rose" as well as the "moral imbalance at work" in KnT, particularly as evident in the visual rhetoric and movement in the Temple of Diana and…
Approaches political, social, and marital sovereignty as prominent concerns of CT: the Host's authority in GP and elsewhere, Theseus as ideal sovereign in KnT in contrast with the tyrants of PhyT and MkT, Mel as an allegory of a ruler's moral…
Identifies thematic concerns in Mel that it shares with other narratives in CT (WBPT, ShT, Clerk's Envoy, MerT, and NPT), exploring how pedantry, suspect counsel, the struggle for "maisterie," and antifeminism convey humor in Mel, especially in…
Argues that the unity of PF is anchored in the principle of the hierarchy of love, an aspect of the Great Chain of Being. By exploring a wide and interconnected range of kinds of love, Chaucer achieves humor and thematic richness.
Divides Chaucer's allusions to Jove into two groups: those that present him as dream-like or fantastic and those that present him as actual or historical. Chaucer consistently presents Jove in allegorical ways even when he does not relegate him to…
Traces Chaucer's reputation in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and examines the impact of his works (including apocrypha) and reputation on the poetry of John Keats--structure and form, characterization, realism in balance with…
Studies how imagery contributes to theme and operates at an element of structure in BD, HF, PF and TC: light and dark imagery in BD, acoustic imagery in HF, natural versus courtly love in PF, and the contrast of fortune's wheel and celestial light in…
Reads LGW as a "double palinode" in which Chaucer explores the "variety and complexity of the feminine psyche" as expressed in his sources, Ovid and Boccaccio, and his own TC. Compares LGWP-F and LGWP-G to show that Chaucer increases the comedy and…
Proposes an "integration of the 'historical' and 'archetypal/esthetic' schools" of criticism of medieval literature, based on Ernst Cassirer's theories of symbol and the "evolutionary scheme of human self-consciousness," exemplifying the critical…
Proposes a method for classifying noun-plus-noun compounds and compiles all such compounds in Chaucer's works, showing that, with one exception, modern types of compounds were already in use in Chaucer's Middle English.
Studies the "imaginative dimension" of medieval anti-fraternalism in many manifestations, including SumT; in it, traditional anti-fraternalism is affiliated with Pentecost because the Franciscan General Chapter was held on this feast day.
Andersen, Jens Kr.
Orbis Litterarum 27 (1972): 179-201.
Investigates how the frame of the Canterbury pilgrimage is reflected in individual tales, gauging their degrees of authenticity, the quarrels among the pilgrims, the relations between social rank and taste, the interdependence of solace and sentence,…
Capener, Norman.
Annual of the Royal College of Surgeons 50.5 (1972): 283-300.
Summarizes the life and medical expertise of John of Gaddesden, rejecting the notion that Chaucer caricatured Gaddesden in the GP description of the Physician, suggesting that it is instead an "impersonal description." Also comments on Chaucer's…
Farina, Peter M.
USF Quarterly 10.3-4 (1972): 23-26.
Suggests that the Monk's "celle" of GP 1.172 is a storeroom rather than a subordinate monastery, and hypothesizes that the storm that occasions Troilus's clandestine visit to Criseyde in TC is based upon the legend of St, Benedict and his sister…
Harward, Vernon.
Studies in Scottish Literature 10 (1972): 48-50.
Argues that Troilus's wooing and loss of Criseyde in TC influenced the depiction of Wallace's wooing and loss of the Bradefute maiden in Hary's "Wallace."
Hume, Kathryn.
Studia Neophilologica 44 (1972): 289-94.
Argues that Dorigen's lament is "not necessarily Christian," derived as it is from Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and "spiced with reminiscences" of Ovid's "Metamorphoses." Reads the lament as "completely consonant with what Chaucer regarded…
