Considers patronage and the developing status of the poet in the role of "court maker" in late medieval England, aligning the change with the influence of Italian culture. In his response to Th, the Host represents a courtly "negative feedback loop,"…
Brinton, Laurel J.
Sylvia Adamson, and others, eds. Papers from the Fifth International Conference of Historical Linguistics, Cambridge, 6-9, April 1987. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, 4th series. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, no. 65 (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1990), pp. 31-53.
Uses TC as a tests case to reinforce Otto Funke's argument that "gan" is a structural marker, noting its relations with sequencing adjectives.
Brinton, Laurel J.
John Deely and Jonathan Evans, eds. Semiotics 1986 (Lanham, New York, and London: University Press of America, 1987), pp. 3-14.
Delimits "the notion of iconicity in syntax before examining how iconic word order patterns contribute to the 'iconic text interpretation.'" Applies theories to Mel.
Brinton, Laurel J.
A. E. Christa Canitz and Gernot R. Wieland, eds. From Arabye to Engelond: Medieval Studies in Honour of Mahmoud Manzalaoui on His 75th Birthday (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1999), pp. 175-99.
Documents the development of whilom from its origins as an Old English adverb, to a discourse marker associated with orality, to an adjective. Although this development does not challenge the "unidirectionality hypothesis of grammaticalization," it…
Brinton, Laurel J.
Susan C. Herring, Pieter Van Reenan, and Lene Schøsler, eds. Textual Parameters in Older Languages (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, 2000), pp. 139-62.
Traces the development of "anon" from Middle English to Early Modern English, using evidence drawn from TC and elsewhere. A revised version of chaper two of Brinton's Pragmatic Markers in English (Berlin and New York: Gruyter, 1996).
Brinton, Laurel J.
English Studies in Canada 10 (1984): 251-64.
Identifies three concerns in Mel: being reasonable in worldly affairs, sovereignty and proper cousel as themes, and the role of the tale in the sentence / solaas dynamic in CT. Includes a survey of criticism.
Four connected webpages that introduce Chaucer's language by focusing on the pronunciation and vocabulary of the GP descriptions of the Cook and Shipman, with an audio link, an image from Caxton's first edition, and exercises in vocabulary…
Digital reproduction of William Caxton's two editions of CT that enables onscreen comparison of them, with links to background information on Caxton and print history.
Britton, Dennis Austin.
postmedieval 6.1 (2015): 64–78.
Establishes how Shakespeare and Fletcher used "images of Africanness to link race and class" in "The Two Noble Kinsmen," and claims this differs from Chaucer's concern with the "racial alterity" and "whiteness" of the Amazonian women in KnT.
Britton, Elizabeth Lindsey.
Dissertation Abstracts International 45 (1985): 3642A.
Consider "the two quite different versions of the Dido and Cleopatra stories as they appear in the works of major Latin and English poets, beginning with the commissioning of Virgil's "Aeneid" ca. 29 B.C. and carrying through to the publication of…
Studies the Christian and Platonic underpinnings of romantic love in Renaissance drama and poetry, exploring its roots in courtly traditions, and distinguishing it from love depicted by Augustan, Romantic, and modern writers. A section on Chaucer…
Brockman, Bennett A.
Children's Literature 2 (1973): 40-49.
Discusses the "sentimental reverence for the child's innocence" in a variety of medieval texts, including the account of Hugolino in MkT, compared with the version in Dante's "Inferno" 33, In both versions, the children have "precocious knowledge"…
Suggests that Chaucer's LGW is part of a "counter-tradition" (also including Shakespeare, Milton, and Lucy Hutchinson) that develops against the epic's "images of sexual violence against marginalized females," and that this counter-tradition provides…
Brodie, Alexander H.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 72 (1971): 62-68.
Explicates details and images of the Cook in ManP to argue for a "three-fold elaboration": the besotted Cook is a "victim of obsession with drink" who exhibits the pallor of the love-lorn knight which is also the paleness of the alchemical…
Brodnax, Mary Margaret O'Bryan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 29 (1969): 2667A.
Concentrates on Old English poems and Middle English plays that are analogous to Milton's "Paradise Lost," but includes in an appendix "[s]some relationships with The Canterbury Tales and . . . description of seven Middle English poetic analogues."
Brody, Saul N[athaniel].
Piero Boitani and Anna Torti, eds. Religion in the Poetry and Drama of the Late Middle Ages in England (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), pp. 133-48.
Discusses "Chaucer's feeling for the openness of questions, his distrust of final answers" in TC, NPT, and PF. Chaucer has an "unsettling ability to make every alternative attractive, even clearly sinful ones."
Assesses Pandarus's house and its literary functions in light of architectural details of fourteenth-century houses such as the "privy," "stewe," and "trappe" and in relation to conventions of medieval dramatic staging. Pandarus, leading Troilus…
Brody, Saul N[athaniel].
Ferrante, Joan M., and George D. Economou, eds. In Pursuit of Perfection: Courtly Love in Medieval Literature (Port Washington, NY, Kennikat, 1975), pp. 221-61.
Compares Chaucer's satire of courtly love with similar depictions in "Frauendienst" by Ulrich von Lichtenstein, "De Guillaume au Faucon," and "Flamenca," all of which reflect awareness of the fading of the courtly ideal and the dissolution of noble…
By his choice of stanza Chaucer invites us to compare four tales: SNT, PrT, MLT, ClT, each an elevated tale of saintly suffering involving impingement of secularism upon the saintly ideal. Completed earlier, PhyT is not in rhyme royal.
By constantly breaking the dramatic illusion, the Nun's Priest forces his audience to consider the implications not only of his storytelling but of storytelling itself. The interruptions of his narrative, the comparisons of chickens and people, the…
The questioning of the fiend by the Summoner in FrT echoes "Purgatorio" 25. Both humans (Dante and the summoner) ask material questions of their supernatural guides; both guides direct the questions to the realm of the spiritual. The place of both…
Argues that the "artistic unity" of NPT is evident in "light of the [Nun's] Priest's personality," a man who is dissatisfied with "his position in life as a servant to a group of women." Differences between NPT and its source in the "Renart"…
Brogan, Terry Vance F.
Dissertation Abstracts International 43 (1983): 3917A.
Models for English prosody have been seen as Latinate, Romance, and Germanic, but eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reevaluations of Old English Verse, popular ballads,and Chaucer's poetry led to the "standard theory" of accent and foot.
Brondell, William J.
Dissertation Abstracts International 25.10 (1965): 5901-02A.
Uses ParsT as a standard by which to assess the morality of CT, discussing the "ubiquity of sin in the Canterbury pilgrims," the "prominence of Pride" in especially the Wife of Bath and Pardoner materials, and the balancing virtues found elsewhere in…
Bronfman, Judith.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1977): 2105A-06A.
When the Griselda legend first appears in English literature, in ClT, Griselda is praised for her patience. In subsequent versions, as the centuries pass, her patience loses its moral worth and comes to be equated with unhealthy submissiveness.
