Benson, Donald R.
Chaucer Review 14 (1979): 48-60.
Rhetorically nearer to exhortation than to encomium, the didactic structure of this passage (4.1267-1392) rises in a series of contradictions that confuse doctrines and undercut ironic perceptions. None of the proposed assignments of the passage…
Kelley, Michael R.
Chaucer Review 14 (1979): 61-73.
Antithesis is the major source of PF's aesthetic unity. It arranges the poem's structural levels in a pattern of oppositions: antithetical word pairs are joined by antithetical arrangements of style, description, characterization, plot, narrative,…
There are in CT examples of the late medieval attack on the symbolic attitude. The literal use of the Song of Songs in MerT, and the Wife of Bath's scriptural interpretation, are respectively examples of the mockery and parody of analogical thought.
Chaucer achieves maximum concentration on the moment of denouement by organizing his characters into two parallel and static triadic sets. When the characters are in their triadic configurations, no action takes place. The resolution of tension by…
The conception of the action of RvT in three dimensions is designed to provide more than narrative realism. By reducing the miller's area of influence, Chaucer represents metaphorically his being cut down to size by the students.
The Merchant's language snares the reader into displaying bad taste. It accomplishes this by making May a sympathetic character and by allowing the reader to belong to a select group which sees through the deceptions of the tale. However, the…
Th contains a covert similarity to PrT. If, by means of the lily, the elf-queen is identified with the Virgin Mary, the structure of Th may be seen to parody that of PrT. Both protagonists have gemlike chastity, are born "in fer contree," and are…
Rogers, William E.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 260-77.
A theoretical objection to patristic criticism is that it is guilty of question-begging because it assumes that a work is intended to promote "caritas." It is not the assumption of coherence that produces the fallacy but the assumption of a…
Bloomfield, Morton W.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 287-97.
The stylistic device occurs when a noun is given personification by the poet's use of a verb (or occasionally a verb phrase, adjective, or adverb). Chaucer uses few of them: the lyrics have more than do the longer narratives.
Donaldson, E. Talbot.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 313-18.
J. E. Hankins' view of the "Pervigilium Veneris" as a source for PF has not caught on because no one has yet found a persuasive verbal echo. Such an echo appears in the list of persons love has destroyed: PF, 286-92 has a counterpart in…
Chaucer's addition of Troilus' swoon allows reestablishment of "obeisaunce" critical to Criseyde's loving him, and threatened by Pandarus' story of his jealousy and his own inability to refute or continue it. Mutual apologies suggest mutual…
Rosenberg, Bruce A.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 344-52.
Among the oral-tradition analogues for FranT is the story of the Bari Widow, similar to it in ways that Boccaccio's version is not. Analysis of Chaucer's adept use of it and other oral-tradition stories demonstrates the mastery of his creation.
Bestul, Thomas H.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 366-78.
Like other late medieval art, TC exhibits a growing concern with the portrayal of emotions, especially through the shifting role of the narrator. He sometimes resorts to "occupatio," claiming inability to describe an emotional state, and eventually…
Chaucer's audience influenced his familiar material and subjects to convey his points. Their ability to evaluate and judge must have figured in his manipulation of truth and seeming in the stories. We must use their intended presence in responding…
Robertson, D. W.,Jr.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 403-20.
Land tenure laws and cloth industry figures suggest that the Wife was a bondswoman with holdings in the industry acquired from her first husband and used to attract four more and to finance expensive pilgrimages. A bondswoman character is also…
Similarities to Ovid's young Medea give Criseyde's character innocence; to Helen, guile, and reluctance to decide; while references to Oenone prefigure treachery in the connection to Paris' betrayal and the war. Ovidian references undercut the…
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Chaucer Review 15 (1980): 101-26.
A clandestine "marriage" was not fornicatory but simply unlawful, since the church insisted on an eventual ceremony. Chaucer adds the troth plight to his source, thus raising the story above amorous intrigue and heightening the poignancy of…
Literary tradition and iconography connect "bath" to prostitution, also suggested by the Wife's living outside the former patriarchal city. These symbolize her prostitution in marriage, thwarting the system, her enrichment, and ultimately her own…
Romances are distinguished not by the presence of certain features--the erotic, the fabulous, etc.--but by attitudes toward those elements. WBT is "deliberately" not a romance.
Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Chaucer Review 15 (1980): 37-43.
The cask figure combines religious and sexual symbols in the reference to wine and baptism and to the phallic spout. These connect to the tale with the fear of impotence and the careless oaths, suggesting that the Reeve misses the hidden religious…
Confused in definition, "romance" designates both a value system and a method of treatment. The presence of the marvelous, courtly love, and chivalric adventure is not enough to form a definition. A parody like Th helps, since it indicates what is…
Opening and closing stanzas of TC combine high, epic style with "sermo humilis," creating a rising and sinking pattern of "unlikeness." The verse and rhetoric reflect the meanings, the sublimest points made in simplest statement. The conclusion…
Gordon's translation of "Le Roman de Troie" distorts Benoit by omitting important passages. The most critical omission is one of a moralizing nature which emphasizes the fickleness of Criseyde and all women. Gordon must have been influenced by the…
