Spisak, James W.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 204-10.
In LGW, Chaucer adheres closely to Ovid in the Pyramus and Thisbe legend. By omissions, by shifts in tone and emphasis, and by the frame of LGW, Chaucer emphasizes seeds of comedy in the original.
Quinn, Esther C.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 211-20.
WBT is an ironic Arthurian romance, particularly when viewed alongside Marie de France's "Lanval" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which parallel it in several ways.
Meyer, Robert J.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 221-38.
Structural unity is achieved by the back-to-back romances in the tale, the first a mock quest, the second a narrative that asks what men most desire (gentility, youth, beauty). The Midas exemplum and the pillow talk of gentility are integral parts…
McColly, William (B.)
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 239-49.
Computerized statistical and stylistic analysis indicates that this work is a pale imitation of Chaucer. The imitator, perhaps Clanvowe, used Chaucer's tricks with context-independent function words.
Chaucer's "inventio" results in a rearrangement of concepts at the end of TC--a result of the process of composition. Exploiting the narrator, TC is in accord with Boethian and Aquinan aesthetics.
Like Boccaccio's "Il Filostrato," TC is veiled literary autobiography. About love, TC is also about love poetry but rejects Boccaccio's philosophy and poetics.
Clark, S. L.,and Julian N. Wasserman.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 316-27.
Hundreds of references in TC to the heart are not casual but calculated. The heart is both a vessel and something that can be placed within a vessel. Allusions contrast Pandarus and Diomede with the two lovers and also contrast Criseyde with…
Zimbardo, Rose A.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 329-46.
BD is a rendering of the archetypal Fool (the poet) and the King (the Black Knight), wherein consolation for death is provided by the Fool, a pattern also in "Solomon and Marcolf."
The Knight may have been modeled on (and a compliment to) Henry, Earl of Derby. The expedition to Ruce was not to Russia but to Rossenia, where English crusaded in 1390 and before. The Knight is "the worn-out but noble example of the cherished…
BD offers a sampler of medieval literary genres including lyric and several varieties of narrative. Consolation comes from the recognition of Blaunche's virtue and her comparison with the Virgin Mary. The answer to the question "Where is she now?"…
Both poets move between extremes of "lust" (delight, pleasure,love) and "lore" (the wisdom of the past). Gower sees lore as a passive standard, while Chaucer questions its relevance and efficacy as a moral guide. Chaucer exhibits extremes, from the…
Scattergood, V. J.
Chaucer Review 19 (1984): 14-23.
The protagonist of CkT has antecedents, from both society and literature, that permit one to extrapolate details the Cook might have used: trickery, age, and criticism of contemporary mores.
Distraint, established in the thirteenth century, required that landholders whose lands produced 20 pounds a year must become knights, the rank involving both military and civil service. The remark that he would rather have a son with the Squire's…
Lee, Anne Thompson.
Chaucer Review 19 (1984): 169-78.
Most critical opinion has followed Kittredge's 1912 evaluation of FranT as Chaucer's treatment of ideal marriage. FranT is actually about what it is like to be married, and its center is Dorigen, Chaucer's unique portrayal of a genuinely good,…
Both Astr and Equat (if indeed Chaucer's), compared with run-of-the-mill technical writing, show Chaucer to have been a skilled translator and writer, unambiguous and interesting. If Equat is another's, the writer was heavily influenced by Chaucer.
The Host's aversion to this tale is a clue to its interpretations: the narrator, a typical medieval physician, reveals himself and his profession through his narration. The death of Virginia is emblematic of the Physician's lack of concern for his…
Line 1314 begins a series of topical references to the real as opposed to the poetic world. Allusions to the king and Gaunt establish the terminus a quo before the end of 1371, although most of the poem may predate 1371. Accepting 1371 as the date…
Collette, Carolyn P.
Chaucer Review 19 (1984): 39-45.
Chaucer draws on the symbolic and scriptural traditions of the oak to permit the Pardoner to show off his exemplum-telling skill. Anagogically the exemplum is an allegory of grace offered and refused.
The tradition of anti-Semitism lent itself to three kinds of imagery: murder-sacrifice (especially the Slaughter of the Innocents), economy, and law. Covert references in PrT to a shadowy image of the Old Testament God the Father makes him an evil…
Response to saints' legends is normally sober, but "Legenda Aurea," Chaucer's source for SNT, exhibits flashes of humor. In a reading of SNT that accepts the natural response of laughter, Valerian, Tiburce, and Almachius are seen to play the fool,…
Gower's reputation as "moral" rests on his mid-1380's stance as a reformer, a classicist, and a clear and consistent portrayer of good and evil. By citing him in TC, Chaucer encourages moral interpretation of the hero's attitude at the end of the…
Benson, C. David.
Chaucer Review 19 (1985): 100-09.
Chaucer's Man of Law attacks Gower for stories of Canacee and Apollonius, while defending Chaucer for omission of "swich unkynde abhomynacions" (MLP 77-89). Gower sympathizes with but condemns the characters. In Chaucer we have "a less rigidly…
