Browse Items (16369 total)

Argues that the image of the "citole" in KnT 1959, instead of a "concha" also found in traditional sources, contributes to the theme of "harmonious order" in the poem that is temporarily disrupted by the Venus/Mars strife.

Argues that CT reflects "astrological schema" and traces the evidence of a single cycle of the twelve signs in GP (Aries and Taurus), KnT (Gemini), MilT (Cancer), RvT (Leo), CkT (Virgo), MLT (Libra), WBPT (Scorpio), FrT (Sagittarius), SumT…

Shows that the thematic concerns of FrT are evident in its rhyme words, focusing on the occurrences of "entente" and its rhymes: "rente," "hente," and "repente."

Reports 106 items.

Explicates several words and images found in MilT--the "piggesnye" of Alison's description most extensively--and identifies echoes of the tale's concern with "poetic justice" in RvT which contributes to the bitterness of the latter.

Compares and contrasts Pandarus's wooing of Criseyde (for Troilus) with Diomede's, assessing their patterns and details for the ways they reflect the design of the poem, its concern with time, and the "unchanged character" of Criseyde.

Identifies lines from Machaut's "La Fonteinne Amoureuse" and from Ovid's "Metamorphoses" as direct sources of words and details in BD.

Argues that BD is not a traditional consolation but rather a "poetic monument in honor of Blanche." The poem's narrator is "singularly unfitted for the role of comforter" and inconsistent with the poet's own self-consciousness as an artist.

Surveys the uses of personal names of the Canterbury pilgrims and of the major characters in the tales, commenting on names adapted from sources, common names, diminutives and name variants, given names and surnames, name-play, the relative paucity…

Studies the "ape-image" in HF 1212, identifying analogues in Dante's "Inferno" and in Jean de Meun's "Roman de la Rose," and observing that the topos poses the "difficulty of distinguishing true from false, original from imposture," and art from…

Attends to the details and imagery of old age in MerT in order to clarify the "precision and complexity" of Chaucer's art, commenting on January's name, age (60 years), physical condition, sexual prowess, attitude toward counsel, etc., and exploring…

Claims that Chaucer is a "rationalistic" poet, and suggests prospects for assessing Chaucer's use of dialectic or the "scholastic mode of reasoning" in his art, commenting on aspects of GP, ParsT, Mel, WBPT, Bo, TC, and HF.

Reads ParsT as "just another tale" (rather than the crescendo of CT), adducing Boethian aesthetic and moral attitudes, Aristotelian poetics, and the sequence of the last four tales as evidence that we should read the penitential message of ParsT…

Argues that gestures and postures of the three main characters in MerT contribute to the realism and harshness of the tale.

Contends that Chaucer uses and supersedes the conventions of the classical "exordium" and of medieval prologues in HF, the proems of TC, LGWP, and GP.

Considers Chaucer's diminishing use of classical stories in various stages of his "development as a creative artist," focusing on the rise of realism in his works.

Identifies the "dark spirit" in MilT, RvT, FrT, SumT, MerT, and ShT, focusing on their "violence, deception, and sense of continual flux rather than their comedy.

DAI citation of 1973 dissertation, completed at Queen's University (Canada).

Focuses on critical commentary on Chaucer by William Godwin, William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and Walter Savage Landor, concluding with a survey of efforts by Romantic writers to claim that Chaucer shared their outlooks.

Alphabetically arranged, cross-listed dictionary of proper names in Chaucer's works.

Quantitative analysis of Chaucer's uses of rhetorical techniques in TC, including "suasive" techniques, proverbial materials, and rhetorical figures.

Reads TC as a critique of the "old tragic idea" of fall through fortune, emphasizing the poem's concern with human choice derived from Boethius's "Consolation," and observing a "Boethian comedy" in Troilus and a "Boethian tragedy" in Criseyde. TC…

Examines the progressions of events in various French and English Breton Lays; includes commentary on repetition as a narrative technique that leads to closure in FranT.

Traces the development of the "sermo humilis" tradition in literature and the visual arts as a context for Chaucer's uses of "pathetic style" in the Ugolino episode of MkT, PrT, PhyT, and MLT, arguing that these accounts reflect the evolution of…

Reads PF as a "poem of love and marriage, touching upon the question of pleasure versus the duty of procreation, realistically set in the framework of a dream, and seasoned with wit." Emphasizes the poem's balanced sensibility and "refreshing…