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Chaucer and the Medieval Latin Poets. . Part B: The Satiric Tradition
Mann, Jill.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 172-83.
Argues that medieval Latin satiric writers such as Nigel of Longchamps and Walter of Châtillon contributed to the "essential nature" of Chaucer's "poetic imagination." In WBP, NPT, and elsewhere, Chaucer capitalizes on the satiric potential…
Transformations: Chaucer's Use of Italian
Schless, Howard.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 184-223.
Surveys evidence of the likelihood that Chaucer learned Italian from "Lombards" (especially members of the Bardi family) who were living in London and involved in affairs of trade and banking. Demonstrates how Chaucer adapted his Italian literary…
Chaucer and Science
Manzalaoui, Mahmoud.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 224-61.
Approximates the parameters of Chaucer's knowledge and acceptance of medieval science, pseudo-science, and occult practice by surveying their presence in his works, including discussions of astronomy, astrology, alchemy, magic, physiognomy, etc. His…
Religion and Philosophy in Chaucer
Shepherd, Geoffrey.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 262-89.
Surveys the range of religious and philosophical concerns and attitudes of late fourteenth-century England, and gauges Chaucer's investment in them. More moral than dogmatic, Chaucer "never discloses his commitment in religion" and "offers few…
Chaucer and the Visual Arts
Kolve, V. A.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 290-320.
Describes the importance of mental images to medieval understanding of cognition and memory, and clarifies the importance of such images to understanding Chaucer's works as iconographical poems. Meaning inheres in such images and enables both…
A Reader's Guide to Chaucer
Benson, L[arry] D.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 321-51.
Descriptive survey of major developments in Chaucer criticism and scholarship, treated historically and sub-divided into eight categories: 1) canon, 2) texts, 3) language and versification, 4) biography, 5) learning, 6) sources, 7)…
Chaucer: A Select Bibliography
Benson, L[arry] D.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 352-72.
Accompanies Benson's discursive "Reader's Guide to Chaucer," included in the same volume (pp. 321-51). Lists selected "critical and scholarly works" (some lightly annotated), and indicates with an asterisk works that are "especially suitable for…
Chaucer's Blasphemous Churl: A New Interpretation of the 'Miller's Tale'
Rowland, Beryl.
Beryl Rowland, ed. Chaucer and Middle English Studies in honour of Rossell Hope Robbins (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 43-55.
Identifies elements of MilT that burlesque the Annunciation, the Incarnation, and the Flood, explaining imagery and allusions derived from the biblical narratives and mystery plays.
Notes on Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale"
Burton, H. M.
Cape Town: College of Careers, 1974; London: Methuen, 1975.
Comic Illusion and Dark Reality in The Miller's Tale
Bowker, Alvin W.
Modern Language Studies 4.2 (1974): 27-34.
Comments on the "theatricality" of MilT and explores how the comic characteristics of each of the main characters have darker sides, especially in the cases of Nicholas, Alisoun, and Absolon.
A Chaucer Dictionary: Proper Names and Allusions, Excluding Place Names
Dillon, Bert.
Boston: G. K. Hall, 1974.
An alphabetical dictionary that lists people, personifications, and allusions (direct and indirect) in Chaucer's works, providing brief identifications and exhaustive citations of occurrences. Entries for sources, such as the Bible, Boccaccio, Dante,…
Miracles in 'The Man of Law's Tale'
Johnson, William C., Jr.
Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 28.2 (1974): 57-65.
Compares the miracles in MLT with those in its source in Nicholas Trevet, arguing that by emphasizing emotion over religion Chaucer renders the narrative more powerful and humanistic.
Transubstantiation in the 'Pardoner's Tale'
Millichap, Joseph R
Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 28.4 (1974): 102-08.
Considers the imagery of transubstantiation and transformation in PardPT and in the GP description of the Pardoner. In traditional Christian terms, the Pardoner fails to use properly the things of the world for spiritual purposes; in terms of Jungian…
Chaucer, Sir John Mandeville, and the Alliterative Revival: A Hypothesis concerning Relationships
Moseley, C. W. R. D.
Modern Philology 72.2 (1974): 182-84.
Suggests that the influence of Mandeville's "Travels" on SqT and on alliterative poetry including "Pearl" may have been due to the circulation of the work at the Lancastrian court of John of Gaunt.
Sidney in Samothea: A Forgotten National Myth
Duncan-Jones, Katherine.
Review of English Studies 25.98 (1974): 174-77.
Suggests a possible "echo" of HF and PF in Philip Sidney's "Old Arcadia," where "philosophical reflections by the dreamer are partly burlesqued" in the vision which follows.
Renaissance World-Alientaion
Howard, Donald.
Robert S. Kinsman, ed. The Darker Vision of the Renaissance: Beyond the Fields of Reason (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), pp. 47-76.
Proposes that "purposeful" alienation that was characteristic of humanist thinking between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries: contempt for the world that belies an underlying fascination with it. Assesses the presence of the sentiment in several…
The Archwife and the Eunuch
Kernan, Anne.
ELH 41 (1974): 1-25.
The Pardoner's interruption of the WBP causes shifts in her tone and subject, but also alerts us to parallels between the two characters: wide travels, sermon-like autobiographical prologues, and tales which feature central characters who are…
Poetry of the Age of Chaucer
Spearing, A. C., and J. E. Spearing, eds.
London: Edward Arnold, 1974.
An anthology of Middle English verse, with individual introductions and facing-page glosses and notes. The General Introduction (pp. 1-40) considers prosody and poetic techniques, genres, and various linguistic concerns. Includes FrT (discussed as…
The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature
Thiébaux, Marcelle.
Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974.
Traces the varieties of the stag-hunt motif in the art and literature of the Middle Ages, including classical roots, considering hunting manuals, imagery and fictive presentations, and allegorical uses. Includes recurrent references to Chaucer's…
The Franklin's Tale: Chaucer or the Critics
White, Gertrude M.
PMLA 89.3 (1974): 454-62.
Contrasts the "opposing principles of conduct" that underlie the main characters in FranT and MerT, arguing that the "values" expressed there are "dramatized and explored" throughout CT. Moreover, the view of "gentilesse" expressed in FranT sums up…
The Condition of Creatures: Suffering and Action in Chaucer and Spenser
Crampton, Georgia Ronan.
New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1974.
Examines the commonplace theme of "agere et pati" (to act and to suffer) in the works of Chaucer and Spenser, especially KnT and books 1-4 of Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," exploring oppositions between deed and emotion, action and passion, and…
The Structure of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
Provost, William.
Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1974.
Presents a "structural description" of TC which anatomizes its five-book construction, its "time units" and their chronology, and its "narrative units" (signaled by shifts in narrative "modes") and their patterning. The description of these various…
A Noble Heritage: The Ellesmere Manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Thorpe, James.
San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1974.
Reproduces in color the illustrations of the CT pilgrims from the Ellesmere manuscript, and comments on CT, Chaucer and his portrait, and the production and transmission of the manuscript.
Chaucer's English
Elliott, Ralph W. V.
London: Andre Deutsche, 1974.
An introduction to Chaucer's pronunciation, grammar, and prosody, followed by an extensive analysis of his lexicon that considers aspects of his syntax, prose vocabulary, colloquial language, oaths, scientific diction, characterization through…
Geoffrey Chaucer
Norton-Smith, John.
London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul,1974.
Studies Chaucer's poetic achievement in major and minor works with recurrent attention to relative chronology, the development of Chaucer's art, sources and analogues, and treatment of genres. Focuses on BD; Ven, Pity, and Mars as complaints; HF; LGW…
