Browse Items (16369 total)

Shows that the use of verbs as rhyme words is ubiquitous in medieval (and later) poetry, and therefore not particularly Chaucerian as has been suggested. Suggests that rhyming with infinitives is especially prevalent because the form is…

Prosodic analysis of the Middle English lyric "Alysoun" that identiies several commonplace parallels with the description of Alisoun in MilT.

Surveys Chaucer's seven clerks (Nicholas and Absolon of MilT, John and Aleyn of RvT, the clerk of FranT, Jankyn of WBP, and the Clerk), describing the extent to which the characterizations accord with or echo what is known of "fourteenth-century…

Distinguishes between two kinds of manuscripts of CT: those in which the entire poem is the sole item or the dominant one and those in which individual tales appear in anthologies. Focuses on the second kind, observing the moral or courtly nature of…

Describes the structure of the so-called marriage group, focusing on how the pairings of FrT and SumT and MerT and SqT contribute to the sense of dramatic climax fulfilled in FranT.

Explains how TC "creates its own audience" through the narrator's addresses to readers/listeners that help to involve them as putative lovers, as judges of the characters, and, most importantly, as participants in the making of historical fiction and…

Explains why both Richard II and Henry IV antedated their grants to Chaucer to October 13 (1398 and 1399, respectively): Richard because it was the feast day of the translation of St. Edward the Confessor, whom he venerated; Henry, because he had…

Interprets various details in WBP and in the GP description of the Wife of Bath to determine whether she is a five-time widow or still wedded to Jankyn, finding the evidence to be inconclusive, perhaps richly ambiguous.

Gauges Chaucer's familiarity with the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes, commenting on the English poet's use of "vavasour" to describe the Franklin and on his allusions to Lancelot, Arthur, and Gawain. Suggests the possibility that…

Examines various passages of praise of Troilus in TC, comparing them with a fifteenth-century Middle English theological poem, "The Sixtene Poyntes of Charite," observing that Chaucer's hero, while not Christian, exemplifies the Pauline ideals of the…

Accepts that variants in manuscripts of TC provide evidence of Chaucer's revisions and studies a number of small changes that affect meter, style, and emphasis; cancellations or moving of stanzas have broader implications for Chaucer's…

Resolves the apparent inconsistencies of astronomical dates in GP and MLP by explaining that Chaucer knew of and calculated by means of the "precession of the equinoxes," as is evident in FranT.

Summarizes the plot of the sixteenth-century Polish romance, "Historia o Cesar zu Otone," observing how a number of its motifs are paralleled in vernacular analogues, including MLT.

Summarizes the plot of a modern analogue to RvT, David Madden's story called "Night Shift," published in "Playboy" magazine in 1971.

Describes English analogues and the Latin original to Chaucer's lost translation, "Origenes upon the Maudelyne" (LGWP-F 428), hypothesizing that Chaucr translated his work upon the request of a lady and speculating why he may have done so.

Thirty-six essays by various authors on late-medieval literature and manuscripts, accompanied by an appreciation of Robbins's career and list of his publications. For seventeen essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Chaucer and Middle English…

Studies the history of English meter from Chaucer to Wyatt, considering scansion, rhythm, pronunciation, and syllabification, assessing Chaucer's uses of tetrameter and pentameter, and the practices of Lydgate, Hoccleve, and Wyatt. Focuses on the…

Facsimile reproduction of Caxton's edition of Bo, reproducing STC 3199.

An anthology of short works and excerpts from the Bible to modern poetry pertaining to the Fall and Redemption, with brief introductions and discussion questions designed for classroom use. Includes an excerpt from ParsT (10.316-57; pp. 33-36) in…

Twenty-five essays by various authors, plus an appreciation of the teaching of Bartlett Jere Whiting, a list of his publications, and a poetic analogue to "Thomas of Erceldoune." For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Learned and the…

Explains the imagery of BD 646 as a literary application of a commonplace proverb; the line is drawn from Machaut and implies the instability of Fortune.

Identifies a source for HF 1229-32, where Marsyas is gendered female: a group of mansucripts of the "Roman de la Rose" that interpolate a comic account "in which Apollo flays a female satyr called 'Marse'."

Argues that in SqT, FranT, KnT, and TC Chaucer used romance to reconcile his two responsibilities as a lay clerk: "to speak of morality and of the refinements of love."

Examines various evocations of paradise as a garden in MerT as parodic inversions of Christian understanding of the scene of the Fall.

Reads details of ClT as evidence of the Ckerk's pedagogical skills in his efforts to instruct the Wife of Bath and others.