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Chaucer's connection with Ralph Strode is important in shedding light on the poet's "philosophical preoccupations." His "tutorial" from Strode might have exposed him to the entire range of philosophical speculation of the day.

Equat is not a holograph. The careful preparation of certain aspects of the text indicates a final version, and certain deletions and corrections suggest that the copier did not always understand the material he wrote down. The scribe was likely an…

Numerous Latin insertions on the manuscript suggest that the scribe was translating from a Latin exemplar into English. His notations indicate that he was identifying problems with translation and guarding against them when creating his final…

Challenges existing editions of CT and proposes an alternative that would include the old-spelling version of Hengwrt with new spelling, glossing, and annotations.

In Anel, Chaucer worked out his strategy of pitting profeminist impulses (the poet assumes the voice of the betrayed woman) against antifeminist allegory "in which men's betrayal of women represents poetic language's necessary betrayal of literal…

Lines 138-41 are authorial commentary and should be punctuated as such. The revised reading makes more immediate sense, adding parallelism and a touch of Chaucerian irony.

Bayard, the horse in RvT, is presented as a mare, a gelding, and a stallion. The stallion image represents the clerks, foreshadowing the bedroom activity; the gelding image represents the Reeve, who--though he wants to chase mares like the…

The narrator of the dream poems is not a consistent character,as previously thought, but a progressive one, embodying Chaucer's later preoccupation with experience versus authority. The narrator of BD is a doer; that of PF, a reader. Their…

The artistry of Chaucer's poetry is influenced by his historical role as a "negociis regis" employed to argue, persuade, and "embrace opposing doctrines" in the name of the king. Chaucer's skill as a negotiator can be seen in TC, wherin Criseyde,…

Chaucer uses the word "syn" in TC ninety-nine times; the word "sith," thirty-one times. The former not only designates "since," but also reinforces the morality--or lack thereof--in the poem. The final "syn" clause is connected with Christ to…

Chaucer likely knew "Een bispel van .ij. clerken," a fourteenth-century Flemish analogue that provides more similarities to RvT than either "Le meunier et des II clers" or "De Gombert et des deux clers." Beidler includes a translation of the Flemish…

Rather than a pious and sympathetic character, Custance is an egocentric, self-serving individual who depicts herself as a saintly victim. Thus, she is linked to her creator, the Man of Law, whose language is both deceptive and complex.

Fourteenth-century business practices, financial transactions,and fluctuating currency rates illuminate the characters of the ShT monk (a cloth merchant) and the GP Merchant, who probably would have chosen to travel in April, when the relative values…

In CT, Chaucer "counters authority with the fracturing and multiple perspective of comedy," most clearly seen in NPT, which best represents the structure of the CT as a whole. Chaucer's multiplicity is ultimately, however, like Boethius's leap "to…

The immobile house of Fame and the whirling cage of rumor are linked to each other much as a subject and a predicate are. FrT and SumT are held together by Chaucer's sense of sentences as "full-blown speech acts": in the former, the same words are…

Chaucer altered his source to make Troilus guilty of the sin of sloth, depicting him as one who dislikes "love's work" and who rarely does it. By exploring this concept of sin in a courtly context, Chaucer shifts the moral focus of his work, causing…

ClT is not a religious tale but a secular story "enriched with religious symbolism." The Tale is domestic, not cosmic; there is no indication of a providential plan; God is only evoked twice; Griselda's vow is clearly secular; and her reward is…

SqT dramatizes the relationship between two types of narrative: the fantastic and the metafictional. The former is seen in the mirror, ring, steed, and sword brought to Cambyuskan's court; the latter, in the response to these gifts by the courtiers…

The deceptive nature of physical sight in FranT is based on the medieval theory of optics, whereby one's vision--buttressed by "proper" control of the will--aided one in knowing God, while "improper" control made one susceptible to the dangers of…

The pendant in the Ellesmere and Hoccleve portraits of Chaucer is a "penner" (not an ampulla, as previously argued), referring specifically to Chaucer as a writer. The penner, coupled with the rosary held by the poet in a number of portraits,…

Offers perspective on affiliations of Elizabeth and Alice Chaucer with Barking Abbey; comments on cats in late-medieval literature (CT, "Piers Plowman," and more); identifies "Gyb" as a conventional name for a cat; and explores international versions…

Although the concept of solitude is considered a Renaissance phenomenon, it occurs often in Chaucer's works as "alone" or "privity" and in the concept of private space, such as Nicholas's room in MilT. The "struggle for personal space" was an…

The passage on the Prioress's table manners (GP 127-36), borrowed from Romance of the Rose, contains biblical echoes from Matthew 23.25-27 concerning the "clean cup of salvation" and from Proverbs 30.20 concerning an adulterous woman who wipes her…

The inspiration for the text of the painted chamber with its "text and gloss" in BD was St. Stephen's chapel with its lavishly painted walls. Previous efforts to correlate Chaucer's text with particular illuminated manuscripts have been futile.

KnT--a romance like none other in English--is clearly designed to set forth the Knight's "declaration of intent." An attempt to "order existence," KnT eschews both the "cosmic harmony" of the traditional romance and the "imminent defeat" of the epic…