Millichap, Joseph R.
University of Dayton Review 10.3 (1974): 3-6.
Contrasts ShT with analogous tales (Boccaccio's "Decameron" 8.1; Sercambi's "Novelle" 19) to demonstrate how the "pervasive irony" of the tale reveals moral censure of the characters and their actions.
A series of studies that focus on Chaucer's clerks, particularly their university backgrounds and the social conditions that serve as backdrop to their activities. Includes four sections: "Life and Learning in Rolls and Records," "Town and Gown,"…
Boulger, James D.
John H. Dorenkamp, ed. Literary Studies: Essays in Memory of Francis A. Drumm ([Worchester, Mass.]: College of the Holy Cross, 1973), pp. 13-32.
Reads the NPT as a reflection of its narrator's moral sentiment, suggesting that the Nun's Priest is an intellectual, neither a stern moralist nor a modern relativist; he is a man content with "aesthetic contemplation" of the "world's failings."
Berry, Reginald.
University of Toronto Quarterly 43 (1974): 285-97.
Explains the association of the eagle and air (as the medium of sound) in HF by identifying a number of iconographic affiliations of eagles with air in medieval depictions of the four elements. Includes 6 b&w illustrations
Clark, Roy P[eter].
Thoth: Syracuse Graduate Studies in English 14.1 (1973-74): 37-43.
Exemplifies associations of demons and scatology in folklore and early literature, arguing that they underlie Absolon's "symbolic function as demon-villain" in MilT.
Dalbey, Marcia A.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 75 (1974): 408-15.
Examines the allegorization of Pluto and Proserpine in the "Ovide Moralisé" and argues that it discloses how as figures of "earthly lust" their episode is well integrated into MerT.
Giaccherini, Enrico.
Revista di Letterature Moderne e Comparate 27 (1974): 165-76.
Assesses the terms used for varieties of dreams summarized in HF 1-12, comparing them with their source in Macrobius's "Commentary on the Dream of Scipio," with Latin usage, and with Chaucer's uses of the terms elsewhere in his works.
Nims, Margaret.
University of Toronto Quarterly 43 (1974): 215-30.
Traces commentaries on metaphor ("translatio") among medieval classicizing poets and rhetoricians, especially Alan de Lille and Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and examines samples of metaphor in Chaucer's works that reflect these commentaries. Focuses on…
Reads TC allegorically, with sustained attention to astrological imagery, characterization, narrative structure, the biblical Book of Daniel, and the Augustinian theme of the transference of power.
Osselton, N. E.
Jan van Dorsten, ed. Ten Studies in Anglo-Dutch Relations (Leiden: The University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 231-45.
Comments on translations of four of Chaucer's works (one spurious) by Willem Bilderdijk, the "first Dutch translator of Chaucer": Lydgate's "Balade de Bon Consail," WBT (mediated by Dryden's version and, in turn, Voltaire's), the tale of Phyllis from…
Porter, Peter, and Anthony Thwaite, eds.
London: Secker &Warburg, 1974.
An anthology of English poetry, interspersed with ongoing commentary. Includes in Middle English (pp. 1-16) sections of GP (opening, Prioress, and Pardoner) and much of PardT, with commentary that emphasizes Chaucer's "variety of moods and…
Pratt, Robert A., ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974.
Edits CT, with marginal glosses, bottom-of-page notes, and an additional "Basic Glossary." The text is based on Robinson's 1957 edition, with variants explained and listed in a "Comment on the Text" (pp. 561-79). The Introduction (pp. ix-xxxiv)…
Explores relations among the section on the vices in ParsT and its sources and/or analogues in Peraldus's "Summa de Vitiis" and two derivative treatises, here referred to by their initial words, "Quoniam" and "Primo" respectively. The latter…
Considers the narrative structures of various narrative poems in Old and Middle English, especially as these relate to an "apocalyptic sense of history" and the dislocations it produces. Includes a chapter on TC.
Reads CT as a unified, encyclopedic "symposium on what men should seek, and what they should avoid," focusing on variety in the GP, the pilgrimage motif, and the "three longest tales": KnT, Mel, and ParsT.
Uses Morris Halle and Seymour Jay Keyser's metrical theory to describe "English decasyllabic verse of the later Middle Ages" and explore why Chaucer's iambic pentameter was not followed more closely by poets such as Hoccleve, Lydgate, Dunbar, and…
Argues that "in Chaucer's poetry women are consistently portrayed as seeking out a niche in the social (or religious) hierarchy which will permit them to serve in the subordinate position St. Paul insists they were intended to fill." Discusses all of…
Wass, Rosemary Thérèse Ann.
DAI 35.08 (1974): 5124A.
Counters "Robertsonian" or exegetical criticism of Chaucer's works, particularly its neglect of "later scholastic philosophy," focusing on views of individuality and experience found in writers such as Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.…
Surveys the importance of classical and medieval rhetorical theories that underlie late medieval poetry, and discusses the "flowering of rhetorico-poetic technique in Chaucer's verse," analyzing samples of his poetry in light of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's…
Considers the uses of gestures in Chaucer's poetry: "simplistic" uses in HF and PF, broad variety in CT, and the complex characterization of Pandarus in TC. Focuses on expressive movements and postures of body and face, along with laughing, moaning,…
Describes the models of verbal portraiture in the "Rhetorica ad Herennium" and works by Geoffrey of Vinsauf and Matthew of Vendôme and their impact on Chaucer, arguing that the portraits of Fortune and Blanche in BD reflect the Black Knight's state…
