Argues that MLT and MLE are "fundamentally concerned with the transmission of affect." The tale "dramatizes how affect operates as a physical force that realigns individual and collective identities," while the narrator's style, combined with…
Rex, Richard.
Richard Rex. "The Sins of Madame Eglentyne" and Other Essays on Chaucer (Newark, N.J.: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1995), pp. 69-77.
Identifies a medieval tradition in which singing through the nose is a "sign of weak faith and lack of devotion," contributing to the satire of the Prioress in her GP sketch.
Wenzel, Siegfried.
Peter S. Baker and Nicholas Howe, eds. Words and Works: Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature in Honour of Fred C. Robinson (Toronto, Buffalo, and New York: University of Toronto Press, 1998), pp. 261-69.
Surveys attempts to explain how MkT is appropriate to the Monk as teller, and cites examples from monastic preaching of associations of "the monastic profession and an interest in historical examples of misfortune."
Carlin, Martha.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 40 (2018): 413–21.
Distinguishes among taverns, alehouses, and public inns, providing historical evidence that the latter were in Chaucer's day a "new institution," and maintaining that his setting of the opening of GP in an inn engages an emergent social culture,…
Takahashi, Hisashi.
Michio Kawai, ed. Language and Style in English Literature: Essays in Honour of Michio Masui. The English Association of Hiroshima (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1991), pp. 374-91.
Examines why the expression "this Criseyde" never occurs in TC, from the viewpoints of accent, stress, syllable, rhyme, spelling, and form. Statistically compares lines containing the words "Criseyde," "Troilus," and "this."
Bennett, J. A. W.
Review of English Studies 13.51 (1962): 283.
Suggests that "gonne" rather than "goune" is the correct reading in "O mosy Quince," a lyric ascribed to Chaucer in Cambridge, Trinity College MS 3.19 (no. 49); supports the reading by identifying St. Barbara, cited in the poem, as "patron saint of…
Presents a version of the Griselda story from Thomas III, Marquis of Saluzzo (c. 1355-1416) in "Le chevalier errant," and analyzes how fourteenth-century audiences would have reacted to Chaucer's version in ClT. Includes a translation of Thomas's…
Miyoshi, Yoko.
Hisashi Shigeo, et al., eds. The Wife of Bath (Tokyo: Gaku Shobo, 1985), pp. 30-47.
From the viewpoint of a history of social economics, Miyoshi explains why the poet chooses Bath as the Wife's place and shows that it was not unusual to to marry five times.
Vasvari, Louise.
Louise Mirrer, ed. Upon My Husband's Death: Widows in Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1992), pp. 259-87.
Acknowledges the Wife of Bath and Criseyde as different kinds of widows in the tradition of literary widowhood that underlies the Dona Endrina episode in Juan Ruiz's Libro de Buen Amor.
Hirsh, John C.
English Language Notes 13 (1975): 89-90.
In forecasting Monday as the date of the flood, Nicholas seized on John's belief in current superstitions of the day's ill reputation, due both to its etymological association with the unstable moon and to the tradition of certain "perilous Mondays,"…
Phillips explores the proverbial and biblical background to ManT, identifying links between its plot and its teller, an untrustworthy servant. In popular tradition, crows were regarded as unfaithful servants and unreliable messengers, an association…
Halliburton, Thomas Laughlin.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3027A.
In attempting to make of literary criticism a science, the profession falls into illogic and absurdity. Readings of KnT and MerT differ wildly. From Kittredge to 1980s, critics have been self-deluded.
Discusses herb paris as a premedieval symbol of Christ's passion and divine love, traces its development from religious to romantic sign, and explores its dual meaning in MilT.
Graver, Bruce.
Wordsworth Circle 52 (2020): 92-103.
Argues that Wordsworth chose to publish his translation of PrT "for a very simple reason: he wanted to give an example of close translation of Chaucer, and it was the only one ready and unobjectionable." However, various critics found the translation…
Literary tradition and iconography connect "bath" to prostitution, also suggested by the Wife's living outside the former patriarchal city. These symbolize her prostitution in marriage, thwarting the system, her enrichment, and ultimately her own…
Surveys the characteristics of the genre of the Breton lai in French and English, and argues that Chaucer labeled FranT as such in order to "minimize the religious implications of certain elements in the story" and encourage response to its courtly…
Arnovick, Leslie K.
Irma Taavitsainen, Terttu Nevalainen, Pivi Pahta, and Matti Rissanen, eds. Placing Middle English in Context (Berlin and New York: Gruyter, 2000), pp. 411-25.
Argues that lines 81-120 of HF are Chaucer's adaptation of the topos of the "book curse," tracing the "speech act origin" of the curse and exploring Chaucer's use of the device to "tease his audience and manipulate its expectations."
Hicks, Michael A.
London: Shepheard-Walwyn; Chicago: St. James, 1991.
Biographical dictionary of some 200 political and cultural people of late-medieval England, "Englishmen" and "Englishwomen," along with "foreigners prominent in English history," arranged chronologically by life-dates, with descriptive and…
Scott, A. F.
London: Elm Tree; New York: Taplinger,1974.
An annotated glossary of personal names, arranged alphabetically within sections. CT is treated separately from BD, HF, LGW, PF and TC. Each of these sections is followed by a list of animal and personal names, with the line references for their…
Moore, Marilyn L. Reppa.
Chaucer Review 33 (1998): 43-59
Troilus's character should be viewed not in the light of medieval romance but within the context of medieval "devotion," such as that advocated in St. Anselm's "Proslogion." It is more important to realize that Troilus learned to love with constancy…
Howard, H. Wendall.
Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 18.3 (2015): 15-32.
Considers the historicity of St. Cecilia, her association with music, and various accounts of her life and legend, including the "Passio Caeciliae," SNT, an opera by Licinio Refice and Emidio Mucci, John Dryden's "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day,"…
Trigg, Stephanie.
Frank Grady, ed. The Cambridge Companion to "The Canterbury Tales" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 250-54.
Traces the problem of compensation and the rationale for dedicating funds to the study of Chaucer. Offers a case study of how a previous attempt at funding worked in 2010 in Australia when the Centre for the History of Emotions was awarded funding by…
Williams, George G.
Rice Institute Pamphlet 44, no. 1 (1957): 126-46.
Argues that the "chief characters" of TC "were probably modeled from real people" and, exploring alterations from Boccaccio's "Filostrato," speculates that Troilus is based on John of Gaunt, Criseyde on Katherine Swynford, and Pandarus on Chaucer…
