Browse Items (15542 total)

At the literal level, Griselda is subservient, loving, obedient, and patient; at the spiritual level, she emulates Christ, while Walter is a servant of God.

Argues that Troilus' ascent to the eighth sphere (TC 5.1807-27) combines Christian and pagan elements--the classical pagan notion of immortality among the stars transmitted to Chaucer via Alain de Lille, Dante, and Boccaccio, and the Christian…

Considers the impulses to go on pilgrimage in late medieval England and assesses the GP descriptions of the pilgrims in light of contemporary motivations for pilgrimage.

The categorical proposition, or sentence, is offered as a global model for narrative structure. The sentence structure, which makes meaning by suggesting the significant similarities between what might have been and what is actually said, takes the…

Argues that the word pair "gent and smal," used in the description of Alisoun in MilT, meant "well-built," with connotations of noble looks and behavior.

Item not seen. WorldCat record indicates that this includes English commentary by Milward on GP (and other works of English literature), with notes in Japanese by Okamoto and Suzuki.

Discusses ABC, Pity, Lady, and Mars in relation to the literary temperament of the poet's later works.

Identifies parallels between the "planetary deities" and the human characters in KnT; describes the "iconology" of Lygurge and Emetreus, particularly the psychological implications of their astrological affiliations; and explores the physiognomic,…

Argues that PF is "much more critical of human life than has been thought [and] that it finally adopts and orthodox Christian Position." Explores how the structure, details, and style of the poem undermine the narrator's views and work "to suggest,…

Identifies limitations in the Manly-Rickert "Corpus of Variants" and urges caution in its use, explaining that their use of the term "variant" excludes dialectical variants as well as spelling variants. Regional dialectical variants are especially…

The narrator of this work, pretending ignorance, is conscious of his position as a poet, and a humorous but skeptical attitude towards utterance. Like a nominalist, he examines everyday speech, which is only "eyr ybroken," from the point of view of…

MLP and other comments suggest that late-medieval readers were "disconcerted" by Gower's repeated treatments of incest. Examination of his poem reveals him (through Genius) turning Amans from the incestuous love of Venus and Cupid to pure heavenly…

Suggests that in three places in the ShT--lines 1519-21, 1536-37, 1581--Chaucer exploits two denotations of "chevyssaunce." In addition to the specific denotation "usury," the word has a more general denotation--MED meaning 2--which, when applied…

Investigates "premodern 'vertue,' or the embodied excellence that enables women's ethical action in vernacular English poetry between 1343 and 1623." Focuses on "material virtue"--the "natural potencies of physical bodies"--rather than on habit-,…

Compares PrT with Gonzalo de Berceo's thirteenth-century "Judiezno" (Little Jewish Child) from his "Los Milagros de Nuestra Seʹora."

A reading of the "Gawain"-poet's works in light of medieval ideals of social behavior as represented in courtesy books.

Contends that Chaucer's romances, including KnT, MLT, WBT, SqT, FranT, Th, and TC, "exhibit . . . interest in adversity, or philosophical or religious contempt" for suffering as a primary theme.

Summarizes the political history of the fall of Armenia in 1375, surveying its impact on the court of Richard II and its status as a "haunting symbol" of catastrophe in Middle English literature. Discusses SqT, Anel, the description of the Knight in…

English scholars played an important part in transmitting Arabic learning to Europe. The "matter of Araby" may be set alongside the matters of Troy and Britain as an impulse in medieval English literature. It appears in Chaucer's MLT, Th, and the…

Presents the first of two successive articles on RvT and its analogues. Claims that "The Mylner of Abyngton" has not drawn as much critical attention as it deserves. Compares "The Mylner of Abyngton" with three continental analogues and discusses…

Despite some unenthusiastic criticism and even denial of his authorship of parts of the play, Shakespeare adapts KnT faithfully, reorienting its topicality, redesigning it for the stage, and broadening its focus.

Explores how Dante and Petrarch provide a "schema for understanding" the modifications Chaucer made to the view of love in Boccaccio's "Filostrato." The "Vita Nuova" offers a "hierarchy of love," analogous to that in TC even though Chaucer may not…

Examines frames of cultural reference (legal, domestic, physical, and literary--especially romance), arguing that "two versions of masculinity defined the socially performed lives of men in late medieval England." The first version was normative and…

Explores suggestive ambiguities in the characterizations of Emily in KnT, May in MerT, Criseyde in TC, and the Prioress in GP, considering narrative techniques, points of view, and ways that Chaucer adapts and manipulates the ideal of a romance…

Explores medieval English marital laws and practices that underlie details of the WBP and her description in GP, particularly her marriages at "chirche dore," her dowers, and the transaction that gave Jankyn control of her lands--before she took it…