Considers Chaucer's dream poems in the context of "epithalamic conventions" found in medieval French dream poems and their sources, exploring similarities of "structure, imagery, and theme."
Schmidt, Gary D.
Anne C. Hargrove and Maurine Magliocco, eds. Portraits of Marriage in Literature (Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1984), pp. 97-105.
Chaucer uses enfolding irony in MerT and FranT to examine the good marriage, with insights on courtly love and adultery through shifting perspectives and character conflict.
Hodge, James L.
English Studies 46 (1965): 289-300.
Challenges the putative "simple and even balance" of the Marriage Group in CT, discussing several factors that highlight Chaucer's "purposeful inconclusiveness" in the dramatic interplay among the Tales: 1) MerT and FranT are each an "attack" on the…
Though some readers have seen the contract in this tale as evidence of Chaucer's acceptance of the male's dominance in marriage, the relationship of Dorigen and Arveragus is actually an ideal society in miniature.
Benson, Donald R.
Chaucer Review 14 (1979): 48-60.
Rhetorically nearer to exhortation than to encomium, the didactic structure of this passage (4.1267-1392) rises in a series of contradictions that confuse doctrines and undercut ironic perceptions. None of the proposed assignments of the passage…
Olson, Glending.
R. F. Yeager and Charlotte C. Morse, eds. Speaking Images: Essays in Honor of V. A. Kolve (Asheville, N.C.: Pegasus Press, 2001), pp. 325-45.
Identifies possibilities for recognizing "political resonances" in ClT, discussing Walter's title (marquis) as it was granted in 1385 to Robert de Vere, Richard's favorite. The title was "unusual" and "short-lived" in Chaucer's experience. Olson…
Edwards, A. S. G.,and Carol M. Meale.
Library, 6th ser., 15 (1993): 95-120.
Traces the careers of Caxton, de Worde, and others to show (amid much else) that their interest in publishing Chaucer and other vernacular writers can be correlated with a "movement from opportunistic diversification...to forms of consolidation and…
Olson, Glending.
English Language Notes 33:1 (1995): 1-7.
A ballade by Eustache Deschamps poses a "demande d'amour" similar to that of the Loathly Lady in WBT, wherein a courtier is required to render judgment on a question of love.
Ferris, Sumner.
American Benedictine Review 32 (1981): 232-54.
Theologically, the Blessed Virgin is highly venerated, with "hyperdulia," but she is nevertheless only a means to the one mediator, Christ (1 Tim. 2.5), who is worshiped with "latria." This distinction, most unusual for a work of literature, is a…
Perez-Fernandez, Tamara.
Ph.D. Dissertation. Universidad de Valladolid, 2017,
Examines marginal annotations in the surviving manuscripts of TC with the purpose of exploring both the reception of the poem and the role of the scribes in its textual transmission. The marginalia are analyzed not only from a textual, thematic,…
Yoshikawa, Fumiko.
Michael Bilynsky, ed. Studies in Middle English: Words, Forms, Senses and Texts (New York: Peter Lang, 2014), pp. 343-60.
Studies the generic variety, rhetorical features, and persuasive power of four works of medieval English literature, including ParsT, tabulating the relative incidences of rhetorical questions, appeals to authority or logic, poetic devices,…
Rorty, Amélie Oskenberg, ed.
New York: Routledge, 2001.
Chronological anthology of selections and excerpts from philosophy, religious texts, and fiction, representing the historical "varieties" of evil. Includes excerpts from ParsT, entitled "The Seven Deadly Sins" (pp. 100-05) in modern translation.
Edwards, A. S. G., and Derek Pearsall.
Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall, eds. Book Publishing and Publishing in Britain, 1375-1475. Cambridge Studies in Publishing and Printing History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 257-78.
Describes the "new phase" in English publishing and book production that took place in the "early years" of the fifteenth century--particularly the large increase in the number of books of vernacular poetry, including Chaucer's poetry. Summarizes…
Owen, Charles, A., Jr.
Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1991.
Chronologically surveys CT manuscripts, highlighting the importance of Hengwrt and the "wide difference in the number of independent textual traditions for different parts" of the work. Rejects the notion of a single Chaucerian copy text, crediting…
Morse, Charlotte C.
Notes and Queries 238 (1993): 19-22.
Reviews and comments on Charles Owen's "The Manuscripts of 'The Canterbury Tales'," supporting the view that there were many copies of single tales and small groups of tales in circulation.
Boffey, Julia.
Derek Pearsall, ed. Manuscripts and Readers in Fifteenth-Century England: The Literary Implications of Manuscript Study (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1983), pp. 3-14.
Investigates the "manuscript context" of courtly love lyrics, identifying their incidence and the implications of their groupings and solo occurrences. Recurrent mention of Chaucer's lyrics, and discussion of manuscripts that include "clusters" of…
Donaldson, E. T[albot].
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 85-108.
Describes the editorial practices necessary to produce a modern edition of Chaucer's works, commenting on spelling, punctuation (especially virgules), meter (especially final -e), and distinguishing scribal and authorial forms. Summarizes the number…
Surveys the sixteen extant manuscripts of TC, dividing them into four subgroups and commenting on their dates and relationships. Describes each manuscript, giving information on codexes, collations, scribal hands, corrections, marginalia,…
Surveys the issues in the textual history of "Parlement of Fowls," e.g., the role of Cambridge University Library MS Gg 4.27; the status of the roundel; and the influence of the poem. Also describes codicological details of the fourteen surviving…
Surveys issues in the textual history of LGW, e.g., its production in booklets and evidence of readership. Also describes codicological details of the ten surviving manuscripts that include the poem. Does not address the two versions of LGWP.
Hanna, Ralph, III.
James M. Dean and Christian Zacher, eds. The Idea of Medieval Literature: New Essays on Chaucer and Medieval Culture in Honor of Donald R. Howard (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992), pp. 173-88.
Though they are continuous copies, made without hesitation, surviving manuscripts of TC contain embedded features of their predecessors. The features we infer from extant copies may belong to immediate exemplars used by the scribes of those copies…
Argues for new attention to the complexities of textual issues in critical discussions of CT, suggesting that many recent studies ignore or only gesture toward such complexities.
