Browse Items (16319 total)

Follows W. C. Curry (1926) in understanding the Pardoner to be a eunuch, and explores the Biblical and exegetical implications of this characterization, reinforced by animal imagery, and associated with the Pauline "vetus homo" (Old Man), arguing…

Shows how the theme of common profit and the figure of tolerant Nature bridge the opposing views of the love among the high- and low-class birds in PF. Other contrastive pairs in the poem--the two sides of the gate, Priapus and Venus,…

Suggests that "double meaning seems deliberate" in a pun on "lecher" and "healer" in Pluto's use of "lechour" (MerT 4.2257) when he pledges to restore January's eyesight.

Quotes, translates, and anatomizes the Latin "arguments" of the "books" found in Statius' "Thebaid" that underlie Cassandra's summary of the Statius' work in TC 5.1457-1533, with its twelve-line Latin summary interpolated in most TC manuscripts.…

Suggests that a portion of Dorigen's speech in FranT (5.1541-44) has wrongly been ascribed to her by various editors, indicating why it should better be assigned to the Franklin as narrator. Also suggests that the reference to a "clerk" (Fran 5.1611)…

Suggests that editors consider capitalizing "nature" in GP 1.11, arguing that Chaucer personifies Nature as "virtually the patron saint of birds" in PF.

Includes (vol. 2, pp. 1030-31) a summary of the plot and main characters of TC, categorizing it as a "Chivalric romance," and praising it as an "almost perfectly constructed narrative poem" with "effective depiction of character" that "forecast[s]…

Distinguishes medieval and modern notions of "seemliness"--a sociological concern distinct from legality and morality--and clarifies medieval ideas of linguistic, sartorial, aesthetic, and marital propriety in CT, observing a "gap" between what is…

Reads the CT as a sustained dramatic narrative, following the Chaucer Society order of the tales, and paying particular attention to the GP and the links among the tales. Focuses on characterization of the pilgrims, especially the Host, and their…

Identifies satiric elements in the description of the Guildsmen in GP--stylistic jibes and social critique, including the association of them with the Cook, who is later identifiable as the historic Roger de Ware, of ill repute.

Cites Bo and quotes portions of "The Former Age" as evidence of medieval transmission of ancient ideas about "about the happy age before the coming of civilization."

Clarifies the typicality of Chaucer's Miller by identifying characteristics that "were commonly ascribed to millers in late-medieval literature." Like analogous miller's, he is "is red-haired, coarse-featured, socially ambitious, muscular,…

Anthologizes in chronological order poems and extracts from English poetry written in Britain, including selections from Chaucer in Middle English (pp. 5-8): "Now welcome, somer" (PF 680), "At the gate" (TC 5.1114-1183), and "The fresshe flour"…

Assesses the characterizations of Troilus and of Criseyde in Freudian, psychological terms--Troilus as weak-willed and perhaps the "victim of an Oedipal tie to his mother"; Criseyde, strong-willed and "adept in the psychological handling of others,"…

Comprehensive bibliography of Chaucer studies published between 1908-1953; some entries include brief indications of content and/or lists of book reviews. Arranged in topical categories such as Chaucer's life, works, modernizations and translations,…

Proposes an influence of KnT 1.1995 ("dirke ymaginning") on Vaughan's "The importunate Fortune, written to Doctor 'Powel' of Cantre," and accounts for Vaughan's confusion of Mars and Saturn.

Edits (with facsimile pages) "three sixteenth-century fragments of a poetical miscellany" found in different extant manuscripts and, in early attributions, was credited to Chaucer. The Introduction explains why these attributions are inaccurate,…

Assesses the conventionality and originality of PF in form or genre, matter, and rhetorical style, arguing that the poem is a "delicately ironical fantasy on the theme of love," both courtly and natural, presented largely through a "series of…

Seeks a "fuller understanding of Chaucer's meaning," exploring the "numerous small additions, arrangements, omissions, [and] constant alterations" made in his uses of Boccaccio's "Filostrato" in TC. Focuses on the vivifying, individuating…

Collects seven essays by Everett on topics in Middle English studies, some previously published and some unpublished, plus a "Memoir" about Everett by Mary Lascelles, and a Bibliography of Everett's publications. For two previously unpublished essays…

Recognizes the influence of the Prioress's table manners (GP 1.128-35) in a description of the nuns of the Nonnester convent in the first part of Sigrid Undset's "Kristen Lavransdattir" trilogy and observes other quotations of and references to…

Clarifies nuances of the title "shipman" and the seriousness of the Shipman's lack of conscience about his cargo (GP 1.396-98) in light of late-medieval English maritime law.

Defends the thematic and dramatic unity of ManP and ManT, identifying similarities with other examples of such unity in the CT.

Surveys Astr to identify Chaucer's "teaching method," finding evidence of his attention to teaching "technically-minded small boys" that clashes at times with concern for a wider audience. Considers Astr to be "a dull, intentionally prolix but…

Connects the use of "In principio" in the GP description of the Friar (1.254) with WBP 3.857-81, citing evidence from a wide array of material to show that the phrase, derived from the Gospel of John, evokes a "well-known apotropaic formula"…