Boffey, Julia, and A. S. G. Edwards.
Piero Boitani and Jill Mann, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer, 2d ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003), pp. 112-26.
Boffey and Edwards confront several scholarly and critical issues that pertain to LGW: date, occasion, sources and models, patronage, and the relation of the F and G versions of LGWP. The authors emphasize the variety in the legends themselves and…
Frank, Robert Worth, Jr.
Chaucer Review 1.2 (1966): 110-33.
Rejects the argument that Chaucer abandoned LGW out of weariness or boredom on the grounds that Chaucer had long been interested in classical love stories, that he took time to revise LGWP, that he employed abbreviation and "occupatio" effectively in…
Chaucer and Henryson use the bestiaries in different ways. Chaucer only hints at the allegorical potential of his animals in CT and PF, although he does capitalize on familiar allegorizations in his similes and symbols. More directly, Henryson…
The essays in ChauR 41.3 explore Donaldson's accomplishments in "his guises as editor, philologist, and New Critic" and the continued relevance of that work in the early twenty-first century.
McMullen, A. Joseph, and Erica Weaver, eds.
Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2018.
Twelve essays by various authors and an introduction by the editors consider the range and depth of impact of Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" on Old and Middle English literature and thought. The introduction summarizes the legacy of the…
Surveys the figure of Apollo in classical and medieval traditions, focusing on the figure in Chaucer's works as an embodiment of the poet's understandings of poetic authority. Chaucer "mythologized a new idea of authorship in English," escaping…
Comic novel set in a modern university, replete with literary references and allusions, including several to Chaucer, e.g., a quotation from GP 1.308 in its dedication, PardT 6.895-903 as an epigram, and a parody of Ret at the end of the book.
Benson, Larry D., ed.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974.
Twenty-five essays by various authors, plus an appreciation of the teaching of Bartlett Jere Whiting, a list of his publications, and a poetic analogue to "Thomas of Erceldoune." For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Learned and the…
Brackets, linking rhymed lines, together with the position of tail rhyme and bob phrases, show how scribes in these authoratitative manuscripts perceived this drasty rhyme. Includes photos of folio from Ellesmere manuscript.
Engelhardt, George J.
Mediaeval Studies 36 (1974): 278-330.
Argues that in his characterizations of the non-ecclesiastical pilgrims of CT Chaucer emulated the devices and techniques of medieval ethology, based in the "contemptus mundi" tradition, and variously prescriptive and descriptive. Comments on GP as a…
Landman, James H.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 28 (1998): 389-425.
Both CYPT and the "Book of Margery Kempe" raise questions about community and selfhood. In each, an individual criticizes his or her community to the members of a different, markedly less local community. The two texts suggest the precariousness of…
The unresolved contradicitons, sudden shifts, and visible seams in MLT indicate the Man of Law's limitations not just as storyteller but also "as a man of law." The limits of the common law of his patriarchial society give him his identity and…
Jonassen, Frederick B.
John Marshall Law Review 43 (2009-10): 51-108.
Describes aspects of Chaucer's life that indicate that he had training in law or familiarity with it, and explores the legal language and details of GP, arguing that the Host's "responsibility for the pilgrims reflects the law of innkeeper's…
Medcalf, Stephen, ed.
New York: Holmes and Meier, 1981.
Essays include "On Reading Books from a Half-Alien Culture," "The Ideal, the Real, and the Quest for Perfection," "Inner and Outer," "Art and Architecture in the Late Middle Ages," "The Age of the Household: Politics, Society, and the Arts c.…
Collette, Carolyn P., and Harold Garrett-Goodyear, eds.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Anthology of documents pertaining to English literature from 1350-1500. Introduction details historical, social, and political movements of late Middle Ages. Includes annotations, timeline, and chronological listing of major medieval literary works.
Identifies thematic concerns in Mel that it shares with other narratives in CT (WBPT, ShT, Clerk's Envoy, MerT, and NPT), exploring how pedantry, suspect counsel, the struggle for "maisterie," and antifeminism convey humor in Mel, especially in…
Mey, Jacob.
Eva Hajicová, Miroslav Cervenka, Oldrich Leska, and Petr Sgall, eds. Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague/Prague Linguistic Circle Papers, I (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1995), pp. 261-94.
Considers the question of how language may (or may not) preserve technological knowledge over time by commenting on the linguistic features of "Inland English," invented by Russell Hoban in his futuristic novel "Riddley Walker" (1980). Uses…
A social and political history of the "aristocracy of the fourteenth century through the life and times of John of Gaunt." Chapter ten, "Chaucer" (pp. 203-15), summarizes the poet's career, Gaunt's role in his life, and Gaunt's possible reactions to…
Bawcutt, Priscilla.
Yearbook of English Studies 2 (1972): 5-12.
Discusses various topoi of the lark (including its etymology in Latin) to explore and explain details in a variety of medieval and Renaissance poems, including KnT where the lark is "bisy" and a welcomer of dawn (1.1491-92).
Rubin, Miri.
Tjitske Akkerman and Siep Stuurman, eds. Perspectives on Feminist Political Thought in European History: From the Middle Ages to the Present (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), pp. 34-49.
Mentions NPT and Rom in a survey of late-medieval "pervasive understandings" of women and femininity. Finds places within this survey for instances of "feminist moments" and the "dialects within which they were set."
Mosser, Daniel W.
Norman Blake and Peter Robinson, eds. The Canterbury Tales Project Occasional Papers, Volume II (London: King's College, Office for Humanities Communications, 1997): pp. 41-53.
Examines characteristic features of the two similar scribal hands of CT manuscript En1, correcting errors and emphases in Manly and Rickert's analysis (1940). The scribes appear initially to have divided their labors before Scribe 2 completed and…
Horobin, Simon.
Estelle Stubbs, ed. The Hengwrt Chaucer Digital Facsimile (Leicester: Scholarly Digital Editions, 2000)
Focuses on spelling in the Hengwrt manuscript (Hg) in light of the development of London English (from Type II to III), especially in comparison with spelling in the Ellesmere manuscript (El). Though the two manuscripts are closely related, Hg shows…
Horobin, Simon C. P.
Anglia: Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie 119: 249-58, 2001.
Analyzes spelling in the four printed editions of CT issued before 1500. Caxton (1476 and 1482) and Wynken de Worde (1498) responded individually to the perceived authority of the work, while Richard Pynson (1492) attempted to replace the nonstandard…
Smith, Jeremy J.
Martin Stevens and Daniel Woodward, eds. The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library; Tokyo: Yushodo, 1995), pp. 69-86.
Argues for the superiority of Hengwrt over Ellesmere on metrical and dialectical grounds.
