Kaske, R. E.
David G. Allen and Robert A. White, eds. Traditions and Innovations: Essays on British Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1990) pp. 11-34.
KnT and MLT are complementary philosophical narratives. In KnT, Chaucer turns "Boccaccio's narrative of event . . . into a narrative poem about wisdom." The treatment of Fortune is pagan, with Palamon and Arcite representing contrasting patterns of…
Nakao, Yoshiyuki.
Masahiko Kanno, Gregory K. Jember, and Yoshiyuki Nakao, eds. A Love of Words: English Philological Studies in Honour of Akira Wada (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1998), pp. 79-102.
Explores the "ambiguity of causality as a measure of the moral status" of the narrator and characters of TC, particularly Criseyde. Nakao tabulates and examines causal phrases beginning with "because," "since," and "for" in light of their contexts…
Chan, Amado.
Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 21: 166-70, 2000.
Details of the Prioress's GP description, WBPT, and Emelye's desires in KnT indicate that "women by nature oppose man's endeavor to rule and establish order in the world."
Taylor, Paul Beekman.
Piero Boitani and Anna Torti, eds. Poetics: Theory and Practice in Medieval English Literature (Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 1991), pp. 69-82.
The theory that "words can reveal to the inner eye of understanding the invisible forms behind visible shapes" is rejected through repeated examples of "the complicity of sight in the tragedy of love."
Huntsman, Jeffrey F.
Modern Philology 73 (1976): 276-79.
Medieval English and Latin dictionaries such as the "Medulla gramatice" can often be of great value in textual criticism,offering solutions to several Chaucerian cruces: "stot" (CT III, 1630) "whore"; "nakers" (CT I, 2511) "horns"; "astromye" (CT I,…
Blake, N. F.
N. F. Blake. William Caxton and English Literary Culture. (London and Rio Grande: Hambledown Press, 1991), pp. 149-65.
Argues that Caxton's two editions of CT were prompted by patrons; that the revision of the text from the first to the second edition was a "haphazard affair"; and that Caxton's published remarks on Chaucer are conventional and economically motivated,…
Blake, N. F.
Leeds Studies in English 1 (1967): 19-36.
Gauges William Caxton's appreciation of Chaucer's literature by exploring why Caxton printed the works of Chaucer that he did, how he treated the texts, and to what extent his decisions reflect his own tastes or those of patrons, poets, and the likes…
Matthews, William.
Bonnie Wheeler, Robert L. Kindrick, and Michael D. Salda, eds. The Malory Debate: Essays on the Texts of Le Morte Darthur. Arthurian Studies, no. 47. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2000, pp. 1-34.
A revision (by Robert L. Kindrick) of Matthews's "Caxton and Malory: A Re-View" (SAC 24 [2002], no. 34), with a corrected title.
Singh, Devani.
Journal of the Early Book Society 20 (2017): 233-49.
Analyzes the "marginalia, damages, repairs, signatures, and bindings" of the copy of William Caxton's second edition of CT (Foundation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, Switzerland, Inc, B. 70) as signs of the ways it has been used and regarded historically,…
Contests N. F. Blake's views of Caxton, Caxton's publishing plans, and his motives and quality as an editor, discussing at length the Canterbury Tales editions of 1478 and 1484 and other works of Chaucer. Matthews defends Caxton as a careful editor,…
Matthews, David.
Helen M. Hickey, Anne McKendry, and Melissa Raine, eds. Contemporary Chaucer across the Centuries (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018), pp. 138-52.
Gauges Tudor awareness of and attitudes toward earlier English, comparing comments and lexical choices made by William Caxton in two of his printed volumes: the second edition of CT and John of Trevisa’s translation of Ranulf Higden’s…
Bordalejo, Barbara.
Leicester: Scholarly Digital Editions-Boydell and Brewer, 2003.
Includes full-color facsimiles of the first and second editions of CT: the Royal copy of the first edition and the Grenville copy of the second, i.e., British Library 167.c.26 and C.21.d.
Digital reproduction of William Caxton's two editions of CT that enables onscreen comparison of them, with links to background information on Caxton and print history.
Gillespie, Alexandra.
Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 12.1: 1-26, 2000.
Considers 11 Caxton quarto editions of English verse (STC 17019, 17009, 17030, 1450, 17008, 17018, 17032, 4851, 5091, 5090, and 3303) that include works by Lydgate and Caxton, assessing the economy of their production and their provenances and…
Bordalejo, Barbara.
Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 108.1 (2014): 41-60.
Compares the first and second editions of Caxton's CT. Using digital tools to collate the first and second editions, finds that Caxton not only added and removed lines, but made over 3,000 changes based on a manuscript source that was closer to the…
Donaghey, Brian.
Geoffrey Lester, ed. Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 73-99
A bibliographical description and analysis of Caxton's edition of Bo. Variants from extant manuscripts of the work indicate errors that can be attributed to expediencies of book production and to reliance on knowledge of the Latin original.
Blake, N. F.
A. S. G. Edwards, Vincent Gillespie, and Ralph Hanna, eds. The English Medieval Book: Studies in Memory of Jeremy Griffiths (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 135-53.
Critiques Thomas F. Dunn's analysis of Cx2 and extends it, describing the book's composition and comparing Cx2 with Cx1. Suggests a possible scenario for the preparation of Cx2, discussing the role of the unknown manuscript (designated Y by Dunn) and…
Kuskin, William, ed.
Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.
Ten essays by various authors and an introduction by the editor, exploring the relationship of Caxton to early Continental printing and the influence of Caxton and his practice on English printing, ideas of authorship, editing, and language. Includes…
Caxton's grouping of the Nine Worthies influenced later English perceptions of nationhood and history. Includes brief mention of MkT, and several notes pertain to Chaucer.
Green, Richard Firth.
Robert S. Sturges, ed. Law and Sovereignty in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), pp. 261-85.
Reassesses the implications of the two copies of the quitclaim pertaining to Cecily Champain and Chaucer, clarifying the meaning of "quitclaim," describing the process of issuing claims in the medieval period, and arguing that Champain issued two…
Surveys attitudes toward patriotism among early English writers. According to Stanley, Criseyde's claim to Diomedes that she loves the city of Troy (TC 5. 953-57) is untrue.
Includes discussion of FranT (pp. 282–93), tabulating historical astronomical data and arguing that Chaucer "used the configuration of the Sun and Moon in December 1340 as the inspiration for the time of year [late December] and for the central plot…
Robinson, Carol L.
Studies in Medievalism 5 (1993): 115-26.
Pasolini's reading of the Wife of Bath as "a rebellious heretic who is yet a sexual and clownish bully" challenges more sympathetic "readings" of the Wife rather than re-creating her Chaucerian self-presentation. The film "I racconti di Canterbury"…
