Epstein, Robert.
Modern Philology 113 (2015) 17-48.
The exchanges of goods and services in ShT are often read following Bourdieu's theory that self-interest motivates all human actions. This essay claims that such analyses do not take into account other motivating factors clearly present in the tale,…
Robertson, Kellie.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Five chapters explore the "effects of labor laws" on vernacular writing in late medieval England: chronicles, anonymous dream visions, LGW, the Paston letters, and morality plays. Robertson focuses on interactions between theories of labor and…
Linder, Amnon.
Studi Medievali, 3rd ser., 18 (1977): 315-55.
Surveys the availability of manuscripts of John of Salisbury's "Policraticus" and allusions to this work among theologians, jurists, and political writers of the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. Comments on uses of the text by various…
A murder mystery in which the investigator--Geoffrey Chaucer, 'Comptroller of His Grace's Woollens and poet to the court of the late king”--seeks the murderer of Lionel, duke of Clarence.
Guidry, Marc, and Charles Jones, eds.
Nacogdoches, Tex.: Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2011.
An art-edition of KnT, with wood-cut style illustrations accompanying the text, followed by a summary of the tale, and comments on its sources, date, genre, structure, themes, style, prosody, historical context, and previous illustrations in…
KnT--a romance like none other in English--is clearly designed to set forth the Knight's "declaration of intent." An attempt to "order existence," KnT eschews both the "cosmic harmony" of the traditional romance and the "imminent defeat" of the epic…
Lee, Dongchoon.
Medieval and Early Modern English Studies 16 (2008): 43-76.
Through various devices of style and narrative technique, Chaucer undermines the Knight's (and Theseus's) efforts to find or impose order on human and cosmic disruption and violence.
Middle English text of KnT (based on The Riverside Chaucer), with interlinear phonetic transcription and facing-page translation. Annotations derived from earlier editions.
Surveys the tradition of a "fantasy of ritual murder" of a Christian boy by Jews, focusing on its manifestations in accounts of the death of Hugh of Lincoln and various sources and analogues, both historical and literary, including PrT and later…
Spearing, A. C., ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Edition of KnT, originally published in 1966, based on F. N. Robinson's 2d edition (1957), with a new Introduction (pp. 1-111), "reconsidered" notes, and a corrected glossary, both included at the end of the volume, much as in the 1966 original. The…
Study guide to KnT that includes an introduction to Chaucer's court culture and courtly tradition and discussion of KnT in relation to part one of CT (GP, MilT, RvT, and CkT). Includes a summary/commentary on KnT, arranged in narrative fragments,…
McGregor, James H.
Leonard Michael Koff and Brenda Deen Schildgen, eds. The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: New Essays on an Old Question (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000), pp. 212-25.
The representation of history in KnT is dependent on postplague historiographical views of the Decameron. The Teseida and Chaucer's version of it are tragedies, but with a hope of reconciliation represented in the final marriage.
Tripp, Raymond P. Jr.
Rendezvous 6.1 (1971): 23-28.
Explores the "idea of limitation" in KnT, identifying "statements and narrative situations [that are] suggestive of what we cannot know and cannot say." In some ways like the death of Blanche in BD, Arcite's death is inexplicable and inexpressible,…
Clogan, Paul M.
Medievalia et Humanistica 18 (1992): 129-55.
KnT participates in the Roman Antique tradition by expressing a political ideology found in other medieval retellings of classical stories. The Tale argues for harmonizing passion and wisdom through marriage and rewrites Theban history to conceal…
Alexander, Michael.
London: Longman York Press, 1981.
Summary (without text) and commentary on the GP description of the Knight and on KnT, arranged in sections, accompanied by glosses to Middle English words and phrases. Also includes a brief introduction to Chaucer and his literature; commentary on…
Explores the implications of the Knight's "cutting short" of the MkT, contrasting the characterizations of the two pilgrims, describing the Monk as "comic imitation of knighthood," and observing contrasts and parallels in the wording, details, and…
Neuse, Richard.
University of Toronto Quarterly 31 (1962): 299-315.
Explores comedy and irony in KnT, both extending from the Knight's perspective on Christian chivalric values in a pagan epic setting and his disclosure of the "absurdity of earthly action." Focuses on Theseus's political opportunism and his…
Lucas, Angela M.
Poetica (Tokyo) 35 (1992): 29-40.
Compares the knights in "Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell" and Gower's "Tale of Florent" with the knight in WBT to show that the Wife of Bath is an antifeminist character.
Rigby, Stephen H.
Stephen H. Rigby, ed., with the assistance of Alastair J. Minnis. Historians on Chaucer: The "General Prologue" to the "Canterbury Tales" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 42-62.
Presents a historical perspective on crusading in the Middle Ages and provides historical details about the Knight's battle locations in GP.
