Eisner, Sigmund, ed. Trans. Gary MacEoin and Sigmund Eisner.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980.
Facing-page edition and translation of Nicholas of Lynn's "Kalendarium," a source for Astr (as Chaucer tells us) and for the astronomical observations in three passages of CT (MLP, NPT, and ParsP). Based on Bodleian Library MS Laud Miscellaneous 662,…
Mooney, Linne R., ed. and trans.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.
Referred to by Chaucer in Astr, Somer's "Kalendarium" may have been a source for a number of the poet's astrological references. This facing-page edition and English translation of the Latin "Kalendarium" includes descriptions of the manuscripts;…
Wawrzyniak, Agnieszka.
Marcian Grygiel and Robert Kieltyka, eds. Cognitive Linguistics in the Year 2017 (New York: Peter Lang, 2019), pp. 87-97.
Describes Chaucer's uses of "soth," "sothly," "verry," "verrily," and "lye" as epistemic markers, contrasting the density of his usage with that found in present-day English to distinguish between medieval and modern worldviews as, respectively,…
Cox, Catherine S.
Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2005.
Four chapters and an epilogue. Chapter 1 establishes the background for exploration of "the late medieval legacy of early Christianity's appropriation of the Hebrew scriptures." Chapters 2-3 assess Dante's "Commedia" and "Sir Gawain and the Green…
Brown, Emerson, Jr.
Alan T. Gaylord, ed. Essays on the Art of Chaucer's Verse (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 267-79.
Brown discourages emendation ("dreary refinements") of Chaucer's meter, arguing that "broken-backed" or "Lydgatian" lines recorded in good manuscripts are likely to be Chaucer's own. Metrical variation within Chaucer's dominant patterns can have…
Joyner, William.
English Review of Salem State College 1.2 (1973): 28-41.
Examines ways in which the dreamer's journey in HF parallels his summary of the "Aeneid," identifying verbal echoes as well as similarities in plot and detail. Emends traditional punctuation of lines 109-13 to reinforce the parallel.
Scattergood, John.
Keith Busby and Erik Kooper, eds. "Courtly Liberature: Culture and Context" (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1990), pp. 499-508.
Much of the scholarship on Chaucer's "Adam" has focused on identification. But "many of Chaucer's shorter poems are genre pieces in which personal statement emerges by way of a treatment of conventional matters; a traditional type of poem is…
Rose, Christine M.
Maud Burnett McInerney, ed. Hildegard of Bingen: A Book of Essays. Garland Medieval Casebooks, no. 20; Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, no. 2037. (New York and London: Garland, 1998), pp. 191-226.
Explores representations of the mother-in-law as a figure of Jewry and the synagogue in Western literary tradition. Although MLT overtly poses the Orient as the malevolent Other through the Sultaness, it also suggests in veiled ways that Jews…
Delany, Sheila.
David Gay and Stephen R. Reimer, eds. Locating the Past/Discovering the Present: Perspectives on Religion, Culture, and Marginality (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2010), pp. 1-21.
Delany explores the "imbrication" of life and art in PrT and the expulsion of Jews from France in 1394. She gauges Chaucer's contact with Jews and describes the conditions under which Jews lived in fourteenth-century France, specifically the results…
Explores the symbolic value of the gems, their colors, and their settings (rings and brooch) in TC, discussing the moral implications referred to in medieval lapidaries.
Bale, Anthony.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
A study of the "reiteration, instability and changing valence of the Jewish image as inscribed in medieval English books," focusing on four generic narratives: the Jew of Tewkesbury, the Marian miracle of the boy singer, the cult of Robert of Bury…
Adams, John F.
Studies in Medieval Culture 4 (1974): 446-51.
MerT is both fabliau and romance, both realistic and allegorical. Janus was god of gates and of marriage beds. January falls under Aquarius, associated with old age; May, under Gemini, was associated with youth. The name of the sacred Roman gate…
Cox, Catherine S.
South Atlantic Review 61 (1996): 1-21.
As a character "capable of saying one thing but meaning quite another," the Manciple ridicules the "wisdom of the mother" at the end of ManT. The crow suffers for the "feminine behavior" of talking too much, and the Manciple talks "as if a woman" to…
Ruggiers, Paul G.
Beryl Rowland., ed. Companion to Chaucer Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 160-84.
Chaucer made at least two authenticated journeys to Italy whereby he gained a knowledge of the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Curiously, though he borrowed extensive narrative material from Boccaccio, Chaucer never mentions him by name as…
Sells, A. Lytton.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955.
Assesses the influence--direct and mediated--of Italian literature on English poetry from Chaucer to Robert Southwell (excluding verse drama), considering issues of meter and style as well as plot, atmosphere, and theme. Opens with appreciative…
Argues that Chaucer's similes cannot be explained in terms of imitation of Dante and Boccaccio or direct imitation of classical models. Instead, following the example of Dante and Boccaccio, Chaucer practiced a "poetics of vernacularization,"…
Conroy, Anne Rosemarie.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1977): 253A-54A.
"The Isle of Ladies" was attributed to Chaucer until 1878. It is primarily a lover's complaint to his lady. The characters are based on Chaucerian models (like Criseyde) but play somewhat different roles.
Staley, Lynn.
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.
Beginning with Gildas' depiction of England as a beautiful garden, explores metaphorical and physical gardens in medieval English cultural history, arguing that Chaucer indicates "awareness of nation as landscape" in CT. Chapters 2 and 3 emphasize…
Lenaghan, R. T.
Chaucer Review 7.4 (1973): 281-94.
Argues that, while clearly discrediting summoners, the Friar "also discredits himself." Reads FrT as a exemplum that satirizes summoners and, ironically, condemns the Friar's malicious hypocrisy, especially clear in light of contemporary sermon…
Allen, Judson Boyce.
Studies in Philology 66 (1969): 25-35.
Uses allegorical interpretations from Hugh of St. Cher to show how the exegetical equation of cock and preacher is consistently upended in the description and actions of Chauntecleer in NPT, offering a mock allegory where "fruit is chaff."
