Trigg, Stephanie.
La Trobe Journal 81 (2008): 106-17.
Interrogates features of the reception of Chaucer from Thomas Speght's editions of 1598 and 1602 to twentieth-first century criticism, focusing on the poet's reference to Wade and his boat in MerT 4.1423-26. Discloses the critical legacy of the…
Explores the diction and imagery of MilT, focusing on oral and olfactory instances for the ways that they ironically anticipate details of the plot, particularly the misdirected kiss received by Absolon and colter-burn he directs at Nicholas.
Gleason, Mark J.
Dissertation Abstracts International 45 (1985): 2096A.
In his most Boethian poem, Chaucer relies heavily on Nicholas Trevet's "Commentary" on the Consolation of Philosophy, even versifying one of Trevet's glosses and adopting his Aristotelian interpretation.
Paull, Michael R.
Chaucer Review 5.3 (1971): 179-94.
Shows how Chaucer's changes to Nicholas Trevet's version of the Constance narrative are influenced by the conventions of hagiography, including a tendency to allegory and heightened rhetoric. Assesses MLT as melodrama.
Hoffman, Richard L.
Beryl Rowland, ed. Companion to Chaucer Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 185-201.
Chaucer's favorite Latin author was Ovid, followed by Virgil and Statius, as well as several prose writers. The central problem in evaluating the Latin influence on Chaucer is to determine what sorts of manuscripts he used--not just texts,but…
Describes the models of verbal portraiture in the "Rhetorica ad Herennium" and works by Geoffrey of Vinsauf and Matthew of Vendôme and their impact on Chaucer, arguing that the portraits of Fortune and Blanche in BD reflect the Black Knight's state…
Costomiris, Robert.
Thomas A. Prendergast and Barbara Kline, eds. Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority, and the Idea of the Authentic Text, 1400-1602 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999), pp. 237-57.
Assessing tale order, various links, and the treatment of spurious works in William Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer's Works, Costomiris argues that Thynne depended on William Caxton's first edition of CT and on one or another d-class manuscript.…
Bishop, Kathleen A.
Chaucer Review 35: 294-317, 2001.
Classical and medieval Latin influences on the fabliaux are as important to analyze as are the analogues Chaucer draws upon for his tales. Specifically, a close consideration of Plautus and Latin elegiac comedy can lead to a fuller understanding of…
Argues that, despite the influence of French on the idioms, spelling, and pronunciation of Chaucer's English, the "basic structure of English as a Germanic language . . . remained intact." In Japanese, with English abstract.
Manaf, Nor Faridah Abdul.
Islamic Quarterly 46 : 247-58, 2002.
Tallies similarities among PF, the Persian Mant̓iq al-T̓ayr, and Peter Brook's theatrical adaptation, "Conference of Birds." The author comments on titles, frame, and universality of message.
Payne, Roberta Louise.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2688A.
"Pearl" is much more closely related to Dante than has previously been shown. Chaucer draws on Dante not only in HF and PF but also for Criseyde's dream (TC), drawn from the "Vita nuova." Only a few other English works (Lydgate's "Temple of Glass"…
Payne, Roberta L.
New York, Bern, Frankfurt am Main, and Paris: Peter Lang, 1989.
Payne first considers the question of Dante's influence on fourteenth-century English poets and the ways it can be studied. In the following four chapters, she examines the relationship of the "Divine Comedy" to "Pearl" and to HF, studies the…
The Boethian neo-platonic truth (man is immortal) gives insight into love's complexities and purpose and thematic unity to the "Somnium" precis and the love-vision. Nature's "governaunce" over the birds, like the Boethian bond of love, parallels the…
Kaylor, Noel Harold, Jr.
Medieval English Studies 5 (1997): 83-105.
The influence of Boethius and Dante "gives shape and universal meaning" to TC. The operation of Fortune and her wheel, the four "Classical cardinal emotions," Dante's three spiritual realms, and the code of knighthood are evident in the deep…
The academic prologue, which introduced commentaries on "auctores," developed an Aristotelian form in the thirteenth century. Chaucer did not employ any of the traditional prologue paradigms, but many of his literary attitudes seem to have been…
In this study of Princeton MS 100.1, Boyd posits that the b-text, admittedly faulty, represents the parchment core of MS Helmingham, itself an effort to save CT through cutting and summarizing the text. Its errors might also lie in the fact that…
Renoir, Alain.
Edward Vasta and Zacharias P. Thundy, ed. Chaucerian Problems and Perspectives: Essays Presented to Paul E. Beichner, C. S. C. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979), pp. 180-206.
TC reveals on a serious level a sexual pattern similar to that of the ludicrous MilT. In spite of disparity of social status, Alisoun and Criseyde offer the same promise to a would-be lover; Absolon and Troilus suffer in similar ways; the same kind…
The "Index of Middle English Prose" identifies and locates every prose text in English, 1200-1500. The initial volume in the series, Hanna's "Handlist I" describes 444 texts. Search under title for additional volumes.
Ogilvie-Thomson, S. J.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2017.
Describes the contents of the 167 manuscripts in the Rawlinson Collection that include Middle English prose; the following have Chaucerian material: D.3 [1] (Astr); D.913 [9] (Astr); poet.141 [1] (Mel); poet.149 [1] (Mel); poet.149 [3] (ParsT); and…
Lists all pieces of Middle English prose in the Douce collection, giving about fifty words of the beginning of each text and twenty at the end, with an index of incipits and explicits.
