Mertens-Fonck, Paule.
Erik Kooper, ed. This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Xth Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics.... (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991), pp. 189-99.
Structurally, CT parodies the clerk-knight debate (an early type of courtly-love poem), especially The Council of Remiremont. The idea of a pilgrimage on horseback may derive from these debates as well.
Kiessling, Nicolas.
[Pulman]: Washington State University, 1977.
Includes passim references to Chaucer's works and reprints as "Monks and Incubi in Chaucer" (pp. 51-55) a slightly revised version of "The Wife of Bath's Tale, D 878-81," (Chaucer Review 7 (1972): 113-17).
Sklute, Larry M.
Chaucer Review 16 (1981): 119-28.
Unlike his earlier dream visions, Chaucer's PF exhibits no structural confusion. Rather, the poet poses the possibility of variable pluralisms and leaves the poem inconclusive. The narrator is relatively uninvolved in the action, which permits…
Culver, T. D.
Yearbook of English Studies 2 (1972): 13-20.
Traces the artistic development of the Constance story from its roots in the accused queen legend through Trevet's adaptation, Gower's version, and MLT, arguing that only in Chaucer does the narrative achieve "comprehensive artistic unity" of…
Posits that Chaucer arranges matters in FranT to pose the possibility of a "dual response to the subject matter" of "trouthe," exploring reality and illusion and the competing requirements of conjugal and courtly loves. The Tale illustrates the…
Dane, Joseph A.
Huntington Library Quarterly 56 (1993): 307-17.
Reviews John H. Fisher's "The Importance of Chaucer" (Studies in the Age of Chaucer 16 (1994), no. 35); Elaine Tuttle Hansen's "Chaucer and the FIctions of Gender" (Studies in the Age of Chaucer 16 (1994), no. 90); and the "Cluster on Chaucer" in…
Examines two instances in which Hengwrt is markedly different from other early manuscripts. The first instance casts doubts on the authenticity of CYP and CYT (not in Hengwrt). The second suggests that the long form of NPP and those versions in…
Brinton, Laurel J.
Susan C. Herring, Pieter Van Reenan, and Lene Schøsler, eds. Textual Parameters in Older Languages (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, 2000), pp. 139-62.
Traces the development of "anon" from Middle English to Early Modern English, using evidence drawn from TC and elsewhere. A revised version of chaper two of Brinton's Pragmatic Markers in English (Berlin and New York: Gruyter, 1996).
Fisher, John H.
Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992.
Explores how Chaucer expanded the boundaries of the English literary idiom. Chaucer's innovations capitalize on the rise of a new audience, a class of bureaucrats and businessmen who shared his education at the inns of court and chancery. Details…
Purdie demonstrates that the layout of Th in several key early manuscripts derives from the traditional layout of Middle English tail-rhyme poetry. Chaucer intended to contribute to the Tale's humor with this arrangement, which reflects his…
Prendergast, Thomas A.
Helen M. Hickey, Anne McKendry, and Melissa Raine, eds. Contemporary Chaucer across the Centuries (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018), pp. 125-37.
Considers possible motives for the "Beryn" scribe to include the "Prologue" and the "Tale of Beryn" in one of the CT mansucripts that he copied, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, MS 455 (Nl), arguing that he was responding to the "agency of the text,"…
Tracing the revival of the romance genre, Santini describes in chronological order the work of amateur scholars, editors, and editorial societies that produced editions and commentary on Middle English romances between 1760 and 1860. Comments on the…
Studies the distribution of Chaucer's impersonal verb "listen" (to be pleasing), focusing on disparities between distributions in prose and verse, usage in formulaic expressions, and transition from impersonal to personal usage.
Ohno, Hideshi.
Osamu Imahayashi, Yoshiyuki Nakao, and Michiko Ogura, eds. Aspects of the History of the English Language and Literature: Selected Papers Read at SHELL 2009, Hiroshima (New York; Peter Lang, 2010), pp. 115-29.
Tabulates features of impersonal usage in Chaucer, Gower, and Langland, using a variety of verbs and commenting on the conditions of usage.
Tinkle, Theresa.
Donka Minkova and Theresa Tinkle, eds. Chaucer and the Challenges of Medievalism: Studies in Honor of H. A. Kelly (Frankfurt and New York : Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 157-74.
The treatment of Cupid in the various works of Bodleian MS Fairfax 16 reveals a cultural transition from the Gallic tradition of the supremacy of love-and from the Latinate tradition of the supremacy of religion-to a new English poetic tradition.…
Federico, Sylvia.
Journal of British Studies 40: 159-81, 2001.
Documents evidence of women's participation in the uprising of 1381, considering judicial records, chronicles by Henry Knighton and Thomas Walsingham, and poetic depictions by Chaucer and Gower. In the chase scene of NPT, Chaucer depicts women as…
Lee, Dong Choon.
Medieval and Early Modern English Studies 24.2 (2016): 83-105.
Discusses medieval concepts of aging and Chaucer's depictions of old men in CT. Claims that Chaucer displays a balanced attitude in his depictions of old men, which differs from how medieval society tended to view the elderly in a negative light.
Clogan, Paul M.
Hugh T. Keenan, ed. Typology and English Medieval Literature (New York: AMS, 1992), pp. 168.
Building on medieval conventions in which the city was a metaphor for the human condition, Thebes--known for fratricide and civil war--symbolizes disorder and chaos. Theseus, especially through his subjugation of the queen of the lawless and violent…
Toole, William B., III.
Jack M. Durant and M. Thomas Hester, eds. A Fair Day in the Affections: Literary Essays in Honor of Robert B. White, Jr. (Raleigh, NC: Winston, 1980), pp. 25-35.
In developing the theme that Troilus values too highly love and beauty in this world, Chaucer throughout TC intertwines imagery of Fortune and of religion to describe Troilus' experiences and to characterize Criseyde. Although the depiction of…
Sadlek, Gregory M.
Klaus Jankofsky, ed. The South English Legendary: A Critical Assessment (Tubingen: A. Francke, 1992), pp. 49-64.
In "St. Michael," the image of the Devil's five fingers is a homiletic, mnemonic device to convey a lesson on sin. Chaucer's version in ParsT has a clear literary quality.
Heidt, Edward R.
Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1994.
Chronological survey of representative depictions of church ministers in a variety of works, from Chaucer to Morris West, briefly considering works by Shakespeare, Trollope, John Henry Newman, George Eliot, Ibsen, Edmund Gosse, Joyce, Graham Greene,…
Donovan, Mortimer J.
Philological Quarterly 36 (1957): 49–60.
Identifies parallels between the characterizations of January and May in MerT and those of Pluto and Proserpine in Claudian's "De Raptu Proserpinae." Anticipating the role of the fairy deities in Chaucer's Pear-Tree episode, Claudian's "myth of…
