Browse Items (16035 total)

Describes a "flicker of humour" in Chaucer's allusion to Boethius in NPT (7.3294-95), indicating that the poet disagrees with his authority on the point of musical sensitivity.

Item not seen; cited in MLA International Bibliography.

The innovative material in the first three books of Capgrave's "Life" is indebted to the fifteenth century's interest in Chaucer's "elevated" and pious passages, especially those in TC. Stylistically, however, Capgrave's attempt to emulate his…

Chaucer's optimism, humor, and satire as well can be properly appreciated only in the light of his Catholic view of life. Some typical mistakes in translation are also made from lack of enough knowledge of Catholicism: the doctrines, liturgies,…

Explores the range and depth of Chaucer's familiarity with the "Liber Catonis," its commentaries and glosses, and the likelihood that he memorized portions as a schoolboy. Identifies verbal echoes of "Catoniana" in Chaucer's works; then focuses on…

Although Chaucer typically "covered his tracks," a major source of HF is Plato's "Timaeus" in the translation and commentary of Chalcidius.

Examines CT characters for individuality not conditioned by the story in FranT, MilT, TC, GP's Host and Merchant, MerP, MerT, and RvT.

Survey's Wurtele's studies of Chaucer, clarifying the critic's consistent concern with characterization and how it relates to critical trends.

Nine essays by various authors accompanied by a cultural timeline and a comprehensive index. For the individual essays, search for Chaucer and Chaucerians under Alternative Title.

The references to chess in BD are confused because Chaucer seems not to have had any firsthand knowledge of the game, his source being not a proper handbook but the "Roman de la Rose." Applying the chess metaphor from Jean de Meun to a dissimilar…

Keen surveys a range of late medieval attitudes toward chivalry, knighthood, and warfare, especially a "streak of puritanism" that criticized the vainglory of chivalry. He considers a range of texts, including Chaucer's ParsT and the GP description…

Gauges Chaucer's familiarity with the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes, commenting on the English poet's use of "vavasour" to describe the Franklin and on his allusions to Lancelot, Arthur, and Gawain. Suggests the possibility that…

Understanding medieval literary use of scriptural tradition requires knowledge of relevant social history, especially for Chaucer--not merely a "textual" man but a "moral, social, and political man." The complex Christian tradition, functioning…

Assesses the details and implications of the clothing and accoutrements of the clerical and academic pilgrims in GP, discussing the Prioress, Monk, Friar, Clerk, Physician, Parson, Pardoner, and Summoner. More richly symbolic than secular dress,…

There are those Chaucer readers who feel that he failed to take life seriously enough. His view of the world was indeed serious; it was not, however, a tragic view. His art is his love of the human comedy and thereby hang the tales of some of the…

In response to Morton Bloomfield, "Contemporary Literary Theory and Chaucer," Minnis distinguishes between the "alterity" and the "modernity" of medieval literature, arguing that medieval theories of literature should be applied to Chaucer.

Introduces the kinds of courts with which Chaucer would have been acquainted, organized into sections on house and law and one on game that end with readings of FrT and SNT. Discusses the range of courtly depictions, cataloguing "some of the…

Explores the variety, subtleties, and complexities of Chaucer's "costume rhetoric" in GP, examining how details of the secular pilgrims' dress and accoutrement capitalize on late-medieval English clothing practice and extend literary tradition.…

Argues that Chaucer was the "Father of English Prudery" because (fabliaux notwithstanding) he elevated and purified the English language by inventing a language of circumlocution and courtly indirection and by substituting Latinate terms for the…

Shows how late medieval "anxieties over the corruption of chivalry" and criticism of the morals, motives, and conduct of crusaders" are reflected in the pairing of the GP descriptions of the Squire and Knight, and in KnT and SqT. Argues that…

Evaluates Chaucer's indebtedness to Dante by examining ascriptions (indexed two ways). Considers aspects of Chaucer-Dante relationship within European setting. The younger Chaucer borrowed isolated lines and phrases from the "Comedy"; the mature…

Comments on Chaucer's possible access to Dante's works before traveling to Italy in 1372, and explores the "literary relationship of the two writers," arguing that "Chaucer drew on Dante not heavily but over many years," principally for the Ugolino…

Advocates a "contextual" approach to source study, arguing that several discussions of Dante's influence on Chaucer depend upon weak correspondences, better treated as shared tradition than direct influence. Discusses the lists of lovers in PF and…

Chaucer's ABC closely reflects its original, a portion of Deguilleville's "Pelerinage." What critics have seen as Chaucer's creative contributions are better described as examples of "redistribution."

Wallace considers Eustace Deschamps's attitudes toward the English occupation of Calais and reads Deschamps's ballade 285 (which praises Chaucer) as a "spirited act of reverse or returned colonization." Identifies parallels in the careers of…