Explores "the complex thematic and structural functions" of the Pluto-Proserpina episode in MerT, treating it as a fit denouement in the traditional pear-tree plot, and arguing that it deepens the unifying thematic dimensions of the Tale by…
Turner, W, Arthur.
English Language Notes 3.2 (1965): 92-95.
Observes similarities in the parallel lists of Biblical women in MerT 4.1362-74 and Mel 7.1098-1101, and argues that their presence is "ironical" in the former but not the latter: "by the time" Chaucer wrote MerT he saw "both sides to the characters…
A parody of GP in faux Middle English, rhymed in iambic pentameter couplets. Includes twenty characters, such as the Model, the Astronaut, the Beatnik, the Psychoanalyst, etc.
Steadman, John.
English Language Notes 3.1 (1965): 4-7.
Suggests that the "fatal treasure" of PardT gains ironic dimension when seen in light of the theory of the "treasury of merits," used to explain or justify the sale of indulgences.
Translates TC into modern English, in rhyme royal stanzas, with end-of-text notes and three appendices: a) the "domestic background" of the poem, b) courtly love, and c) a chronology of Chaucer's life. The notes emphasize social and literary…
Stanley-Wrench, Margaret.
Schachner, Erwin, illus.
New York: Hawthorn Books, 1965.
A biography of Chaucer designed for juvenile or young adult readers, including imagined scenes from his childhood, marriage, travels, and professional life, as well as commentary on his literary works. Includes a chronology of "Dates and Events," an…
Silvia, Daniel S., Jr.
Studies in Philology 62 (1965): 28-39.
Argues that Chaucer himself is the "most reasonable choice" for author of the glosses to CT manuscripts that derive from St. Jerome's "Epistola Adversus Jovinianum." Discusses how the glosses to WBP indicate "Chaucer as glossator" and how two…
Rumble, Thomas C., ed.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1965.
Presents eight Breton lays in Middle English, each with bottom-of-page glosses, a facsimile manuscript page, a bibliography, and a general Introduction (pp. xiii-xxx) that describes the nature of the genre, its history, and French sources of the…
Ruggiers, Paul G.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965.
Describes the aesthetic and moral principles and practices, overt and covert, of the CT, acclaiming the vitality of the "framing structure" of the links and the complex ironies of the narrator (especially in Ret) for the ways that they enable and…
Surveys Chaucer's references to dogs, showing that his depictions of the animal are generally "pejorative," following a tradition of denunciation by satirists, homilists, and the writers of romances. Argues that the whelp in BD 389ff. is not…
Contends that the WB's reference to grinding at a mill (WBP 3.389) capitalizes on traditional sexual associations of mills with women, anticipated at her reference to "barly-breed" (WBP 3.144).
Robertson, D. W., Jr.
John Mahoney and John Esten Keller, eds. Mediaeval Studies in Honor of Urban Tigner Holmes, Jr. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965), pp. 165-95.
Assesses BD as a late-medieval "public funerary poem" rather than a portrait of psychological grief, interpreting the Black Knight as a generic, Boethian figure deprived by fortune, rather than as John of Gaunt, and discussing the character Blanche…
Roache, Joel.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 64 (1965): 1-6.
Documents "legal aspects" of discovered treasure in late-medieval England, identifying similarities in lexicon and imagery between legal records concerning found hoards and the rioters' descriptions of their treasure in PardT. The similarities…
Ridley, Florence H.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.
Surveys critical approaches to PrT, distinguishing between "hard critics" of the Tale who read it as an indictment of the teller's anti-Semitism, and "historical" approaches that consider it in light of late-medieval attitudes and practices. Argues…
Argues that "imagery and narrative detail" in ShT subtly undercut the Tale's "relish for quick-witted deception" and its "philosophy of money," typical of the fabliau genre. Several image clusters and their points of occurrence in the Tale evoke "the…
Surveys the "editions and translations of Chaucer currently in print" (in 1965) and designed for college courses, commenting on their strengths and weaknesses.
Explores the characterization of the Canon in CYP and the first part of CYT, arguing that he is embarrassed at being a "simple puffer" and not an illuminati of the alchemical arts--"a pathetic if not a tragic figure, broken through following a…
Pace, George B.
Studies in Bibliography 18 (1965): 41-48.
Offers "a detailed textual analysis" of Prov, furnishing "a text based on four authorities," and, while not affirming or denying attribution to Chaucer, setting "the record straight, perhaps, on certain matters connected with authenticity."
Mogan, Joseph J., Jr.
Papers on Language and Literature 1 (1965): 72-77.
Identifies two examples of the "memento mori" motif and two of "ubi sunt" in TC, three of these added by Chaucer to his material, and all of them contributing to the poem's dominant theme of the transitory nature of human love and life.
Describes the "functional similarity" between medieval exempla of obedience and WBT and Gower's Tale of Florent, illustrating the similarity by discussing fair/foul transformation and inversion motifs in various exempla, and arguing that the…
Midonick, Henrietta O., ed.
New York: Philosophical Library, 1965.
Anthologizes 54 selections and excerpts from the history of mathematics and related sciences from around the world, ranging widely in date from classics to the nineteenth century. Includes a selection (pp. 220-42) of a modernization of Astr, from R.…
