Focuses on the theological and comical elements of CT and its "beatific vision." Claims that Chaucer "provides a lyrical vision of the possibilities of poetry and pilgrimage" in GP.
By subtle allusions and a skillful balance of opposites, Chaucer reveals that the Wife of Bath conspired with Jankyn to kill her fourth husband, caused Jankyn's death by betraying him to her friends, and became a garish, cynical old woman incapable…
Frakes, J. C.
Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill, 1988.
Examines Fortune in the Roman tradition, in Boethius, in Latin commentaries on the "Consolatione," in King Alfred's adaptation, and in Notker's exegesis.
A survey of fantasy literature in England, arranged topically in six categories: secondary world, metaphysical, emotive, comic, subversive, and children's. Includes commentary on various works by Chaucer in an opening chapter called "The Origins of…
Butterfield, Ardis.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Explores the political, linguistic, and cultural relations between "France" and "England" before the stabilization of the areas' geographical boundaries. Interdependence between the two areas challenges modern notions of nationality, linguistic…
Spurr, Barry.
Sydney Studies in English 37 (2011): 1-18.
Spurr cites A. E. Housman's lecture "The Name and Nature of Poetry" and calls upon the makers of the Australian National Curriculum not to excise CT and other canonical texts from the program.
Schmitz, Gotz.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
English translation, with a new preface, of Die Frauenklage: Studies zur englischen Verserzahlung in der englischen Literature des Spatmittelalter und der Renaissance (Tubingen: Niemeyer, 1984). Investigates the relations between subject matter and…
Andrew, Malcolm.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 75-93.
Although critics have generally dismissed "Sir Gawain's" Troy frame as insignificant, it may offer a retrospective, ironic context for predicting the fall of Arthurian civilization. Chaucer's TC also uses "retrospective irony" to create "a rich and…
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Susanna Greer Fein, David Raybin, and Peter C. Braeger, eds. Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in The Canterbury Tales. Studies in Medieval Culture, no. 29 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991), pp. 173-88.
Unlike its two closest analogues--Mars and Anel--the falcon's lament exceeds its own generic and linguistic constraints and functions as both narrative and complaint.
The carpenter's comments on his knave's report of Nicholas's condition must be seen in terms of the vigorous promotion of the connection between the working class and a severely circumscribed knowledge of the rudiments of faith.
Pask, Kevin.
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013
Explores developments in the writing of fantasy literature, describing WBT along the way as an indication of an early stage in the diminishing status of romance, migrating from "elite to popular culture."
Baylor, Jeffrey.
English Language Notes 28:1 (1990): 17-19.
RvT is a denunciation of the university system and its participants. The two clerks abandon their learning and stoop to the anti-intellectual level of the miller.
Edwards, Robert R.
Robert R. Edwards. Ratio and Invention: A Study of Medieval Lyric and Narrative (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 1989), pp. 131-45.
According to literary theorists, writers were able either to rework sources or more easily, to invent new matter. In the former method, the poet had to work the original idea anew, avoiding too close imitation, errors, and confusion. In SqT, the…
Introduces the 2002 Kathleen Williams Lecture on the sexual politics of FQ with an anecdote about a Smith College professor's delicacy with language in MilT and RvT; connects RvT with acquaintance rape.
An encyclopedia of authors, works, genres, trends, terminology, and sources of British poetry from the beginnings to 1600, with entries composed by the editor and many contributors, with cross listings and suggestions for further reading. Includes an…
Bassil, Veronica.
Texas Studies in Literature and Language 26 (1984): 157-82.
ClT influenced "The Not-Browne Mayd" in narrative action, diction, and organization. The latter was the model for Matthew Prior's "Henry and Emma," which was in turn the model for Richardson's "Clarissa."
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…
Fyler, John M.
Modern Language Quarterly 41 (1980): 115-30.
Just as TC is "distanced" from the reader by its setting during the Trojan War, so too does Pandarus blur the lines between reality and fiction. The "real" world is an illusion; the little world of the lovers is all that is real. Ironically,…
Brewer, Derek S.
Beryl Rowland, ed. Companion to Chaucer Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 296-325.
The advance of the fabliaux in critical estimation is perhaps the major development of twentieth-century Chaucer studies. The fabliau--an "upper"-class genre ridiculing the buffoneries of the "lower" classes and clergy--flourished in…
Allinson, Jane Frank.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1981): 1140A.
The nine surviving Anglo-Norman fabliaux (three translated from manuscripts are appended) differ from their seven English counterparts (five in CT) in depicting higher social ranks, incorporating less violence, and introducing less antifeminism. …
This six-chapter history of fabliau tradition begins with an examination of medieval French fabliaux, including a description of their usual characteristics and a discussion of relevant criticism. It then addresses French fabliaux in English, as…
Gardner, Helen, ed.
London: Faber and Faber, 1972.
Includes four selections of Chaucer's verse, in Middle English: Truth, ["Love Unfeigned"] (TC 5.1835-48), ["A Wanton Merry Friar"] (GP 1.208-68), and ["A Poor Parson"] (GP 1.476-97 . . . 507-28). Published in New York by Oxford University Press as "A…
Berger, Harry, Jr.
Chaucer Review 1.2 (1966): 88-102 and 1.3 (1967): 135-56.
Interprets SqT and FranT as "expressions of their tellers," with the latter being an "instructive modification" of the "Squire's attitude toward life." Contrasts the uses of rhetorical devices in SqT and KnT in order to show the Squire's youthful,…
Assesses several aspects of the "ballade" in LGWP to argue that the differences between the F and G versions of the interpolated poem (itself composed as a standalone lyric) indicate that the F version predates the G.
