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.
Kooper, Erik.
Juliette Dor, ed. A Wyf Ther Was: Essays in Honour of Paule Mertens-Fonck (Liege: University of Liege, 1992), pp. 209-18.
"Stone" is an allegorical figure of Christ in both the Old and New Testaments, illuminating the three kinds of stones in SNT and CYT: "those of the pagans, of the alchemists and of the Christians." Chaucer presents the "extremities of human faith"…
Kobayashi, Ayako.
Kinshiro Oshitari et al., eds. Philologia Anglica (Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1988), pp. 162-75.
Chaucer's expanded forms are mostly adjectival, as in Old English, though many of them are used appositively with intervening modifiers. He also uses them with verbs denoting durability or knowledge and with the point-action verbs, probably for…
Pope, John C.
Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, eds. Acts of Interpretation (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982), pp. 345-62.
Explicates tensions within several poetic evocations of mutability in English poetry: the Old English "Wanderer," "Beowulf," the end of Chaucer's TC (5.1835-48), and Spenser's Mutability Cantos. Chaucer and Spenser both use "equivocation" to express…
Johnston, Andrew James.
Claudia Lange, Beatrix Weber, and Göran Wolf, eds. Communicative Spaces: Variation, Contact, and Change: Papers in Honour of Ursula Schaefer (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2012), pp. 133-46.
Interprets Custance's use of "Latyn corrupt" to the natives of Northumbria in terms of Isidore of Seville's discussion of linguistic history and suggests that MLT takes an acutely historicist view of the development of medieval Christianity,…
Morse, Charlotte C.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 7 (1985): 51-86.
Discusses fourteenth-century responses to the Griselda story--notably those of Petrarch, Philippe de Mezieres, and the "Menagier de Paris--focusing on their consistent understanding of the tale as an exemplary (not allegorical) account of heroic…
Johnston, Andrew James.
Manfred Pfister, ed. A History of English Laughter: Laughter from Beowulf to Beckett and Beyond (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2002), pp. 17-33.
Johnston assesses the interactions between religious allusion and satire in MilT, exploring the exegetical traditions of God's private parts, the Flood, and Absolon's use of the Song of Songs. The Tale generates laughter that ridicules religion and…
Ecker, Roland L.
Palatka, Fla.: Hodges and Braddock, 1993
A defense of evolution cast as an imitation of CT, with a prologue and several arguments in iambic pentameter, presented as the tales of the Astronomer, the Philosopher, the Physicist, the Biblical Scholar, the Cosmologist, etc. Revised editions in…
Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 22: 407-14, 2000.
Chaucer invented the "De casibus" tragedy and assigned his tragedies to the Monk only after he had abandoned his "original serious attitude" toward them. Kelly comments on the place of MkT in Chaucer's sequence of composition.
Kellogg, Alfred L.
Alfred L. Kellogg. Chaucer, Langland, Arthur: Essays in Middle English Literature (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1972), pp. 276-329.
Reads Boccaccio's, Petrarch's and Chaucer's versions of the tale of Griselda, observing particular emphases, similarities, and differences, especially those that pertain to Griselda in relation to the ideal of the "mulier fortis" of Proverbs 31.10 in…
Examines the word "red," its connotations, and the evolution of related color words such as "crimson" and "peach" from Old English through 1900, focusing on Shakespeare and Chaucer.
Schaefer, Willene.
Dissertation Abstracts International 27.11 (1967): 3850-51A.
Investigates Chaucer's concept of "gentilesse" in light of his sources in Boethius, Dante, and Jean de Meun, and compares his notion with those found in the poetry of his contemporaries. Treats "gentilesse" as a secular virtue, although similar to…
MLT is animated by ambivalence toward and ignorance of Islam. Chaucer's adaptation of Trevet's "Cronicles" shifts emphasis and perspective. Whereas the source never mentions Mohammed or the Koran and considers Muslims to be idol-worshippers, MLT…
A history of English literature that emphasizes the continuity of ongoing forms and thematic concerns. Two chapters pertain to Chaucer: "Chaucerian Epic and Romance" and "Chaucer, Langland and the Treachery of the Text." The first traces how Chaucer…
Thirteen essays on the development of the Troilus story from antiquity to the modern age, with emphasis on Chaucer and Shakespeare. For eleven essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for The European Tragedy of Troilus under Alternative Title.
An illustrated encyclopedia of western cultures in the 14th-16th centuries that includes brief comments on "The Social Realism of Chaucer" in CT, with three accompanying passages in modern prose: the opening of the GP (1.1-41) the description of the…
Long, Lynne.
Ashley Chantler and Carla Dente, eds. Translation Practices: Through Language to Culture (New York and Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009), pp. 17-29.
Long assesses medieval translation practice through modern translation theory, exploring techniques of translation and the impact of translation on vernacular literatures. Includes sustained, comparative attention to Jean de Mean and Chaucer, with…
Allen, Judson Boyce.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982.
Medieval literary commentators uniformly assigned "literary works" to the category of ethics: poetry served as a kind of "enacted ethics" for the medieval audience. The commentators define and describe this material in terms of the "forma…
Baechle, Sarah, and Carissa M. Harris.
Chaucer Review 56.4 (2021): 311-21.
Introduces a special edition centered on Chaucerian scholarship and its relationship to power, empire, class, race, and gender, suggesting how scholars can navigate the toxic nature of Chaucer and his writings. Considers how scholars can "write about…
