Dent, A. A.
Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 9 (1959): 1-12.
Investigates the "equestrian vocabulary" used by Chaucer, with particular attention to GP, but including his other references to horses, their tackle, colors, names, conditions, movements, etc., clarifying the denotations of the terminology. Includes…
Kane, George.
Geoffrey Chaucer: Conferenze Organizzate dall'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Collaborazione con la British Academy (Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1977), pp. 35-49.
Postulates a crucial division in Chaucer's poetic career, separated by a "courteous but thoughtful and decisive rejection of 'fine amour'," reflected in PF, TC, and LGWP. Acknowledges the impact of French and Italian models on Chaucer's changing idea…
Axton, Richard.
Michel Bitot, ed., with Roberta Mullini and Peter Happe. Divers Toyes Mengled: Essays on Medieval and Renaissance Culture in Honour of Andre Lascombes (Tours: Universite Francois Rabelais, 1996), pp. 83-100.
Examines theatricality in Chaucer's work evidenced in spatial representations, the specialized behavior of performers, and the presence of an audience in PrT, SNT, and MilT. Some attention to TC, HF, MkT, SqT, and FranT.
DeVries, David N.
Chaucer Review 32 (1998): 391-99.
Despite David Wallace's assertion that London is "absent" in Chaucer, and D. W. Robertson's contention that medieval Londoners were content within "an hierarchical classless society," CT depicts London as an "underworld," where unscrupulous…
Kolve, V. A.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984.
Juxtaposes "visual materials and their literary analogues" to illuminate larger images created by narrative action. Seven chapters treat medieval hypotheses of audience and image; Chaucerian aesthetics of the image in the poem; KnT, the…
Hurd, Myles R.
College Language Association Journal 34:1 (1990): 99-107.
Presented differently than in Trevet, Chaucer's scenes of the blind Briton and the blindfolded Maurice in MLT emphasize the helplessness of humankind and the help of God. The emphasis is consistent with Innocent III's "De miseria condicionis humane"…
HF, a turning point in Chaucer's career and in English literary culture, reflects attitudes toward fame and glory from Homer to the Scholastics to writers of the Italian "trecento." The poem deals with issues of fame, poetry, and linguistic theory…
Peck, Russell A.
John V. Fleming and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 2, 1986. (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1987), pp. 33-48.
Examines through the eyes of modern poets the ability of medieval imagination "to bridge gaps gracefully between the poets and the world around them"--addressing "all varieties of experience, aspiration, and frustration," often through fresh and…
Surveys criticism of ClT in order to show the "inadequacy" of this criticism and reads the Tale as a "typological allegory" even though it goes steps beyond its sources in depicting the plot realistically.
Sociohistorical commentary on the rise of prestige markers in English writing and speech, focusing on accent as a marker in Chaucer's time and soon after, in particular the pronunciation of final -e, the Great Vowel Shift, and northern dialect…
Boitani, Piero.
Giuseppe Galigani, ed. Italomania(s): Italy and the English Speaking World from Chaucer to Seamus Heaney. Proceedings of the Georgetown and Kent State University Conference Held in Florence in [sic] June 20-21, 2005 (Florence: Mauro Pagliai, 2007), pp. 15-25.
Boitani surveys Chaucer's "ongoing dialogue" with Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, discussing how Chaucer's borrowings reflect his "prodigious memory and striking associative and intertextual skill." Draws examples from PF, TC, KnT and ClT and…
Rex, Richard.
Modern Language Quarterly 45 (1984): 107-22.
Cites evidence from medieval theology, sermon literature, etc., to show fourteenth-century religious tolerance of Jews and the belief that they could gain salvation. PrT is Chaucer's ironic comment on the Prioress, religious prejudice, and common…
Delany, Sheila, ed.
New York and London : Routledge, 2002.
Fourteen essays by various authors who study Jews as an absent presence in medieval England, considering fourteenth- and fifteenth-century texts for their literary, historical, theological, and visual representations of Jews. Some essays reprinted.…
Reads PF in light of its sources as an allegory of aristocratic responsibility for maintaining natural law and a just society; KnT as an exploration of lawlessness set against the background of Status's "Thebaid," focusing on the tournament; and the…
Wenzel, Siegfried.
Studies in Philology 73 (1976): 138-61.
The influence of sermon language and structure has been recognized in certain of Chaucer's characterizations. However, his reliance on contemporary preaching obviously goes beyond such loose imitation to the borrowing of story plots, images, and…
Bisson, Lillian M.
New York : St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Reads Chaucer's works for the ways they reflect the "conflicting realities he confronted in his world." An opening section on "The Poet and His World" introduces the "double vision" of the intellectual world Chaucer inherited and describes his…
Harbert, Bruce.
Derek Brewer, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer. Writers and their Background (London: G. Bell, 1974), pp. 137-53.
Clarifies various difficulties in determining "how much classical Latin literature" Chaucer knew and details his relative familiarity with works by Cicero, Livy, Cato, Lucan, Statius, Claudian, Virgil, and Ovid. Chaucer was little influenced by…
Hornsby, Joseph Allen.
Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1988.
Explores Chaucer's legal background, his connection with English canon law of agreements, the secular law of agreements, and medieval English criminal law and procedure.
Morgan, Philippa.
New York: Carroll & Graf; London: Constable, 2005.
Historical detective novel, with Chaucer, while on a diplomatic mission to Florence in 1373, investigating the murder of Florentine banking magnate Antonio Lipari who had arranged to loan money to Edward III.
Braswell, Laurel.
English Studies in Canada 2 (1976): 373-80.
Two narratives of the "Legenda aurea" are likely sources for the anti-mendicant satire in WBP and WBT. Imagery in the legends of Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Francis of Assisi parallels the Wife's anti-mendicant satire, and provides a close…