Annotations by 16th- and 17th-century readers show an ongoing interest in Chaucer as a source of sententiae and a focus of antiquarian interest; they also shed light on the role of women readers and on the household as a reading center. Their net …
Lewis, Robert Enzer.
Chaucer Review 2.3 (1968): 139-58.
Analyzes the context, syntax, and lexicon of Chaucer's reference to his now-lost "Of the Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde" (LGWP-G 414-5) to help establish its nature as a translation of Pope Innocent III's entire "De miseria humane conditionis."…
Argues that the context and argument of Horobin's refutation of Fletcher's earlier essay are deficient (see "The Criteria for Scribal Attribution: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 244, Some Early Copies of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Canon of…
Boitani, Piero.
Piero Boitani, ed. Chaucer and the Italian Trecento (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 115-39.
Dante and Chaucer shared a common knowledge in the classics, medieval philosophy, and science. For HF, Chaucer drew on the "Purgatorio" and the "Paradiso" more than on the "Inferno." TC is Chaucer's equivalent of the "Divine Comedy" and the…
Anderson, Judith H.
Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, eds. Acts of Interpretation (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982), pp. 105-18.
Close reading of the uses of the conjunction "but" as an "illogical adversative" in Spenser's Proem to Book 6 of "The Faerie Queene," compared and contrasted with Chaucer's related uses in his GP. Generally, Chaucer's usage "serves narrative…
Proposes a Wittgensteinian approach to Chaucer's language that eschews the inherent limitations of linguistic description and stylistic analysis. The poet's works are about language.
Aloni, Gila.
Leo Carruthers and Adrian Papahagi, eds. Paroles et silences dans la littrature anglaise au Moyen Age (Paris : Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 2003), pp. 119-34.
Three concerns in LGW--space in "Thisbe," rhetoric in "Lucrece," and the exchange of women in "Hypsipyle and Medea"--demonstrate that the power of apparently passive women lies in their moral superiority over men.
Ruud, Jay.
Nicholas Wallerstein and Roger Ochse, eds. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature (Spearfish, S. D.: Black Hills State University Printing, 2002), pp. 74-83.
Examines Chaucer's translation of Petrarch's Sonnet 132 (TC 1.400-420), commenting on his facility with Italian and his comprehension of the sonnet and other verse forms. Chaucer's translation redirects the emphasis of the lyric to concern for…
Argues that in translating Renaud de Louens's "Le Livre de Mellibee" in his own Mel, Chaucer created an "overtly rhetorical style for purposes of parody." Probably an expansion of an earlier, abridged translation by Chaucer, Mel is characterized by…
Rowland, Beryl.
Studia Neophilologica 51 (1979): 205-13.
Like his French predecessors, Chaucer employs a commonplace detail and dialogue to impart to his fabliaux a sense of domestic, small town, and rural life. However, while unity in design and treatment characterize the French fabliaux, Chaucer's are…
Lerer, Seth, and Deanne Williams.
Shakespeare 08 (2012): 398-410.
Argues that Shakespeare's reading of Thomas Speght's edition of Chaucer's "Works" (1598) provoked his creative imagination as well as providing source material, looking closely at how Chaucer's depiction of Julius Caesar's death in MkT affected…
Beal, Rebecca S.
Chaucer Review 44 (2010): 440-60.
Rubrics in "Filostrato" manuscripts label Calkas's bid to trade a prisoner for his daughter as an "oratory." Chaucer's version of the speech fulfills the formal requirements of a speech arguing "for a particular course of action" and in so doing…
Hollander, Robert.
Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies 11 (2011): 1-28.
Explores Chaucer's "nuanced reworkings" of his source texts in the last twelve stanzas of TC, focusing on his adaptations of Boccaccio's "Filostrato," his "Teseida," and Dante's "Commendia," but also commenting on uses of Virgil, Statius, and…
Like the Canon's Yeoman and unlike St. Cecile (SNT), Roger the Cook is spiritually leaden, exhibiting all four of lead's distinctive qualities: heaviness, earthiness, pallor, and muteness. After his altercation with the Manciple in ManP, Roger is…
Summary description of CT, with comments on Chaucer's life and language, and appreciative analysis of the characterizations of several pilgrims, the conflicts between their tales, and the "eternal relevance" of the work overall. Recommends cinematic…
Evans, Robert O.
Notes and Queries 202 (1957): 234-37.
Analyzes the meter of the opening line of CT (GP 1.1), focusing on renderings of “Aprill(e)” in manuscripts and printed editions, comparing it with meter elsewhere in CT, and arguing "that there is a strong possibility, even a probability, that…
Explores why Chaucer sets CT in April, rather than the traditional month of May, and concludes that the disruption of expectations leads the reader to reflect and realize the tales are a mix of the secular and the sacred.
Includes a chapter entitled "Chaucer's Westminster" (pp. 83-89) that comments on the effects of the plague in Westminster, Chaucer's knowledge of architect Henry Yevele and carpenter Hugh Herland, and the buildings in Westminster that survive from…
Binski, Paul, and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Comprehensive catalog of western European illuminated manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library. Includes several indices of iconography, scribes, artists, binders, and authors (with Chaucer listed under "G" for Geoffrey), along with…
Scholars need to reassess the extent of Sercambi's literary influence. A survey of some analogues of the framework and tales of his "Novelle" prove conclusively that his work was imitated in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. Parallels in ShT and…
Chaucer's depiction of time in the opening of GP is modeled on either Guido delle Colonne's "Historia Destructionis Troiae" or Boccaccio's "Ameto," although Chaucer mistakenly inverted the mention of April and the cliche about March.
Records a Latin poem written by Clemens upon visiting Chaucer's tomb. The poem indicates that Clemens was familiar with Chaucer through Sir Frances Kynaston's Latin version of TC 1-2.
Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Papers on Language and Literature 15 (1979): 339-57.
The function of wells and streams in Chaucer's use of the garden "topos" suggests that, where the secular materials are drawn from the courtly love tradition, as in PF and very largely in MerT, religious echoes expose the illusiveness or inadequacy…
