Browse Items (16320 total)

Discusses the intersection of death, money, and elements of the Catholic mass in PardT. In the wake of the plague, the mass became closely associated with death because of the spreading practice of saying masses for the souls of the dead. The…

Discusses Chaucer's awareness of the plague and reference to it in his works, especially PardT.

Refers to the death-bearing rioters in PardT as an example of the theme, found in medieval art, of "death as living within" the body.

Collects essays that focus on the theme of death from the later heroic era to the eighteenth century. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Death in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times under Alternative Title.

Claims that Chaucer contributes to the debate concerning the translation of the Bible into English through his exploitation of the Old Testament in MLT and WBT.

Surveys studies of Chaucer's uses of Dante and Boccaccio as sources, focusing on work done since 1980 and "highlighting new and forthcoming work."

Presents comprehensive overview of all three iterations of Langland's "Piers Plowman." Provides discussion of differences between Langland's characters and Chaucer's depictions of social characters in GP.

Examines echoes, resemblances, and differences between the evocations of Lucretia in LGW, BD, and CT, and German painter Lucas Cranach's portrait (1513) of the Roman paragon of wifely virtue. References to Chaucer's poems, its ancient sources, and…

Suggests that Chaucer engages the Boethian tradition in TC and HF, only to challenge (and ultimately reject) that tradition's ideas of self-regulation.

Provides close reading and interpretation of "Piers Plowman," and observes how Chaucer and Langland often share similar political and religious views of medieval society. Refers to SumT, WBPT, GP, KnT, ParsT, RvT, and PF.

Analyzes the name "Pertelote" in NPT as "beautiful paramour" and "little beauty," and "Colle," "Talbot," and "Gerland" as dog-names. Includes recurrent concern with levels of style in Chaucer's naming and on names that link aspects of CT, e.g.,…

Analyzes the occurrences of the preverbal y- prefix in seven manuscripts of CT, attending to grammatical, syntactic, and metrical considerations. Concludes that, although the construction is used to form passive constructions clearly, the data also…

Fourteen essays by various authors, with an introduction by the editors and an index. For two essays pertaining to Chaucer, search for The Use and Development of Middle English under Alternative Title.

Establishes that scribe John Shirley lived in Westminster/London early in his career (in the 1390s) and therefore may have been familiar with Chaucer at the time, lending credibility to Shirley's opinions about Chaucer's works and their dates of…

Considers the appearance of the "mysterious inscription 'Ch'" beside several poems in MS Codex 902 in the University of Pennsylvania Libraries collection. Scholars have assumed that the "Ch" stands for Chaucer, but Strakhov argues that the poems are…

Presents essays that explore ways that manuscript evidence is used to understand "literary, geographic, scientific, devotional, and hagiographical knowledge" in the later Middle Ages. For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search for Taxonomies of…

Distinguishes graphetic, graphemic, and "meaningful subgraphemic phenomena" in the Latin-based abbreviations of MLT manuscripts, using the data to demonstrate why the "Canterbury Tales" Project has elected not to expand abbreviations uniformly and…

Argues that the scribe John Shirley cultivates a "virtual coterie" in the series of headnotes that he attaches to his copying of five French poems that he attributes (or misattributes) to William de la Pole, the earl of Suffolk. Shirley emulates John…

Analyzes the paleography and spelling of the fifteen manuscripts belonging to the hooked-g group, including three CT manuscripts, identifying two separate scribes and several collaborators. Includes four tables, six b&w illustrations, and an appendix…

Describes various ways that scribes used "visual pragmatics" (i.e., "bibliographic codes like rubrication, illumination, underscoring and so forth") to indicate code-switching in late medieval English literary manuscripts. Includes a comment on the…

Explores "how and why Middle English poets switch into French," confronting distinctions between switching dialects (diglossia) and switching languages as well as acknowledging the complicating conditions of social discourse (footing). Discusses…

For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Code-Switching in Early English under Alternative Title.

Analyzes the border illustrations and other codicological features of twelve manuscripts of the hooked-g group of manuscripts (including three CT manuscripts), using them to construct a "tentative chronology" of the dates of production and the…

Offers a series of undergraduate classroom exercises to teach differences in kinds of edited texts and to introduce concepts crucial to editorial practice, using samples from Middle English literature: MerT IV.2069–76 most extensively.

Describes a group assignment for use in an undergraduate Chaucer classroom, designed to introduce students to basic principles and practice of medieval book production, including paleography and codicology.