The "Britoun book, written with Evaungiles," on which Constance's false accuser swears before being struck dead, is likely to have been a Latin gospel book illuminated in Celtic. Such a book (like the Gospel of Gildas) was said to have the power…
Traces the origins of the names Elpheta and Algarsyf, used in SqT, to "familial" clusters in Arabic star catalogs that were translated into the Latin Middle Ages and mentioned in Astr. Suggests affiliations of the names with the magic sword and horse…
Recurrently linked with the neo-Platonic notion of the harmony of the spheres, the dream-vision motif of the celestial journey recurs in works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden.
The eldest version of the Cecilia story is the "Passio S. Caeciliae," extant mss of which date from the eighth century. Its central meaning involves an ideal of perfection close to Augustine's teachings. Chaucer translates the version of the story…
The Parson is exceptional among the Canterbury Pilgrims for his corporeal invisibility; his GP portrait gives no corporeal details and ParsPT efface his body, along with fiction, verse, and the colors of rhetoric. Moreover, ParsT displays hostility…
Ginsberg, Warren.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983.
The ways of representing character practiced by "highly self-conscious" poets reflect the "shaping imagination" of these authors against the backdrop of tradition--rhetorical, philosophical, and sometimes theological. In Ovid character is poetic…
Tinkle, Theresa.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 22: 341-77, 2000.
Explores issues of intertextuality as they relate to textual variance in manuscript culture, summarizing the medieval versions of Alan's "De planctu." Jean de Meun's and Chaucer's depictions of Nature differ from Alan's, despite the critical impulse…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Book Collector 21 (1972) 380-85.
Recounts the details of various transactions involving the theft, acquisition, and sales of the Cardigan manuscript (now University of Texas Humanities Research Center MS 143), focusing on information derived from the papers of Henry Noble…
Philmus, Maria R. Rohr.
Spenser Studies 13: 125-37, 1999.
Although a scheme identical to that of the Spenserian sonnet was used by Scots sonneteers before Spenser, the rhyme scheme of the "Spenserian" sonnet and the stanza form used in The Faerie Queene derive from Chaucer's Monk's Tale stanza.
Mosser, Daniel W., and Linne R. Mooney.
Chaucer Review 51.2 (2016): 131-50.
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…
Documents a formal "profeminine"--though not "feminist"--tradition in medieval literature, exploring its origins and sustaining arguments. Rooted in the apocryphal biblical book of Esdras, the tradition developed in the high Middle Ages in works…
Gardner, John.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 80-106.
Justifies following the Ellesmere order of the CT on thematic grounds, arguing that the arrangement is "probably Chaucer's," taking note of probable stages in Chaucer's process of composition, and observing a "general coherence" of concerns with…
Through the character of John the Carpenter, Chaucer parodies not the mystery plays but their credulous audiences, who conflated past and present and often confused illusion with reality.
Jager, Eric.
Eric Jager, The Tempter's Voice: Language and the Fall in Medieval Literature (Ithaca, N.Y.; and London: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 241-98.
In MerT, Chaucer presents a version of the Edenic Fall that emphasizes the roles of language and writing in seduction. Especially in the pear-tree episode, the Merchant's "dark vision" dramatizes Augustinian commentary on the Fall as an abuse of…
Mosser, Daniel W.
Library Chronicle, n.s., 41 (1987): 82-111.
Examines the significance of the Cardigan Chaucer MS as a witness to the development of Chaucer's text after his death. Following the example of his predecessors, the Cardigan editor enhanced the appearance of the layout and text to make it seem…
Mosser, Daniel W.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3041A-3042A.
Study of the Cardigan MS (CT and two poems by Lydgate) by the method of Gruijs reveals that Manly and Rickert were wrong in assuming that the codex was produced under close supervision in a shop. Instead, "Scribe A" standardized its language. …
Bate, Jonathan, and Susan Brock.
Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 7 (2007): 341-58.
Overview of workshops conducted under the auspices of CAPITAL (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning), a combined effort of the University of Warwick and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The authors also comment on a "study day"…
Abdou, Angie.
[Victoria, B. C.]: Brindle and Glass, 2011.
Fiction loosely based on framework of CT, with unlikely group of ski enthusiasts brought together during a pilgrimage through backcountry British Columbia.
Items not seen; cited in WorldCat. Readings of selections from CT in modern poetic translation by Frank Ernest Hill. Volume I (3 CDs; 1995) includes GP, KnT, MilT, PardT, MerT and FranT. Volume II (3 CDs, 2002): WBPT, ClT, RvT, and NPT. Volume III (3…
Wright, David, trans.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
A translation of all the verse of CT into modern English verse, using metrical forms imitating the original, and half rhyme or assonance; brief introduction, bibliography, life, and notes.
Hoffman, Richard L.
R. M. Lumiansky and Herschel Baker, eds. Critical Approaches to Six Major English Works: "Beowulf" through "Paradise Lost" (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1968). pp. 41-80.
Describes scholarly accomplishments and critical trends in Chaucer studies between 1940 and 1968—editions, source-and-analogue studies, and psychological, theological, and philosophical approaches. Explores the concept of the doubleness in love (two…
Item not seen. A WorldCat record indicates that the lithographs, commissioned by John Deuss, accompany selections from CT in Coghill's translation. The record includes the following note: "Limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies signed by the…
