A series of literary portraits, each combining biography and appreciative criticism. The section on Chaucer, entitled "Founder of English Literature" (pp. 17-31), emphasizes his careers in business and diplomacy, his poetic "borrowings," and his…
Stewart, Donald C.
CEA Critic 29.3 (1966): 1, 4-6.
Suggests that interpretations of the Pardoner are overwrought, arguing that he acts "perfectly in the character given him by his creator" and that his somewhat troubling offer of relics to the Host is best understood as a joke.
Treats the narrator-dreamer of BD as the poem's "central character" and a device of unity and dramatic irony. The character does not "develop" psychologically, but his polite good nature--comically limited by his ignorance of courtly idiom--enables…
Scheps, Walter.
Tennessee Studies in Literature 11 (1966): 35-43.
Describes and paraphrases Thop, focusing on its style, vocabulary, genre, and adaptation of conventions to show that a tension between "the heroic and the bourgeois" underpins much of the bathos of the Tale and its parodic impact.
Rowland, Beryl.
University of Toronto Quarterly 35 (1966): 246-59.
Comments on the prevalence of horse-and-rider imagery in Western culture, and explores Chaucer's uses of the imagery in BD (the hunt), TC (Bayard and Troilus's ride-bys), Wife of Bath (spurs, bridles, and other sexualized images), and various other…
Describes the advantages of close reading of Chaucer's lyrics and shorter poems, examining ABC and Ros in detail for their riches of prosody, tone, structure, and meaning, with attention to narrative voice.
Documents the influence on WBPT, SumT, PardT, and, to a lesser degree, other parts of CT of the "Communiloquium" of John of Wales (or another fraternal compendium much like it), showing that a number of biblical, classical, and medieval quotations or…
Assesses Gower's virtues and achievements as a narrative poet rather than as a moralist in "Confessio Amantis," occasionally comparing and contrasting his techniques and accounts with analogous ones by Chaucer. Considers the frame of LGW to be…
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Studies in Philology 63 (1966): 533-64.
Surveys Chaucer's "use of rhyme as it contributes to poetic effect," examining rhymes in his complaints and balades, in Anel, and in Tho, and demonstrating his unobtrusive dexterity with rhyme royal in TC and with decasyllabic couplets in CT.…
Norton-Smith, J[ohn].
Roger Fowler, ed. Essays on Style and Language: Linguistic and Critical Approaches to Literary Style (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), pp. 157-65.
Explores Chaucer's "reading and use" of the genre of verse epistle, drawing on evidence from LGW, the two letters in TC, Scog, and Buk. Considers the influence of Ovid's "Heroides" and Horace's "Satires" to argue that Chaucer was adept in the Ovidian…
Nist, John.
Tennessee Studies in Literature 11 (1966): 1-10.
Coins the term "pathedy" to describe Chaucer's "serene middle ground" between tragedy and comedy, applying the term to the "quality of love" that characterizes Troilus in TC and to the tragicomic contradictions and essential humanity of several of…
Describes Chaucer's arrangements of multiple adjectives (preposed, postposed, and combined), contrasting his practice with other Middle English writers, and exploring the poetic value of his usage, suggesting that he seems to have been "the writer…
Mitchell, Charles.
College English 27 (1966): 437-44.
Asks why the Pardoner "always preaches against his own sin" and why he admits to doing so to the Canterbury pilgrims, using the questions to argue that he is a con-man rather than a hypocrite, and one who considers himself morally superior to his…
McCall, John P.
Chaucer Review 1.2 (1966): 103-09.
Describes patterns of "elaborate inconsequence, incongruity and downright bathos" in SqT, attributing them to the Squire's naïve efforts to be impressive and, by extension, Chaucer's skillful weaving of character and theme.
Comments on Chaucer criticism produced between 1950 and 1964 and, treating Chaucer's work as a "single fiction," reads it as a "complex examination of what it means to love" in earthly and spiritual ways. An "abyss exists between" the two kinds of…
Mann, Lindsay A.
Studies in Philology 63 (1966): 10-29.
Explores the "aristocratic, moral, and Christian" understandings of "gentilesse," listing the entailed ideals of truth, benevolence, mildness, etc. as expressed in ParsT, Gent, and in French courtly tradition. Argues that a complex understanding of…
Illustrates Chaucer's "comic misapplication" of "monitory elements" as a device of characterization in CT, discussing how the misapplied expressions of traditional wisdom can be used cleverly (as with Nicholas in MilT), foolishly (John in MilT and…
Argues that Chaucer uses portions of Pope Innocent's "De Miseria" in MLPT to "further characterize" the Man of Law, deepening the "concern with wealth" found in the GP description of the Sergeant. Furthermore, the portions from "De Miseria" unify the…
Levy, Bernard S.
Tennessee Studies in Literature 11 (1966): 45-60.
Contributes to discussions of the effectiveness of SumT by describing its "pattern of biblical parody" centered on Pentecost, arguing that the Summoner uses the pattern to attack the claim that friars, like the apostles, "have a special divine…
Coghill, N. K.
John Lawlor, ed. Patterns of Love and Courtesy: Essays in Memory of C. S. Lewis (London: Edward Arnold, 1966), pp. 141-56.
Explores the attitude toward sexual love expressed in Andreas Capellanus's "De Arte Honeste Amandi," contrasting it with the "innocent sincerity in sexual love" that is characteristic of Chaucer's Troilus (and Shakespeare's), also considering the…
Salter, Elizabeth.
John Lawlor, ed. Patterns of Love and Courtesy: Essays in Memory of C. S. Lewis (London: Edward Arnold, 1966), pp. 86-106.
Interprets the discontinuities and disunities of TC for the ways that they reveal the "growth and release" of Chaucer's creative imagination, reading them as evidence of his "dissatisfaction" with the characterization of Criseyde and the nature of…
Brewer, D. S.
John Lawlor, ed. Patterns of Love and Courtesy: Essays in Memory of C. S. Lewis (London: Edward Arnold, 1966), pp. 54-85.
Examines the meaning and significance of "courtesy" in the works of the "Gawain"-poet, and includes comments on characterization (as a matter of role rather than personality) in Chaucer's works, along with an excursus on "hende" that focuses on…
Includes ten essays by various authors and a comprehensive index. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Patterns of Love and Courtesy under Alternative Title.
