The yeoman's discourse on alchemy is carefully crafted by Chaucer: each "occupatio" is followed by a catalogue ("descripcio") and "poynt" ("sententia"). The technique enables Chaucer to establish the rambling character of the yeoman.
The Summoner's "bokeleer" of cake is a hypocritical parody of the eucharistic Host ritual. A magic object, consecrated bread was used in "bread cures"--the Summoner hopes to use his "Host-bread shield" to cure his "sawcefleem."
Dalby, Richard.
Book and Magazine Collector 199: 46-59, 2000.
Surveys the sales performance of various editions of Chaucerian texts, concentrating on recent sales and auctions and on market values. Includes a brief survey of Chaucer's works and editions and responds to the auction of Caxton's first edition for…
Frye, Northrop.
Robert D. Denham, ed. Northrop Frye on Literature and Society, 1936-1989: Unpublished Papers, Volume 10 (Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, 2002), pp. 131-43.
Critiques the inconsistencies and overall lack of unity in CT, contrasting it with the structural and thematic wholeness of HF and TC, and castigating the sententiousness of Mel, ParsT, and Ret. Attributes the lack of unity and the inconclusiveness…
Frese, Dolores Warwick.
Charles Foulon, et al., eds. Actes du 14e Congres International Arthurien (Rennes: Presses Universitaires, 1985), pp. 184-207.
In contrast to the prevailing critical view that Chaucer eschewed the use of Arthurian romance material, two Arthurian themes--the quest and amorous fatality--become transposed as pilgrimage and marriage in CT. The Tale of Arveragus, told by the…
Describes five medieval ways of looking at time (computistical, philosophical, mechanical, astrolabic, kalendric) and examines three Chaucerian passages that appear to indicate exact dates and time of day. Concludes that each passage presents an…
Chaucer's translations of key phrases in the Griselda story reveal his use of the Boccaccio source material as a way to underscore the "complexity" of the story and the varied authorial voices involved in translation.
The two modes of ClT must not be confused. The allegorical mode culminates in the Clerk's moral of Griselda as an example for all Christians, male or female; the literal mode culminates in the Clerk's implicit criticism of Walter's imperiousness as…
Grudin, Michaela Paasche.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 11 (1989): 63-92.
Dante's advocacy of absolute rule as necessary for a peaceful state ("De monarchia") was opposed by other fourteenth-century Italian political theorists who saw such a state as tyrannical. Boccaccio's treatment of Griselda in "Decameron" implicitly…
Examines the tension in ClT between human pathos and clerkly training and intelligence, reading the combination as a depiction of late-medieval "clerkishness." Additions to his sources and the use of "specialized vocabulary" make Chaucer's tale…
Nicholson, Lewis E.
English Language Notes 19 (1981): 98-102.
Despite recent scholarship of MilT that equates Alison's "pa" (line 3709) with the Wife of Bath's "ba" (WBT, line 433), the two words should be distinguished. "Pa" seems to be a shortening of "pax," the liturgical embrace of Christian love. In…
Putter, Ad.
Christopher Cannon and Maura Nolan, eds. Medieval Latin and Middle English Literature: Essays in Honour of Jill Mann (Cambridge: Brewer, 2011), pp. 166-81.
Pity's "double life" as person and quality "calls attention to the mechanics" of allegory and to one's "ordinary" experience of pity; through word play, pity is both dead to the frustrated lover and alive to others.
Laird, Edgar (S.)
Philological Quarterly 51 (1972): 486-89.
Explores the astrological term "valunse" as it seems to mean something approximating lack, want, or non-being, used by Chaucer in this sense at Mars, line 145.
Scattergood, John.
Essays in Criticism 44 (1994): 171-89.
John Shirley's comments about the relationship of Ven to court scandal have been misconstrued, disguising the poem's connection to Otto de Graunson's "Cinq ballades." Chaucer used five ballades to realize Graunson's "curiosite" (intricate…
"Toune" in line 17 of the poem means "predicament," not a literal place, just as it stands for an abstract condition in the Harley lyric, "Lenten is come with love to toune."
James, Max H.
Christian Scholars' Review 18 (1988): 118-35.
Although many of Chaucer's works are bawdy, modern readers can find contemporary ethical and moral issues resolved or discussed according to Christian values. "Christlike" faithfulness, steadfastness, and truth underlie TC, WBT, ClT, MerT, and…
Thundy, Zacharias P.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 86 (1985): 343-47.
Derived from Matheolus's "Lamentationes," the two crowns or "corones" in TC 2.1935 are rewards for Troilus's fidelity in marriage and his heroic death in the Trojan war.
Doob, Penelope B. R.
Chaucer Review 7.2 (1972): 85-96.
Interprets Pandarus's reference to "corones tweyne" (TC 2.1735) in light of lapidarian tradition, suggesting that it refers to the two kinds of "caraunius" (thunderstone), differently colored gemstones that emblematize Criseyde's beauty, lightning,…
Chaucer often treats of the discrepancy between intent and words, especially in GP 725-42, PardT, and ParsT. Philosophically, Chaucer's view of language is that of a Christian Platonist; he aspires toward a linguistic realism in which intent informs…
Linguistic and philosophical notions underlying the idea of "cosyn to the dede" fascinate Chaucer and Jean de Meun, who follow Plato and Augustine in accepting that signs reveal ultimate meaning and that myths relate to eternal ideals.
Braswell, Mary Flowers.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 16 (1994): 29-44.
Chaucer's office as Justice of the Peace necessitated his close familiarity with the forms and styles of court proceedings available to us in the records of the "Court Baron." Braswell notes in such records the frequency of figures similar to…
