Cotton, Michael E.
Chaucer Review 7.1 (1972): 37-43.
Treats the "psychological realism" and "moral allegory" in TC as complementary, analyzing the imagery and themes of ancient gods, the moon, and mutability, associated with Criseyde. Images of hell and torment in the final two books, differing from…
In his paintings of the Canterbury pilgrims, Blake shows the influence of previous illustrations for and commentary upon CT, but goes beyond the artistic and textual tradition to set the group of pilgrims in his own Blakean cosmos, pairing characters…
Encourages study of the classical-medieval theory and practice of artificial memory, i.e., memory training that depends on associating ideas with familiar places, whether real or imagined. Comments on the important work of Frances Yates and…
Stolz, Anne Crehan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 39 (1979): 5498A.
The signs of unfinishedness which appear most prominently in Chaucer's unfinished pieces are also present in the more finished pieces, where they make a major contribution to Chaucer's meaning. Chaucer's unfinishedness is due in part to the uses he…
Reflects on how GP yields patterns for writers to emulate, since the first line concerns the cycle of nature, patterns of order and hierarchy, and the theme of regeneration, in a syntactically complicated periodic sentence.
Johnston, Andrew James, Ethan Knapp, and Margitta Rouse, eds.
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015.
Collection of essays on ekphrastic discourse from the eleventh to the seventeenth century in texts written in Middle English, but also Medieval Latin, Old French, Middle Scots, Middle High German, and Early Modern English. For four essays that…
Guerin, Dorothy Jane.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1978): 4149A.
Chaucer's chief object in LGW is to explore, through the art of "variatio," irrational sexual passion as a source of human misery. The legends divide into three distinct groups: the pathetic tale, Dido and its variations, and star-crossed lovers.
Eckhardt, Caroline D.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 6 (1984): 41-63.
As a translation of "Roman de la Rose," Chaucer's Rom is remarkably faithful; nevertheless, Chaucer did make changes to create greater "ease" and intimacy."
Sayers, Dorothy L.
Nottingham Medieval Studies 9 (1965): 15-31.
Surveys and comments on English poetic translations of Dante's "Commedia" from Chaucer to Laurence Binyon, opening with mention of the Ugolino episode from MkT (based on "Inferno" XXXIII 1-90), followed by quotation of SNP 8.36-56, calling it a…
Sayers, Dorothy L.
Nottingham Medieval Studies 9 (1965): 15-31.
Surveys and comments on English poetic translations of Dante's "Commedia" from Chaucer to Laurence Binyon, opening with mention of the Ugolino episode from MkT (based on "Inferno" XXXIII 1-90), followed by quotation of SNP 8.36-56, calling it a…
Chaucer's catalogues of feminine delights seem totally original, but upon closer scrutiny they reveal techniques employed by many other poets both serious and humorous.
Ruggiers, Paul G.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965.
Describes the aesthetic and moral principles and practices, overt and covert, of the CT, acclaiming the vitality of the "framing structure" of the links and the complex ironies of the narrator (especially in Ret) for the ways that they enable and…
Amsel, Stephanie A.
William Morris Society in the United States Newsletter n.v. (2012): 8-9.
Describes Southern Methodist University Bridwell Library's 1896 William Morris paper copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer. Includes details about letters, manuscript notes, drafts of illustrations and borders by Edward Burne-Jones, photographs, and other…
Mel suggests that interpretative perspective is crucial to meaning. Like the rest of fallen nature, language is indeterminate, so prudence is required to make sense of contingent existence. Apparent contradictions in Mel disappear if we understand…
Windeatt, Barry.
Christopher Cannon and Maura Nolan, eds. Medieval Latin and Middle English Literature: Essays in Honour of Jill Mann (Cambridge: Brewer, 2011), pp. 211-30.
Swooning in medieval literature points to a marked cultural contrast between medieval sensibilities and modern ones for which swooning is extreme and exceptional. This broad survey defines swooning as a "loss of consciousness, brought on by…
Yuasa, Nobuyuki.
Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic Literary Studies 41 (1994): 59-83.
Comments on the names of selected characters, including the names of Chaucer's CT pilgrims and some of the characters in the tales. Compared with Spenser's and Shakespeare's names, "Chaucer's fictional names are rather limited in kind and number,"…
Rowland, Beryl.
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 51 (1981): 163-71.
Chaucer's address to Thought in the Invocation to book 2 stresses the function of memory in his art. Love tidings are words from old books. Books are still the activator of new poems, even though "auctorite" may be enriched by "experimentum." The…
Leicester, H. Marshall,Jr.
PMLA 95 (1980): 213-24.
Readers have over-emphasized the persona of the narrator(s) in CT, making the tales themselves but an appendage to the frame. But in fact there are many internal contradictions in such a "dramatic" reading of the poem. The tales are insistently…
Notes Chaucer's attention to "loss of sexual power" in the process of aging, commenting on two brief passages in modern translation: WBP (3.198-203) and RvP (1.3879-382, 3887-98).
Nolan, Barbara.
Donald M. Rose, ed. New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism (Norman Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1981), pp. 203-22.
In BD Chaucer skillfully breaks with French poetic practice to produce a new kind of poetry. The enigmatic narrator does not participate in established conventions; an insomniac amateur reader, he does not fully understand the matter he presents.
Smoot, Maxine Bixby.
Dissertation Abstracts International 35 (1975): 6735A
Chaucer artfully uses meter to support meaning. The tensions between meter and speech rhythm, enjambment and run-on lines, rhyme and alliteration, and denotation and onomatopoeia all display his technical virtuosity.
Schlauch, Margaret.
D. S. Brewer, ed. Chaucer and Chaucerians: Critical Studies in Middle English Literature (University: University of Alabama Press; London: Nelson, 1966), pp. 140-63.
Describes and comments on the range and subtleties of Chaucer's prose styles, with recurrent comments on his stylistic adaptation of sources. Treats the "plain" style of Astr, the "heightened" homiletic style of ParsT, the "eloquent" style of Mel,…
Describes the Franklin's grasping "imitation of noble ways" in FranPT and in his GP description. The genre and rhetoric of the Tale are outdated, absurd, and/or obtrusive, while its depictions of ideals of marriage, gentility, and patience are either…
