Browse Items (15542 total)

Argues that Chaucer's use of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" in BD is closer to that of Guillaume de Machaut than that of Jean de Meun, and compares and contrasts Chaucer's version of the Ceyx and Alcyone story with those of Machaut and Ovid.

Those compelled to abjure the court in 1388, while less well known than the companions of Richard II who faced charges of treason, can be studied collectively as typical members of Richard's court. They include an older group, friends of Richard's…

Taking its editor's preface as a cue, an examination of this edition, which has heretofore been labeled a reprint of John Bell's 1782 edition, reveals that it is in fact "a considerable re-evaluation of Chaucer's works."

Explores how late-medieval English people regarded their age: as a time growing old and verging on cataclysm, especially as reflected in social unrest and the deposition of Richard II. Includes a number of references to and quotations from Chaucer…

Includes an introduction (pp. 58-61) to Chaucer and his works.

Includes the first eighteen lines of GP in Middle English.

Includes the first third of MercB in normalized Middle English.

Explores medieval theories of narrative closure in Matthew of Vendome, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Brunetto Latini, and John of Garland to argue that if "inconclusiveness" is a thematic goal, the end of a work is the "natural place to accent it." As an…

Argues that several prominent figures in the "Troilus" frontispiece (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 61) represent John of Gaunt; his second wife, Constance of Castile and Laon; his mistress, Katherine Swynford; his first wife, Blanche of…

Argues that the power of WBT, though it is commonly regarded as a lai," comes from an underlying subversion by the use of fabliau, which makes the tale a "hybrid story." The "question of what women most want" has surprising affinities with the…

Edition of the "Tale of Gamelyn," including a description of manuscripts, diplomatic transcriptions of ten manuscripts, a critical edition with collated variants, and critical apparatus. Also includes a Modern English translation of "Gamelyn" and a…

Analyzes the dialect forms and textual variants of the "Tale of Gamelyn" in four of the twenty-five CT manuscripts that contain it (Ha4 Cp La Pw), arguing that, in "Gamelyn," these manuscripts evince a textual tradition and editorial practice which…

Identifies "Boethian sentiments" in an eight-line stanza appended to TC in St. John's, Cambridge, MS L.1, fol. 119v.

Encourages readers to keep track of the money in ShT, assessing the coded actions of gifting, receiving, and reciprocating in the Tale, analyzing the merchant's response to Don John's request for 100 franks (7.281-96), and suggesting that the readers…

Approaches SNPT as translations of source materials, assessing Chaucer's assignment of his early life of St. Cecilia to the Second Nun as narrator, the implications of rhyme royal, and the thematic and formal concerns of transformation, idleness, and…

Provides textual evidence to confirm that the three portions of the Middle English Rom--A, B, and C--derive from different manuscript groupings of their French source, the "Roman de la Rose," corroborating arguments that the three portions were…

Frames Rom "in a lineage of narrative fiction going back to the twelfth-century predecessors of the two authors [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun] and attempts to describe their respective innovations." Includes and interprets various texts…

Characterizes Oswald the Reeve as a guiler beguiled and a "judge who unwittingly judges himself by his own principles," examining aspects of GP (Miller and Reeve), MilPY, and RvPT for the ways that Oswald's retributive assault on Robin lacks…

Explores the relations between emotion and identity in PrPT, observing that the presence of Jews "amps up its emotional charge," particularly how it "provokes--and coopts--a huge range of emotions in the service of Christian piety." Considers the…

Assesses parallels between the "greyn" of PrT 7.662 and the three grains of legend that Seth laid upon the tongue of Adam when the latter was buried; suggests that the ambiguities of Chaucer's presentation indicate his artistic purpose.

Argues that the use of Dante's "Paradiso" 53 in the initial presentation of faith in PrT reflects Chaucer's sophisticated engagement with the ways humans try to articulate transcendent truth.

Assesses the five uses of "place" as a locational noun in the description of the tournament in KnT, arguing that it has a "precise technical meaning," i.e., the "grassy ground of the arena within the lists." This meaning is also found in Middle…

Provides "definitive texts and exhaustive variorum commentary" with facing-page translations, introduction, and appendices.

A new verse translation of "Pearl" with original Middle English text and modern English version on facing pages. Contains a brief preface and longer introduction, which discusses current scholarship and criticism.

Investigates the extent to which ParsT as a manual of confession can be seen to encourage the process of "individualization" theorized by Michel Foucault and to subvert the "immense control that the Church had over medieval lives" and aligning with…