Terry Jones, in "Chaucer's Knight: Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary" (1980), maintains that Chaucer criticizes the Knight and his motives and expects his audience to join him. Evidence shows, however, that the Knight is portrayed sympathetically…
Hornsby, Joseph A.
Chaucer Review 22 (1988): 255-68.
By establishing a truer picture of the fourteenth-century Inns of Court, we can see the improbability of Chaucer's having been educated there. First, Chaucer's education at the Inns of Court is questionable. Second, the fourteenth-century Inns of…
Spearing, A. C.
Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic Literary Studies 73 (2010): 41-54.
Despite Chaucer's characteristic humility about his poetry and the absence of any references to poetry in his "Life-Records," critics are wrong to deemphasize the respect that subsequent writers accorded to his writing. Imitation of Chaucer's poetic…
Loomis, Roger Sherman.
In MacEdward Leach, ed. Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Albert Croll Baugh (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961), pp. 21-44.
Gauges the extent and depth of Chaucer's philosophical and theological skepticism in comparison with the views of some of his contemporaries--Wycliff, Langland, Gower, Julian of Norwich, and more. Identifies skeptical attitudes on free will,…
Kinghorn, A. M.
English Studies 44 (1963): 197-204.
Commends Thomas Warton for his appreciation of Chaucer in his "History of English Poetry from the Twelfth to the Close of the Sixteenth Century" (1774-81), acknowledging that the critic largely ignored Old English, denigrated much Middle English…
Considers a potential crisis in the teaching of Chaucer and suggests attending more to the pragmatic matters of teaching and less to theoretical problematizing.
Kline, Daniel T.
Joel T. Rosenthal, ed. Essays on Medieval Childhood: Responses to Recent Debates (Donington, Lincolnshire: Shaun Tyas, 2007), pp. 108-23.
Chaucer's additions to his sources in PhyT emphasize the "domestic contours" of the story. PhyT is a critique of the "social efficacy of the patriarchal family." Virginius first fails to protect his daughter and then murders her; he is "no better a…
Introduces four previously unknown documents, including a Chaucer life record connected to his guardianship of Michael Staplegate, which offer new perspectives on Chaucer's life and poetry. Implies that Chaucer's wardship of Staplegate extended as…
A classroom anthology of poetry about war from Chaucer to the twentieth century. Includes (pp. 9-12) the description of the temple of Mars from KnT (1.1967-2050), with a narrative summary of the Tale and observations about how Chaucer combines a…
Middleton, Anne.
Paul Strohm and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1, 1984 (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985), pp. 119-33.
Chaucer's examination of chivalry in KnT, SqT, and FranT is a "mediation on the means of representing it," offering the audience "style reflexiouns" on the making of fiction.
Goller, Karl Heinz.
Brian Patrick McGuire, ed. War and Peace in the Middle Ages (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels Forlag, 1987), pp. 118-45.
After a discussion of good and evil in medieval romance, especially Arthurian matter, Goller turns to authors who express opinions about war: Wycliffe, a pacifist, and Gower and Chaucer, who are ambivalent about war. Examines Chaucer's KnT, Mel,…
Yang, Mingcang Y. M.
Sun Yat-Sen Journal of Humanities 32 (2012): 1–22.
In Chinese; item not seen. The subject listings and the notes in the record of the online MLA International Bibliography indicate that the essay treats HF, "Pearl," Lollard writing, and work(s) by George Herbert. The record also indicates that a…
Johnson, Ian.
A. J. Minnis, ed. The Medieval Boethius (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1987), pp. 139-68.
In bk. 3, met. 12, of his popular English translation of Boethius, John Walton behaves like a poet-commentator, striving for a contemporary eloquence while drawing on the authority of commentary tradition. In his preface, assuming the role of a…
Johnston, Andrew James.
Lilo Moessner and Christa M. Schmidt, eds. Anglistentag 2004 Aachen (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2005), pp. 19-29.
Highlights political aspects of ClT, interpreting the cruelty Walter inflicts on Griselda as a projection of his inner conflict between a hereditary ruler's "body politic" and his "body natural"--a conflict prompted by the pressure to provide an heir…
Skeat wrote a "Canterbury tale" in Middle English that admonishes the sin of covetousness, is thoroughly grounded in the Middle Ages, and fits into the scheme of CT. It reveals one of the more "relaxed moments" of this great Chaucer scholar, about…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Paul Ruggiers, ed. Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1984), pp. 171-89.
Summarizes the progress of Skeat's career as an editor of Chaucer, articulating his debts to Richard Morris, F. J. Furnivall, and Henry Bradshaw, and acclaiming his accomplishments as the beginning of the "Modern Age" of Chaucer scholarship.…
Peeters, L.
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Älteren Germanistik 1 (1972): 51-88.
Describes the meaning and artfulness of Walter Map's version of the "Wade" story in "De Nugis Curialium," exploring a variety of sources and analogues, including comments on Chaucer's reference to Wade in TC 3.624 and to Wade's boat in MerT 4.1424,…
Walter is not just testing his wife but doing the worst he can imagine himself doing as a stage in achieving a better unity among the parts of himself and between his private and public selves.
A personal travelogue of a walking trip from Canterbury to London following the Pilgrims' Way--interspersed with brief summaries of portions of CT and musings on medieval social history and folk wisdom, the United Kingdom and the United States,…
Trigg, Stephanie.
New Medieval Literatures 7 (2005): 9-33.
Distinguishes among "various ways in which medieval English religious sites are mediated for visitors," from cathedrals (including Canterbury) to the Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction. Assesses the authenticity of visitors' experiences in light of…
Hayton, Heather Richardson.
Dissertation Abstracts International 61: 1393A, 2000.
Analyzes two works each from late-thirteenth-century Florence and late-fourteenth-century England in relation to the "Roman de la rose" as expressions of political factionalism in the vocabulary of desire. Concludes that "a loyal citizen is still a…
Rhodes, William.
In The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales. https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu, 2017.
Interprets the Reeve's conflict with the Miller and the sexual politics and violence of RvT in light of late-medieval agrarian economy and Marxist ideas of the inequities of economic exchange. Designed for pedagogical use, includes several questions…
Peeters, L[eopold].
Amsterdammer Beitrage zur Alteren Germanistik 3 (1973): 25-65.
Provides context for the allusion to "Wades boot" in MerT (4.1423), observing in a thirteenth-century Latin homily on humility connections between Wade and Hildebrand, both Germanic heroes, and further associations with the Irish St. Brendan.…
Crocker, Holly A.
Chaucer Review 54.3 (2019): 352-70.
Advocates for a continued emphasis in KnT on the subjectivity of Emelye, whose endurance and forbearance are key to a kind of personhood that is open and connected, rather than the individual subjectivity connected to the masculinist order presented…
