Browse Items (15542 total)

Cites the Wife of Bath's allusion to "Crisippus" (WBP 3.677) to suggest that St. Jerome's "Epistola adversus Jovinianum (1.48) is the source of Pandarus's reference to "natal Joves feste" (TC 3.150) and that the locution is part of Pandarus's…

Describes the aesthetic standards espoused by the pilgrims in CT and argues that the Nun's Priest "fits his tale to his audience even as he tries to alter the views of the audience" and tries to solve for himself the question of free will versus…

Addresses the "intentional ambiguity" of PF, arguing that it results from the tension between "discursive" and "non-discursive" aspects of the poem, a distinction derived from Susanne Langer. Uses a variety of lexical patterns and oppositions to show…

Offers the "Pseudo-Augustinian treatise on penance 'De Vera et Falsa Poenitentia, Liber Una'," as the source of ParsT 10.1025 where Augustine is cited.

Suggests that the referent for "the philosophre" in ParsT 10.535-37 is Aristotle, following a passage in his "De Anima."

Accepts Ret as earnest but impersonated, surveying critical opinions, and suggesting that it is best read as an instance of Chaucer's "contrast principle" in operation, offering examples of his "many pretended or real about-faces" in CT. After ParsT,…

The work is divided into categories for user convenience: editions are arranged chronologically and critical discussions alphabetically by author.

Shows that the phrase "secree of secrees" in CYT 8.1447, cast as a "superlative genitive," suggests a "whole class of alchemical expressions identical in form" and thereby "sharply emphasizes Chaucer's ironical denunciation of the oracular…

Argues that in the GP sketch of the Prioress the reference to saint Loy (1.120) is punningly "redolent of permissiveness."

Describes the fabliau features of ShT, comments on its likely (though unknown) source, observes that its "personal generalizations" are unusual in the genre, and assesses its treatment of women and its stylistic features as evidence that its original…

Considers aspects of Th that are "burlesque," commenting on diction, meter, details, various rhetorical figures, and rhymes that convey irony and comedy. Poses many of these examples in contrast with parallels elsewhere in CT.

A complete annotated bibliography of scholarly and critical treatments of SqT, FranT, and PhyT from 1900 through 2005, subdivided into the following categories: editions and modernizations of each tale; sources, analogues, and later influence of each…

Argues that SqT is a "rhetorical satire" of the Squire; attributes the excesses of the Tale to the teller's youthful "defective knowledge" of rhetorical arts and argues that it is Chaucer's means of critiquing the "pseudo-genre of romance" and…

Argues that Chaucer uses philosophical language in describing the fart joke of SumT in order to burlesque the "logical thinking" of scholastic thinkers, particularly the Merton Calculators, showing how literature can "more effectively" work out…

Suggests that the French "Somme le Roi" may be the ultimate source of the reference to "Placebo" in SumT 3.2075 and that "Roman de Fauvel" is a "more likely immediate source."

Applies "principles" of medieval visual art (scale and perspective) to aid in understanding how BD magnifies the Black Knight's loss by presenting it in the context of the analogous accounts of the narrator's malaise and the grief of Alcyone.

Glosses "party" in "party white and rede" (KnT 1.1053) as "literally 'parti-colored,'" referring to a single kind of flower, the daisy, citing LGWF 42-43 as evidence.

Explores proverbial implications of the variant readings of KnT 1.1810, "than woot a cokkow or [var. of] hare," and suggests "hare" might be a pun on "whore."

The first two chapters of this book look at the Knight and KnT in the context of the "heroic life." The Allegory of Rule and the Allegory of Love offer ways to understand Palamon and Arcites's fight in the wood. The second two chapters examine the…

Suggests that Chaucer's reference to "Thorus" as a sea-god derives from a misunderstanding of Statius's "theori" in the "Achilleid" and its medieval gloss.

Identifies changes that Chaucer's made to his source, Ovid's "Fasti," when shaping his version of the story of Lucrece in LGW, changes that "Christianized" the account.

Suggests that ManT 9.311-62 is a personal, dramatic rejoinder to the Canon's Yeoman and his account rather than criticism of the Cook.

Suggests that "colour" in the description of Chauntecleer (NPT 7.2864) means "coler" or "neck" rather than "color."

Suggests that the name "John" links RvT with MilT, claiming that the Reeve "repays the Miller with a tale in which he himself plays a leading part--that of carpenter John.

Contends that the six things that women desire listed by the wife in ShT (7.173-77) align the wife with the fairy-tale victim of marriage to an ogre, ironically helping to characterize her, her husband, and their marriage.