Browse Items (15542 total)

Comments on the uses of "master" and "Rabbi" in SumT 3.2184-88 as a means to convey the hypocrisy of the Summoner's friar (along with Chaucer's Friar in GP 1.261). The references are rooted in the biblical source, Matthew 23:5-11.

Offers Dante' s use of whips in "Purgatorio" as an analogue to the Wife of Bath's image of "whippe" in WBP 3.175.

Contends that the WB's reference to grinding at a mill (WBP 3.389) capitalizes on traditional sexual associations of mills with women, anticipated at her reference to "barly-breed" (WBP 3.144).

Suggests that when she refers to her "dame" at lines 3.576 and 583 the Wife of Bath is recalling her gossip, dame Alys, identified at 530, 544, and 548.

Explores the possibilities of using folklore, ornithological markings, and Chaucer's possible first-hand experiences to offer perspective on several birds and their attributive qualities referred to in PF, and one each in MilT, RvT, and SumT.

Evaluates some 500 items of TC criticism considered under the headings Historical, Philosophical, Formalistic, and Psychological. In addition to illuminating the poem, the book provides a trenchant critique of modern critical theory and practice.

Contends that masculine obsession with interiority, especially that marked by courtly love, enables "powerful men to ignore the destructive public consequences of their political" actions. Yet, TC reveals "that such separation between the public and…

Discusses the various ways in which the treatment of space in TC functions in relation to the characterizations, the development of the plot, and the changing role of the narrator. In Japanese.

Locates several "clusters" of resonances between TC and Spenser's "Amoretti" and "The Faerie Queene," concentrating on the importance of aurality and memory in recognizing these resonances and distinguishing “resonance” from other metaphors of…

Explores how the comic elements of Chaucer's narrative detachment in TC "qualify the tragedy or pathos" of the poem, and how diction, word-play, and five-book structure contribute to its tragicomic impact.

Challenges L. G. Evans' suggestion that TC 4.1585 alludes to Matthew 10.39 (MLN, vol. 74), Baugh arguing that the phrasing is the same as in a common proverb, and Donaldson that the emendation underlying Evans' suggestion ("lyf" for "lief") is…

Identifies several sixteenth-century statements of censorship of romances (one that mentions TC) and describes several early modern "justifications" for the "perennial itch to censor."

Offers a critical edition of Kynaston's "Amorum Troili et Creseide," with attention to his "methods of translating" TC and his "explication of Chaucer's life and artistry."

Suggests that there can be "little doubt" that Chaucer thought the term "vavasour" (GP 1.30, applied to the Franklin) signified "a man noted for hospitality," adducing evidence from Chrétien and other sources.

Investigates the collision between eroticisms and anti-eroticisms in Chaucer's works in which the queer appears. When these two concepts circulate in Chaucer's stories, the characters must confront both their identity-formation and their…

The first Japanese translation of the work with a brief explanatory introduction.

The "basic conception and function" of Absolon in MilT were inspired by Decameron 8.2, which also influenced ShT.

Identifies exegetical details in the characterization of Absolon in MilT, helping to identify the clerk with the sins of avarice, lechery, and pride and showing how he is a parody of Robyn the Miller "in the Miller's own tale."

Questions raised by and through many tales (KnT, Th, Mel, and PardT) and characters (Prioress, Wife of Bath, and Pardoner) disclose Chaucer's composite view of truth. The medieval Christian poet, however, would assume absolute truth to be beyond…

A consideration of the four "Adams" in CT (MkT, Mel, MerT, NPT) clarifies Chaucer's continuously revised sense of the allusive potential of the biblical figure, as well as the changing, expansive meaning within the various "Tales."

Following Aristotle, medieval poets consider poetry a branch of moral philosophy. Whether or not Chaucer knew Boccaccio's own glosses on the "Teseida," he adapts the Italian work to his own treatment of allegorical figures and so justifies Usk's…

Analyzes the epistemology of form as theorized by Boethius, Chaucer, and Kant, particularly in relation to the apprehension of natural beauty. Reads Form Age and For, in the manuscript setting of Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.III.21, as…

Distinguishes between academic and popular versions of Chaucer, defining and discussing various categories of popular intertextuality: adaptations, appropriations, invocations, and citations--diminishing degrees of engagement with original works.…

Examines agency as theme and narrative technique throughout Chaucer's corpus, considering the "multifariousness" of the topic. Agency does not refer exclusively to the human will; it also "embraces innumerable forces that operate interdependently" -…

The final three fragments of CT are united in a purposeful pattern by reference to Jeremiah 6. Allusion to testing and failure suggests the alchemical metaphor, enabling correlations between the particulars of specific pilgrims and the generality of…