Daileader, Celia R.
Chaucer Review 29 (1994): 26-39.
WBT and Mel contain comparable female characters who use discourse to challenge the antifeminist patristic tradition. The plot in both tales--the transformation of a misguided male by a knowledgeable woman--points to a more "peaceful" world where…
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Studia Neophilologica 53 (1981): 269-74.
After discussing various readings for the phrase, "In termes hadde he cas and doomes alle..." (GP 323), Wentersdorf argues that "term" is equivalent to a court session: thus, when courts were in session, this man of law had at his disposal all the…
Owen, Charles A. Jr.
Chaucer Review 7.4 (1973): 267-80.
Surveys critical approaches to Mel and discusses its themes of "the good woman" and forgiveness; also assesses Mel as a complex, multi-leveled allegory.
Dane, Joseph A.
English Language Notes 31:4 (1994): 10-19.
Chaucer's phrase is traditionally interpreted, "Yet for all the oxen in my plough, I would not take upon me more than enough (i.e., be overly suspicious)." A more accurate reading, however, is "I would not take upon me more than the oxen in my…
Crowther, J. D. W.
Chaucer Newsletter 2.1 (1980): 12-13.
The Friar, who does not want Thomas to divide his money among several confessors, argues that likewise an ill man should not divide his among several physicians. He thus materializes the penitential injuction not to divide one's confession among…
Gallacher, Patrick J.
Chaucer Review 21 (1986): 200-12.
From Greek medicine, the concept of the six "non-naturals" intensifies and clarifies the relationship between the friar and Thomas and throws light on the summoner in FrT. The "non-naturals" are circumstances that affect health: air, sleep and…
SqT dramatizes the relationship between two types of narrative: the fantastic and the metafictional. The former is seen in the mirror, ring, steed, and sword brought to Cambyuskan's court; the latter, in the response to these gifts by the courtiers…
In its narrative strategy and its theme of the comic irrelevance of the abstractions on which men try to base their lives, Nigel of Longchamps' medieval Latin beast fable, "Speculum Stultorum," provided a suggestive model for Chaucer's NPT.
Dickson, Donald R.
South Central Review 2 (1985): 10-22.
Establishes relationships between CYP and parts of CYT. The Yeoman shows himself as unstable as alchemy, caught between desire for success and fear of losing his soul.
Quinn, William A.
R. F. Yeager and Toshiyuki Takamiya, eds. The Medieval Python: The Purposive and Provocative Work of Terry Jones (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 167-79.
Corroborates Terry Jones's view that Chaucer was a pacifist, and argues that Jones and Chaucer both use humor and indirection against war. Chaucer was very earnest in his critiques of war in Mel and ParsT, but less direct in KnT and his description…
Guerin, Richard
English Studies 52 (1971): 412-19.
Reconsiders relations among ShT, Sercambi's "Novelle" no. 31, and Boccaccio's "Decameron" nos. 8.1 and 8.2, suggesting that it is "not unreasonable" to think that Chaucer "might have known all three of the analogues."
Jennings, Margaret (C.S.J.)
Florilegium 43 (1994): 121-40
Thematic sermon structure, as delineated in English "artes praedicandi," influenced romances as well as other genres. This influence can be seen in "Sir Amadace," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," KnT (Theseus's speech on order), WBT (the…
Hirsh, John C.
C. David Benson and Elizabeth Robertson, eds. Chaucer's Religious Tales (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), no.130), pp. 161-70.
Examining both ecclesiastical and societal patriarchies, SNT addresses medieval concepts of power, authority, and autonomy. It places Cecilia's spiritual vision in the context of a broader secular and sacred order.
A comparison of Chaucer's narrators and the narrative voices of the "Roman" may clarify the continuing debates on the characteristics of his narrators, their function within the dream poems, and their relation to other narrative voices.
Blamires, Alcuin.
Karl Josef Holtgen, Peter M. Daly, and Wolfgang Lottes, eds. Words and Visual Imagination: Studies in Interaction of English Literature and the Visual Arts. (Erlangen: Universitatsbibliothek Erlangen-Nurnberg, 1988), pp. 11-31.
Medieval concepts of love and sex were derived from the worship of Venus, the goddess of love. Art of the period shows men worshipping Venus, as well as men and women trying to win each other's love.
Herzman, Ronald B.
American Benedictine Review 33 (1982): 325-33.
Symkyn's name is diminutive of Simon and thus calls up the story of Simon the Magician as found in the Acts of Peter. In a larger sense the rise and inevitable fall of pride that is the tales structural skeleton gains resonance when placed against…
Olson, Glending
Modern Language Quarterly 35 (1974): 219-30.
Argues that in its concern with social pretension and its atmosphere of "game and contest," RvT is better regarded as a comic fabliau than as a tale of vengeance that reflects its teller. Compares and contrasts RvT with several fabliaux, including…
Frank, Robert Worth, Jr.
Stanley Weintraub and Philip Young, eds. Directions in Literary Criticism: Contemporary Approaches to Literature (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1973), pp. 53-69.
Reads RvP as a "confession of old age" and RvT as a "tribute" to unrestrained passion and an extension of the concern with love in KnT and MilT. Compares RvT with its analogues, and comments on its characterizations, the straightforwardness of its…
Chaucer's improvements result from adapting source to the framework of CT--giving the tale to the highly individualized Reeve, whose emphasis upon "quitting" the Miller requires that Symkin become the strongest character in the tale. The most…
Benson, Larry D.
Paul Strohm and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1, 1984 (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985), pp. 23-47.
Discusses bawdy words, obscenities, and euphemisms in Chaucer,exposing fallacies in overzealous scholarly search for obscene puns.
Tolmie, Sarah.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 22: 281-309. , 2000.
Assesses aspects of "Regement of Princes" to demonstrate Hoccleve's poetic subtlety, especially the ways he capitalizes on the idea that as a member of the "emergent administrative class," he had "restricted information." Discusses Pandarus of TC as…
