Browse Items (16035 total)

Suggests that Chaucer deployed the tradition of grammatical "correction" as a metaphor for moral reform, finding examples in CT, TC, and Adam.

Adduces evidence of the influence of Boccaccio's "Decameron" on CT by collecting all available indications of similarity—instances of borrowing and less specific parallel details.

The manuscripts of the CT attest to the continuous, evolving, and unfinished nature of Chaucer's work on them from 1387 onward. The poet's intent in CT was to stretch the limits of inherited genres and expand the perceptions of his audience. The…

Argues that the concern with the "basic duality between material and spiritual values" in CYPT is based in Boethius's admonitions against pursuing false felicity in his "Consolation of Philosophy," manifested in the Canon's Yeoman's concern with…

Interprets CYPT as "Chaucerian critique of the male desire to use technological and scientific innovation to generate alone, excluding women from creation and thus overthrowing the normative pairing of sex contraries upon which medieval religious,…

Studies sermon rhetoric in CT, identifying its roots in preaching handbooks and considering its value for understanding aspects of structure, style, and characterization in SNT, NPT, ParsT, PardT, WBT, and SumT, treating the Pardoner, the Wife of…

Considers possible sources and analogues for three passages in FranT (5.721-25, 829-34, and 1113-15), explaining how diction, style, and rhetoric indicate the likely influence of Alanus de Insulis's "Anticlaudianus" (Alain de Lille's "Anticlaudian")…

Adapts the "gift theory" of Jacques Derrida; considers the historical context of the marriage of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster; and focuses on the scene of White's ring-giving (as reported by the Black Knight), considering the poem itself as…

Proposes that when Langland revised B into C, the literary landscape was very different (from Edwardian to Ricardian poetry). Chaucerian dream vision, especially PF with its "emphasis upon the poetic figure who seeks to understand the world through…

Both Boccaccio and Chaucer use the figure of the "woman reader" to represent changing interpretive strategies that, in turn, reflect changes in social complexity. Lartigue focuses on the Teseida, the Decameron, LGW, and CT.

Argues that the Wife of Bath's reference to an incubus (3.880) is not an aggressive critique of the Friar's "deficient virility" as editors assume but instead a gentle and teasing jibe.

The clear erotic context of the blacksmith's response to Absolon's late-night visit supports a gloss of "viritoot" as a derivation of "the Latin ablative cum virtute," meaning 'with manly ardor.'

Traces the "growing versatility" of the "ubi sunt" motif in Middle English literature--its emotional impact, its relations with the theme of mutability, and its potential for expressing nostalgia--concluding with a comparison of Chaucer's uses of the…

Lydgate's "Troy Book" describes the classical theater as a semicircle with a raised pulpit in the midst. This is what is portrayed in the Corpus Christi College (Cambridge) manuscript: finely dressed figures mime the roles of the principals while…

The famous "Troilus" Frontispiece has created an image of Chaucer's audience as the royal court with Richard and Ann. But such identification in an unrealistic picture, clearly a presentation-picture variant, is impossible. Chaucer's actual audience…

Reads LGWP as an indication of Chaucer's theory that writing is based largely on the reading of others. Chaucer's narrator is confronted with the implications of this theory.

Explores the influence of Italian and French vernacular versions of Ovid's "Heroides" on the legends of LGW, where Chaucer engages and undermines the historical emphasis of these vernacular versions and reasserts the literary, rhetorical authority of…

The rhetorical trope 'translatio' subsumes metaphor, allegory,and irony, providing a basis for understanding how the Pardoner translates himself into his characters and the Old Man into the rioters. The Pardoner represents his own Otherness while…

Traces the "stylistic and ironic aspects of 'honde'" in WBP, showing how uses of the word and related imagery anticipate the Wife's mastery of Jankyn.

The relationship between Troy's story and Criseyde's demonstrates Chaucer's vision of how common Destiny frames but ultimately releases individual free will. The "de casibus" frame comments on the human condition; like Troy and Criseyde, we are…

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…

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…

Surveys critical approaches to Mel and discusses its themes of "the good woman" and forgiveness; also assesses Mel as a complex, multi-leveled allegory.

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…

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…