Chaucer's frequent references to nagging wives and henpecked husbands have less to do with his personal views than with his awareness of audience; women as well as men could share the misogynistic joke because in Pauline theory the shrew was "some…
The problem of ascertaining Chaucer's audience(s) is complex, running from the fictional one of GP to the real audiences of the poet's day to the audiences of the present.
Herdan, G.
Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America 32.2 (1956): 254-59.
Tabulates the percentage of romance words in the works of Chaucer against the overall length of these works, suggesting that, in terms of its romance vocabulary, Equat "is to be regarded as a work by Chaucer." Establishes a logarithmic formula for…
Traces the development of the "sermo humilis" tradition in literature and the visual arts as a context for Chaucer's uses of "pathetic style" in the Ugolino episode of MkT, PrT, PhyT, and MLT, arguing that these accounts reflect the evolution of…
Stemmler, Theo.
Richard G. Newhauser and John A. Alford, eds. Literature and Religion in the Later Middle Ages: Philological Studies in Honor of Siegfried Wenzel (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1995), pp. 11-23.
Disagreeing throughout with Joerg Fichte and Edmund Reiss, Stemmler uses literature contemporary with Chaucer to show that Ros is a "seriously meant love-lyric." It is not a parody.
An alphabetical glossary of obscene, sexual, and scatological references, puns, and allusions in Chaucer's works. Individual entries define and analyze the terms and phrases, providing bibliographical citations to previous critical discussions; the…
Assesses Chaucer's "vulgarisms" for the ways that they "reveal" his "expert insight into the uninhibited lives of the folk." Comments on Chaucer's depictions of incest, claims that Chaucer's uses 119 "bawdy terms," and focuses on his robust…
Kraebel, A. B.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 47.3 (2017): 437-60.
Focuses on how manuscript compilations, especially biblical materials, are evoked in CT. Argues that a strictly historical arpproach to this material is inadequate and examines how an author can use the material form of books for specific literary…
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
Argues that the Bible is a far more pervasive influence on Chaucer than has been previously recognized. Chaucer uses the Bible or its glosses in most of his writings, responding--through quotation, paraphrase, or allusion--to traditional notions of…
Schrock, Chad.
Modern Language Review 114 (2019): 643-61.
Examines biblical images, allusions, themes, and narrative patterns in MilPT, exploring various ways that the Miller and Nicholas appropriate the Bible's "authority for personal rhetorical ends." Chaucer's providence-like control of his material is…
Kamowski, William F.
Dissertation Abstracts International 45 (1985): 3645A.
Aware that he was writing in an increasingly literate milieu, Chaucer adapted his text to listening or reading audiences. A development is traced through TC, LGW, CT.
Exemplifies Chaucer's "homely vocabulary" and "naturalistic choice of words," identifying roots in both French and native English, and commenting on instances of idiomatic phrases, rogues' speech, "zesty vocabulary," "oaths and imprecations," sexual…
Glowka, Arthur W.
Language Quarterly 21 (1983): 15-17.
In PF, NPT, TC, ManT, and MerT, Chaucer uses onomatopoeic bird talk for puns, verbal wit, irony, e.g., finds hints in MerT of May as turtle-dove-cuckoo.
Rowland, Beryl.
Beryl Rowland, ed. Chaucer and Middle English Studies in honour of Rossell Hope Robbins (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 43-55.
Identifies elements of MilT that burlesque the Annunciation, the Incarnation, and the Flood, explaining imagery and allusions derived from the biblical narratives and mystery plays.
An edition and translation of "Filostrato," "Teseida" (excerpts), and "Filocolo" 4.31-34 (excerpts). Includes introduction, bibliography, notes, index of personal names, and three appendices: "The Fortunes of Troilus"; Benoit de Sainte-Maure,…
Shoaf, [Richard] Allen.
Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2001.
Chaucer's use of metonymy in CT expresses his "anxiety of circulation," which is traced through his references to the fragmented body and bodily functions, infection, magic, rhetoric, and translation. Shoaf examines relationships among tales,…
Aertsen, Henk.
Matti Rissanen and et al, eds. History of Englishes: New Methods and Interpretations in Historical Linguistics. Topics in English Linguistics, no. 10 (Berlin and New York: Gruyter, 1992), pp. 671-87.
The syntactical and lexical innovations in Bo suggest that Chaucer followed Jean de Meun's principles of "open translation" for rendering Latin into the vernacular; similar principles were articulated in the Prologue to the later version of the…
Shimonomoto, Keiko.
Keiko Shimonomoto. The Use of Ye and Thou in the Canterbury Tales, and Collected Articles (Tokyo: Waseda University Enterprise, 2001), pp. 83-92.
Originally published in the Journal of Liberal Arts (Waseda University) 100 (1996), the article surveys criticism of Chaucer's prose style in Bo. Shimonomoto calls for more appropriate discourse analysis, examining two passages in which Chaucer uses…
Carlson, David R.
Robert Taylor, James F. Burke, Patricia J. Eberle, Ian Lancashire, and Brian S. Merrilees, eds. The Centre and Its Compass: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Professor John Leyerle (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1993), pp. 29-70.
Usk's "Testament of Love" relies on Chaucer's translation of Bo and his literary reworking of philosophy in TC, but it reflects even more significantly Chaucer's innovations in writing nondevotional, apolitical, self-consciously literary prose texts.
Examines the manuscript and editorial traditions of BD to argue for a new edition, based on MS Tanner 346, sensitive to the poem's octosyllabic meter and aware of scribal contamination. Suggests a number of emendations.
