Browse Items (15542 total)

Introduces Chaucer's language as a dialect and a stage in the development of English. Designed for classroom use, includes sections on vocabulary, grammar, style and register, and the opening eighteen lines of the GP.

Suggests that the assigning of "Pilates voys" to the Miller (MilP 1.3124) may be due in part to the apocryphal notion that Pilate was the son of a miller's daughter, as recorded in the "Legenda Aurea."

Explores associative and metaphoric links between Chaucer's Miller (GP and MilP), the devil, and Pilate, who was "traditionally an agent of the devil."

Both the Miller and characters in his "Tale" exhibit "curiositas," defined by medieval Church fathers as the exercise of curiosity in pursuit of idle knowledge, i.e., knowledge not directly leading to salvation.

Several motifs and verbal echoes among MilT, RvT, and "The Decameron" strengthen the case for "memorial borrowing" and invite the invention of a new critical term for Chaucer's poems: "metrical novellas."

Ten essays by various authors, six of them previously published. For the newly published essays, search for Chaucer's Mind and Art under Alternative Title.

The Miller is a stereotypical Celt, disparaged by society; Oswald the Reeve is an Anglo-Saxon who resents the Celtic Miller's "specialized trade." The Prioress is distanced from secular society by her profession and distanced from her profession by…

As in late-medieval lyrics and drama, the suffering of mothers and children in Chaucer's works is presented as analogous to the suffering of Mary and Jesus. Surveys the presence and absence of references to children in Chaucer's works.

The short verse argument to the "Thebaid" prefixed to most manuscripts of TC had probably been memorized in Chaucer's youth and was used for the later books of TC. While the siege of Troy continues, Cassandra completes the story of the siege of…

Traces a strain of Marian mysticism in Chaucer's works, including ABC and several aspects of SNT and PrT.

Explores the impact of medieval monastic culture on the evolution of sports, such as hockey, football and, in particular, tennis, including commentary on Chaucer's criticism of ecclesiastics engaged in sport. Argues that Chaucer's clerics reflect the…

Chaucer may have intended to end MkT with the account of Zenobia--extracting it from LGW--and thereby to offer her narrative as a remedy for the Monk's "spiritual condition," which develops over the course of CT. Lindeboom compares Chaucer's…

MkT makes a political statement reflecting Richard II's tyrannous activities during the altter years of his reign. The stories of misgovernment suggest a late date of composition for the work. The character of the Monk is based on Nimrod, himself…

Chaucer's portrait of the Monk is consistent throughout CT. In narrating MkT, the Monk distorts biblical passages such as the Samson exemplum, showing himself remiss in biblical studies just as the GP Monk is lax in other clerical duties.

Identifies the sexual and medical implications of several details in the GP description of the Monk, including his association with venery and food, his baldness, and his being fat "in good point" (1.200).

The Monk (who, alone among the pilgrims, discusses both meter and genre at length) with his hundred tragedies can be viewed as a "rival poet" whose "imaginative narrowness," "verbal repetition," "tiresome" syntax, and encapsulated world view stand in…

The reference to Rochester just before MkT helps explain the choice of teller, the nature of the tale, and the narrator's refusal to "pleye" when he is interrupted. Rochester Cathedral included a monastic house; it contained a mural of Fortune's…

The labors of Hercules, employed by Boethius to show how man may determine his own fortune, are misused by the Monk, who sees the "Consolation" only as a source for secular tales.

Read in accord with the medieval one-handed alphabet, the hand positions in Chaucer's Hoccleve portrait form the monogram GC. These positions appear to be a constant in the tradition of Chaucer portraiture, including the Ellesmere miniature. Such…

Each of the five names Chaucer uses for the moon goddess denotes a particular aspect of the goddess. A study of these names in TC, FranT, KnT, and MerT and of the functions they denote helps us understand the personalities of the women who invoke…

Contends that the opening of Elizabeth Bishop's "The Moose" contains several echoes of GP.

Discusses Chaucer's "moot" / "moste" from a cognitive-linguistic point of view.

With its focus on sin, ParsT is the most Gowerian and least Chaucerian of the CT, even though Gower's presentation of sin is expository and Chaucer's indirect.

Coleman argues from evidence in KnT, HF, and Rom that Chaucer probably did not have Boccaccio's commentary on "Il Teseida."

In contrast to the strong heroines in French romances, Criseyde is a weak, passive individual who does not act but is acted upon. Chaucer creates her this way deliberately to make her "magically attractive"--she is "lovely undefined responsiveness,"…