Browse Items (15542 total)

By endowing ParsP with a number of rhetorical and dramatic devices, Chaucer gives the tale a significance that sets it apart and precludes an ironic or perspectivist reading.

Considers the relationship between Chaucer's position in courtly society and his attitude toward his female audience through the examination of his creation of female characters, especially those in TC, LGW, Mel, and WBP.

Pairing three legends from LGW with three of the CT results in useful categories of Chaucer's pathos: Lucrece, PrT--naive portrayal of saintlike stereotype; Philomena, MLT--stock romantic figure of lady in distress; Hypermnestra, PhyT--pathetic, but…

Comments generally on Chaucer's knowledge of Patristic writings by way of handbooks and florilegia, and characterizes Chaucer's outlook as distinctly Augustinian and Boethian, especially his sense of order and beauty and his pervasive "Christian…

Combines literary history with linguistic and statistical analysis to demonstrate how Chaucer's pentameter verse is closer to the Italian "endecasillabo" than to the French "vers de dix."

Frames and analyzes the pilgrims of CT in terms of the social contexts surrounding their professions in Chaucer's lifetime and the antecedent few decades, interestingly moving directly against perceived social ordering to do so. Begins with the rural…

"Peple" and "folk" are marked terms in Chaucer's usage. In particular, "peple" is nearly always negative; "folk" is either neutral or positive. In Chaucer's translations (e.g., Bo), "folk" normally translates as "gens" or its cognates, while "peple"…

Suggests that interpretations of the Pardoner are overwrought, arguing that he acts "perfectly in the character given him by his creator" and that his somewhat troubling offer of relics to the Host is best understood as a joke.

Criseyde's allusion to Prudence with "eyen thre" is derived from Dante's "Purgatorio," 29.132; but since the Italian reference is cryptic in style and symbology, Chaucer was probably also influenced by glosses and illuminations for the passage,…

Though "the rede" may be taken as referring to either Phaethon or his father Phoebus, Phaethon is in Ovid the red-haired boy burning in the sky, who falls to earth as a human torch;"rede Phaethon" shows fidelity to Chaucer's source and intensifies…

Examines the influence of Boethius on Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer. Focuses on how understanding "The Consolation of Philosophy" enhances the "philosophical reflection" and reception of TC for readers.

Chaucer's dream visions confront contemporary philosophical debates, which also shape his poetics. BD is concerned with the status of universals, the relationship of universals to singulars, and the certainty of human knowledge. HF mocks "the logical…

Examines the GP description of Chaucer's Physician, assessing the extent to which the Physician's astrological medicine is satiric when seen in relation to such works as Nicholas of Lynn's Kalendarium.

This guide for undergraduates treats astrology, the zodiac, humors, therapies, Chaucer's authorities, medieval attitudes toward medicine, and the GP Physician.

Compares PhyT with its sources in Livy and the "Roman de la Rose" to argue that Chaucer's retelling characterizes the Physician as amoral, consistent with the GP description.

In his "Physicall and approved Medicines..." (London, 1611) Edmund Gardiner cites Galfridus Chaucer as one of his authorities and quotes a version of GP, I (A), 443-44: "For Gold in Physicke is a cordiall: / Wherefore he loved Golde in speciall."

Describes fourteenth-century medical training and practice in England and documents physicians who were contemporary with Chaucer, suggesting that John de Middelton is the "perhaps most probable" candidate for a real-life model of Chaucer's…

Applies portrait of the Physician in GP to a close reading of PhyT; the imperfect Physician is Chaucer's criticism of medical doctors.

Chaucer quotes Juvenal's Tenth Satire in TC and WBT. The satire also provides suggestions for the three substantial additions he made to PhyT--on Virginia's beauty, her chastity, and the duty of governesses.

Analysis of PhyT and its connection with the storyteller through the notions of authority, sovereignty and power. In the post-plague context, when doctors had become broadly distrusted, a story that stresses these aspects would help to restore the…

Explores interconnection among medicine, religion, and gender, as well as Chaucer's engagement with Marian doctrine, in PrPT and PhyT.

Explores Chaucer's depictions of physicians, focusing on how they exemplify the tension between "medici corporals" (bodily medicine) and "spirituals" (spiritual medicine). None of Chaucer's physicians exhibit an ideal balance; Chaucer explores a…

Addresses "Chaucer's engagement with the concept of movement" in HF, exploring how three scenes of motion (the eagle's descent, the eagle's lecture on movement and sound, and the whirling House of Rumor) engage with William of Ockham's "Brevis summa…

Considers the techniques of characterization in CT, with particular attention to the range of social classes and the assigning of fabliaux to particular tellers. Comments on the gender of individual tellers and on the likelihood of class and gender…

Cullen's third volume on CT claims the work is an allegory reflecting Chaucer's preoccupation with astronomy/astrology. The Pilgrims, who congregate at sunset, correspond to the constellations and planets-celestial "pilgrims" traveling across the…