In addition to etymologically undetermined words in Chaucer and to words whose ironic use obscures their true meaning, Chaucer's portrayal of characters (e.g., Reeve, Plowman, Yeoman, the widow of NPT, Griselda, and Symkyn in RvT) reveals that he was…
Curtis, Penelope.
Gregory Kratzmann and James Simpson, eds. Medieval English Religious and Ethical Literature (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1986), pp. 128-45.
An "earthscape of renewals and pilgrimages," CT is chiefly incarnational and pluralistic, with four exceptions. As pious tales with separate value structures and terms of reference differing from the GP principle of "purifying, abstracting and…
Lemos, Brunilda Reichmann.
Revista Letras 30 (1981): 7-16.
Departures from Boccaccio's tale of Griselda are examined to prove that Chaucer had been familiar with three other versions, those of Petrarch, MS 1165, and Mezieres. Chaucer used differences in detail to add delicacy to enhance the emotional…
Eitler, Tamás.
Michael D. Fortescue et al., eds. Historical Linguistics 2003: Selected Papers from the 16th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Copenhagen, 11-15 August 2003 (Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2005), pp. 87-102.
Eitler studies the development of the "incipient standard" syntactic pattern (subject-verb-object), comparing data from Chaucer's prose works with data from other ME prose, characterizing his idiom as the "(relatively) upper class sociolect" of…
Sherman, John Stores.
Dissertation Abstracts International 37 (1976): 995A.
Chap. I studies Chaucer's awareness of the assets and liabilities of working within a tradition in PF and Purse. Chap. II argues that HF is finished. Chap. III sees the contradiction between the Pardoner's confession and tale as an effort to put…
Gray, Douglas.
Ruth Morse and Barry Windeatt, eds. Chaucer Traditions: Studies in Honour of Derek Brewer (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1990), pp. 81-90.
King James, Henryson, Dunbar, and Douglas were influenced by Chaucer rhetorically and stylistically, as well as in their choices of genre; but Gray emphasizes the influence of Chaucer's ideas and themes--noting particularly how Chaucer's "powers" of…
Burnet, R. A. L.
Notes and Queries 227 (1982): 115-16.
Although Ann Thompson's "Shakespeare's Chaucer: A Study in Literary Origins" explores parallels between TC and LGW and "The Merchant of Venice," it does not note the Chaucerian echoes in Portia's warning of Bassanio (5.1.23Off.), which is similar to…
Chetwynd, Marvin Gaye, illus.
London: Four Corners, 2014.
Art edition of selections from CT: GP, MilT, RvT, FrT, MerT, WBT, SumT, and PardT, with collage-like illustrations that combine imagery from medieval and modern sources,
Dramatic adaptation of portions of GP, KnT, WBT, PardT, FranT, NPT, and MilT, designed for "youth groups and dramatic societies." Includes stage directions, brief production notes and instructions, property list, etc. Musical score for piano, by…
Brewer, Derek.
Stefan Horlacher and Marion Islinger, eds. Expedition nach der Wahrheit: Poems, Essays, and Papers in Honour of Theo Stemmler (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1996), pp. 513-24.
Critiques approaches to TC that separate the narrator of the poem from Chaucer, briefly tracing modern ideas of character and irony from Kittredge to Donaldson and Muscatine, and on to deconstruction and feminism. New Critics and their descendants…
Specht, Henrik.
Raken Ringbom and Matti Pissanen, eds. Proceedings from the Second Nordic Conference for English Studies (Abo: Abo Akademi, 1984), pp. 403-13.
Examines "ethopoeia" and "adlocutio" in characterizations and portraiture.
Oka, Saburo.
Hiroe Futamura, Kenichi Akishino, and Hisato Ebi, eds. A Pilgrimage Through Medieval Literature (Tokyo: Nan' Un-Do Press, 1993), pp. 399-411.
Compares love and the transformation of love in RvT with presentations in analogues to the poem, considering them as versions of the one-male, two-female love triangle.
Bugbee, John.
Medievalia et Humanistica 36 (2010) 49-76.
Dorigen in FranT has more than the two options of shame or death: she can also choose to break a bad law, even though the decision to let bad law stand "seems somehow, tragically, to have been taken long before the characters became conscious of…
Barr, Helen.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2001.
Seven interrelated studies and an afterword that explore "socioliterary practice," considering literature as a material form of social behavior in "internal and dialectical relationship" with the institutions and conventions that shape it and that it…
In light of sociolinguistic categories such as register, distance-solidarity, and dialect, Allman contends, RvPT and the Reeve's portrait in GP stand as sustained examinations of failed sociality and unsatisfied desire at both dramatic and narrative…
Durmuller, Urs.
Andre Crepin, ed. Linguistic and Stylistic Studies in Medieval English. Publications de l'Association des Medievistes de l'Ensignement Superieur 10. (Paris, 1984): pp. 5-22.
Using applied sociolinguistics, Durmuller follows Schauber and Spolsky in analysis of verbal behavior of the Pardoner, whose oddities in language (speech acts, pronominal reference, selection of lexical items) relate to his strange behavior.
Woods, William F.
Papers on Language and Literature 32 (1996): 189-205
Explores ways CkPT respond to themes raised earlier in Fragment 1 and focuses on how CkT provides a "powerfully suggestive" urban setting in which the regulated life of Perkyn's master is contrasted by the mercurial, primal, savage world of thievery…
Nakao, Yoshiyuki.
Masahiko Kanno, Masahiko Agari, and Gregory K. Jember, eds. Essays on English Literature and Language in Honour of Shun'ichi Noguchi. Tokyo: Eihosha, 1997, pp. 17-34.
Discusses Chaucer's uses of moot / moste, focusing on the fusion of social objective factors and the speaker's subjective implications.
Newman, Francis X., ed.
Binghamton, N.Y. : Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1986.
Five essays dealing with the peasants' revolt, peasant resistance, the plague, and social conscience. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Social Unrest in the Middle Ages under Alternative Title.
Cherniavsky, Michael, and Arthur J. Slavin, eds.
Waltham, Mass.: Xerox College Publishing, 1972.
Textbook anthology for use in history classrooms, combining classical, medieval, and Renaissance sources with modern assessments of the status, activities, and treatments of people of lower classes. In a section called "Ideal Types in Traditional…
Boyd, David Lorenzo.
Huntington Library Quarterly 58 (1996): 81-97.
The unique ending of CkT in MS Bodley 686 (ca. 1420-1440) reaffirms the preservation of traditional social systems and the obedience that they entail in the face of rising violence and the fear of political and social instability.
Sampson, Gloria Marie Paulik.
DAI 31.02 (1970): 747A.
Studies the "3500 second-person pronouns" in CT, using a socio-linguistic model that attends to "Social, Kinship, and Ideational Domains" to account for patterns of usage.
Mazzon, Gabriella.
Dieter Kastovsky and Arthur Mettinger, eds. The History of English in a Social Context: A Contribution to Historical Sociolinguistics. Trends in Linguistics; Studies and Monographs, no. 129. (Berlin and New York: Gruyter, 2000), pp. 135-68.
Mazzon demonstrates a "clear correlation between discourse strategies and pronoun use and switching" in CT. You and thou forms indicate "politeness" as well as social status, gender, and characterization.
