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Poems to Read Aloud.
Hodnett, Edward, ed.
New York: Norton, 1957. Rev. ed. 1967.
Anthologizes English poems and excerpts alphabetically by author, including the Envoy to ClT (7.1178-1212), translated by Hodnett into Modern English in rhyme royal stanzas.
The Concept of Order in Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale.
Heninger, S. K., Jr.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 56 (1957): 382-95.
Analyzes the "repeated allusions to the Scholastic concept of a divinely-ordained universal order" in ClT. Shows that such allusions are generally not in Chaucer's sources, and that they help to characterize the Clerk as a "serious scholar and devout…
Chaucer's "Merchant’s Tale."
Griffith, Philip Mahone.
Explicator 16 (1957): item 13.
Assesses Chaucer's use of the name "Damian" in MerT as an allusion to St. Damian who, with his brother St. Cosmos, was associated with medical healing. Attends to a pun on "leech" (healer) in the tale.
Christian Implications of Knighthood and Courtly Love in Chaucer's "Troilus."
Green, Marion N.
Delaware Notes 30 (1957): 57-92.
Assesses TC as a "peculiar combination of church, chivalry, and courtly love," exploring the history of the amalgamation of the "system of knighthood," the church's influence on the "chivalric code," and the "idealization of woman." Then examines…
"Pullesdon" in the "Life-Records of Chaucer."
Galway, Margaret.
Notes and Queries 202 (1957): 371-74
Reconsiders the toponym "Pullesdon" as a location in archival records that pertain to Chaucer, Philippa, and their patrons Lionel and Elizabeth, exploring possibilities for the location and implications concerning Philippa and Elizabeth.
The Man in Black's Lyric.
French, W. H.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 56 (1957): 231-41.
Reconsiders characterizations of the Dreamer of BD from George Lyman Kittredge (1915) forward, focusing on the Dreamer's reception of the Man in Black's song (475-86). Compares aspects of BD--especially the song--with sources and analogues from the…
The Dangerous Theme of the Pardoner.
Friend, Albert C.
Modern Language Quarterly 18 (1957): 305-08
Suggests Chaucer "was walking on dangerous ground" in choosing 1Timothy 6:10 ("Radix malorum . . .") as the theme of the Pardoner's sermon, adducing a Latin sermon by Oxfordian Robert Lychlade on the same theme that led to him being brought to trial…
Whan That Aprill(e)?
Evans, Robert O.
Notes and Queries 202 (1957): 234-37.
Analyzes the meter of the opening line of CT (GP 1.1), focusing on renderings of “Aprill(e)” in manuscripts and printed editions, comparing it with meter elsewhere in CT, and arguing "that there is a strong possibility, even a probability, that…
The Question of "Lusty Malyne."
Emerson, Katherine T.
Notes and Queries 202 (1957): 277-78.
Argues that Aleyn's "easy conquest" of Malyne in RvT can be attributed to their prior familiarity and to her promiscuity, the latter evident in the "ease" with which she uses the term "lemman."
A Tale of Wonder: A Source Study of "The Wife of Bath's Tale."
Eisner, Sigmund.
Wexford, [Ire.]: John English, 1957.
Wexford, [Ire.]: John English, 1957.
Identifies and traces developments of the sources and analogues of WBT, emphasizing the transmission of Irish roots through Welsh elaboration, Arthurian development in Brittany and France, Middle English analogues, and various parallels in…
The Reformation: A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin, 1300-1564.
Durant, Will.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.
Describes Chaucer's life and works in a brief subsection of chapter two (pp. 47-56), offering appreciative commentary that characterizes the poet as one who "loved life," despite awareness of the "faults, sins, crimes, follies, and vanities of…
The Tortured Pardoner.
Duino, Richard.
English Journal 46 (1957): 320-25, 365.
Provides "some scholarly background information" about the Pardoner intended for teachers of high school senior English classes, summarizing studies by Tupper, Kittredge, Curry, and Patch, and focusing on why Chaucer may have invested this Canterbury…
The Image of Pluto and Proserpine in the "Merchant's Tale."
Donovan, Mortimer J.
Philological Quarterly 36 (1957): 49–60.
Identifies parallels between the characterizations of January and May in MerT and those of Pluto and Proserpine in Claudian's "De Raptu Proserpinae." Anticipating the role of the fairy deities in Chaucer's Pear-Tree episode, Claudian's "myth of…
The "Anticlaudian" and Three Passages in the "Franklin’s Tale."
Donovan, Mortimer J.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 56 (1957): 52-59.
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")…
Chaucer Allusions: 1619-1732.
Dobbins, Austin C.
Modern Language Quarterly 18 (1957): 309-12.
Identifies previously unrecorded allusions to Chaucer, most of them reflecting his "reputation as a religious leader and reformer," some based on works attributed to him falsely.
Geoffrey Chaucer Goes to School.
Chute, Marchette.
William Targ, ed. Bibliophile in the Nursery: A Bookman's Treasury of Collectors' Lore on Old and Rare Children's Books (Cleveland: OH: World, 1957), pp. 106-12.
Excerpts and re-titles a portion of chapter two of Chute's 1946 "Geoffrey Chaucer on England," describing the nature of Chaucer's education and the books he likely encountered in his early studies.
Chaucer's Summoner, the Friar's Summoner, and the "Friar's Tale."
Cawley, A. C.
Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society (Literary and Historical Section) 8 (1956-1957): 173-80.
Assesses "unsavory" details of the GP description of the Summoner, the "bad feeling" between the Friar and the Summoner (WBP 3.829ff. and FrP 1265ff.), and concerns that link the GP Summoner and the summoner of FrT, clarifying the Friar's "attack" on…
Irony in the "Merchant's Tale."
Burrow, J. A.
Anglia 75 (1957): 199-208.
Identifies various instances of irony in MerT, arguing that its "persistent irony" distinguishes the tale from Chaucer's comic fabliaux and aligns it with the "moral fable" of PardT. A poem of "clarity, critical observation, and disgust," MerT also…
Yet Once More "For the Nones."
Brown, Calvin S.
Boston University Studies in English 3 (1957): 228-30.
On contextual and linguistic grounds, rejects Marion Montgomery's suggestion (1957) that "for the nones" in LGW-P (F 292-96 and G 194-98) is a "reference to the canonical hour of Nones, with its attendant services."
The Little Clergeon's "Alma Redemptoris Mater."
Boyd, Beverly.
Notes and Queries 202 (1957): 277.
Revisits Carleton Brown's 1910 suggestion of source relations between the "Alma Redemptoris Mater" in PrT and the "Gaude Maria," offering a liturgical explanation for Chaucer's use of the former.
The "Suttell and Dissayvabull" World of Chaucer's Troilus.
Bowers, R. H.
Notes and Queries 202 (1957): 278-79.
Identifies "Boethian sentiments" in an eight-line stanza appended to TC in St. John's, Cambridge, MS L.1, fol. 119v.
Distance and Predestination in "Troilus and Criseyde."
Bloomfield, Morton W.
PMLA 72.1 (1957): 14-26.
Assesses the "artistic role" in TC of the narrator--a commentator and a "historian [who] meticulously maintains a distance between himself and the events in the story." Explores "temporal, spatial, aesthetic, and religious" devices in the poem…
."… And It Is Half-Wey Pryme."
Block, Edward A.
Speculum 32.4 (1957) 826-33.
Argues that the Host's mention of "half-wey pryme" in RvP 1.3906 refers to the canonical hour of prime rather than "modern clock time" and means 6:30 am, rather than 7:30 as it is often explained. Compares other chronological references in CT…
When Was Chaucer Born?
Bland, D. S.
[London] Times Literary Supplement April 26, 1957, p. 264.
Suggests that Chaucer was in 1345-46, with several rejoinders in ensuing correspondence: Margaret Galway, May 10, p. 289 and July 12, p. 427; C. E. Welch, May 17, p 305; and G. C. G. Hall, June 28, p. 397.
The Parlement of Foules: An Interpretation.
Bennett, J. A. W.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. 2d ed. 1965.
Reads PF as a thematic exploration of Christian love infused with Neoplatonic thought and imagery, and influenced by Cicero, Macrobius, Alain de Lille, John de Meun, and Dante. Demonstrates the poem's tight verbal structure and its allusiveness,…