Eisner, Sigmund.
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…
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."
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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.
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…
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.
Explores the implications of the Knight's "cutting short" of the MkT, contrasting the characterizations of the two pilgrims, describing the Monk as "comic imitation of knighthood," and observing contrasts and parallels in the wording, details, and…
Lawrence, William W.
Modern Language Notes 72.2 (1957): 87-88.
Disagrees with R. L. Chapman's argument (1956) that the Shipman was the original teller of ShT, offering further evidence that Chaucer first assigned the narrative to the Wife of Bath.
Lynch, James J.
Modern Language Notes 72.4 (1957): 242-49.
Reviews arguments that identify and explicate "Seinte Loy" in the GP description of the Prioress (GP 1.120) as a reference to St. Eligius, and suggests an alternative possibility: St. Eulalia. Explores resonances of the reference--thematic and…
Montgomery, Marion.
Boston University Studies in English 3 (1957): 177-78.
Suggests that "for the nones" in LGWP (F 292-96 and G 194-98), rather than meaning "for the occasion," refers to the canonical hour of Nones, i.e., for the ritual of the "celebration of Nones."
Considers Chaucer's uses of bird imagery in TC, contrasting them at many points with other, more anthropocentric literary birds, and generally commending his bird (and animal) imagery for its rhetorical range and evocation of precise emotion.
Muscatine, Charles.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957.
Describes aspects of medieval French poetry that influenced Chaucer's style, high and low, tracing the idealizing, nonrepresentational conventions of courtly romances from the early twelfth century to their epitome in Guillaume's de Lorris's portion…
Focuses on Chaucer's uses of "this" to "create narrative tone and dramatic meaning" in CT, discussing a variety of examples and exploring metrical, rhetorical, and syntactic features as they help in characterization. Includes comments on the six uses…
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Modern Language Notes 72.3 (1957): 164-65.
Accepts that the manuscript of Equat is Chaucer's own draft, with revisions, and suggests that evidence from TC indicates that "Chaucer did not wait till he had finished his work to have parts of it copied out fair by his scribe."
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Modern Philology 55.1 (1957): 1-5.
Explores how several of Chaucer's putative additions to or revisions of TC (posited by R. K. Root) strengthen the poem's structural and thematic symmetry.
Robinson, F. N., ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Edits the complete works of Chaucer from various manuscripts, with end-of-volume explanatory notes, textual notes, and glossary. A general Introduction summarizes Chaucer's life, the canon and chronology of his works, his language and meter, and the…
Suggests that "spiced conscience" in GP (1.526) means "peppery" moral indignation; "sweet, spiced conscience" in WBP (3.435), a "bland, gentle disposition."
