Browse Items (15542 total)

Kanno examines instances of "mesure" and its synonyms in Chaucer's works, comparing those meanings with the virtue of moderation in Confucianism. The meanings range from "calculation" to "moderation." Generally, Chaucer's distinction between good and…

Outlines the "kinds of ambiguities in Chaucer's verbal and narrative technique" based in his commitment to epistemological "indeterminacy." Then examines MLT and its changes to its source in Nicholas Trevet to show that the "theme of the limitation…

Traces broad similarities between FrT and the Robin Hood ballads to suggest that Chaucer knew early forms of the ballads and adapted them for comic effect.

Passages from ShT and MLT suggest that men have a right to beat their wives; furthermore, MilT and passages from Mel and WBT (in the wife's marriage to Jankin) seem to suggest masochism in female characters. MkP suggests that women are naturally…

Concludes that the three female voices of Dorigen, Griselda, and the Wife of Bath ironically expose Chaucer's hierarchical idea of women.

Considers three of the CT that contain 'virago' figures and focus on an encounter between East and West at the heart of the tales. Chaucer's attitude to the set of viragos is enigmatic. By discrediting the reliability of his narrators, he blurs the…

Although ParsT relies heavily on Raymond de Penaforte's "Summa de poenitentia et matrimonio," Chaucer extracts one chapter from the treatise and substitutes a "tree of life" for Raymond's pilgrimage metaphor. By indicating that one can live a life of…

Crocker investigates how the visibility and invisibility of gender in Chaucer are linked to performativity and cultural privilege, especially for men. Discusses the figurative tradition of engendering sight as background to how Prudence in Mel is the…

Medieval universities taught "perspectiva," or optics, important in literary realism. Chaucer's use of light, vision, and space parallels passages in optical texts and becomes thematic in CT, fragments G and A. Jean de Meun, Dante, and Boccaccio…

(In Japanese).

Comparison of Romance vocabulary, direct discourse, the first person (singular or plural), finite verb forms, and other grammatical elements such as independent and dependent clauses inKnT and WBT shows that "Chaucer did indeed use the language of…

Using the image of a volume of collected leaves, Chaucer explores the "twin problems of rivalry and rehearsal" in his sequence of MilP (the narrator's apology), MLP (the Man of Law's comments on Chaucer's writings), and WBPT (the tearing of Jankyn's…

Explores vows and vow-breaking in CT, arguing that ManT brings to tragic crescendo a concern with the transgression of marital vows and presents consequences as horrific as any in Greek drama.

Explores Chaucer's "literary voice" as a self-conscious reflection of late-fourteenth-century vernacularizing.

Although the Knight's Yeoman may be a "forster" (1.117) before all else, the skills he would possess in that role "would find ready application on military campaign," which helps to explain the Knight's choice of his Yeoman, rather than another…

Connects the lament in WBP 3.614 with the more familiar proverb "Lechery is no sin," recurrently used by traditional "demonic" figures in early literature. The Wife's use is richer with "complex ironies."

In most of his poems Chaucer exploits the traditional material to create a double view, one inherent in the material and the other produced by his handling of them. He inherited this technique from Jean de Meun; in BD and the "Roman," for example,…

Adduces evidence from various sources to show that the Wife of Bath has characteristics of the archetype of the old bawd, itself rooted in the earlier figure of "sorceress-intermediary" and associated with aging, trade, extravagant dress, and…

Wheel iconography associated with Hugh of Foilloy's treatise, "The Wheel of True and False Religion," may have influenced the plotting of the divided fart in SumT.

An examination of three analogues--"The Marriage of Sir Gawaine," "The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell," and Gower's "Tale of Florent"--illuminates Chaucer's handling of Arthurian motifs such as the lady's transformation and the issue of…

Coverchiefs, while sometimes a sign of mourning, are more often read as a devilish device to "blind men's sight," as Robert Mannyng suggests. The Wife's coverchiefs serve as one of numerous signs that "her life...remains in theological disarray."

John Fowles's novel"A Maggot," set in eighteenth-century England, is similar to CT in several ways, from its opening premise to its general structure as a series of "tales" (reconstructions of mysterious events surrounding a death) told by various…

Common law, canon law, and contemporary conduct books indicate certain concepts of marriage and the role of the good wife. The Wife of Bath's "good" (arranged) and "bad" (chosen) marriages contrast the ideal with socioeconomic reality. WBT is a…

If Jankyn and Alison conspired at the death of the Wife's fourth husband, the books from which Jankyn reads possibly contain lessons to murderesses. Her anger and threat of revelation result in his capitulation and flight, leaving her to purvey her…

In later medieval thought, spinning women represent two often contradictory ideas: rebellion against hierarchical order and, paradoxically, Marian obedience. Citing scripture, Chaucer's Wife fuses both viewpoints in WBP. When Lancastrian mores…