Lawton, David.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 9 (1987): 3-40.
In ParsP, ParsT, and Ret, we are "forced to confront" the textuality of CT; the "various conflicting interpretations" are conditioned by habitual responses to CT. Four standard approaches to ParsT--absolute, ironic, dualistic, and textual--result in…
Hardman, Phillipa.
Review of English Studies 31 (1980): 172-78.
Chaucer's contemporaries were familiar with his "tyraunts of Lumbardye" (LGW, G. 353), notorious for their cruelty. The Lombard setting of ClT suggests proverbial Lombard tyranny for Walter, an imperfect mixture of tyranny and pity, for he rues…
Taylor, Joseph.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 109 (2010): 468-89.
In RvT, Chaucer's references to language, lore, and the North both explore uncanny (in the Freudian sense) political differences among regions and reveal notions of nation. The North or Northernism plays a small but significant role elsewhere in CT,…
Taylor, Karla.
Leonard Michael Koff and Brenda Deen Schildgen, eds. The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: New Essays on an Old Question (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000), pp. 47-82.
Italian vernacular literature (rather than French court culture) inspired Chaucer to develop his authorial voice. FranT is a reading of Decameron 10.5 that illustrates the development of Chaucer's distinctly English agenda.
Benson, C. David.
Christianity & Literature 37 (1988): 7-22.
Benson urges that Chaucer be returned from merely professional scholarship to the mainstream of English literature and finds that structuralist, poststructuralist, Marxist, and feminist theories give new perspectives on Chaucer's work. Equally,…
North, J. D.
Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1988.
North reveals a cryptic extension to Chaucerian criticism: a celestial allegory. Part 1 is a guide to late-medieval understanding of the planets and their influences on humans, physiologically and morally, including chapters on the spheres, the…
Lester, G. A.
English Language Notes 27:1 (1989): 25-29.
The "De re militari" of Flavius Vegetius Renatus--translated three times into Middle English-condemns poorly kept armor. This passage supports the argument of Terry Jones ("Chaucer's Knight" SAC 5 (1983), no.137) that the physical deterioration of…
Tallies and comments upon various irreversible paired words in Chaucer's works (e.g., "joy and bliss," "word and dede," wele and wo," etc.), observing where modern usages vary or continue medieval practices.
Jimura, Akiyuki.
Michio Kawai, ed. Language and Style in English Literature: Essays in Honour of Michio Masui. The English Association of Hiroshima (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1991), pp. 289-305. Also in Hisao Turu, ed. Reading Chaucer's Book of the Duchess. Medieval English Literature Symposium Series, no. 5 (Tokyo: Gaku Shobo Press, 1991), pp. 221-43 (in Japanese).
Chaucer's use of "herte" for "the hart," "the heart of the body," and the "sweetheart" unifies BD.
Arthur, Ross G.
American Benedictine Review 38 (1987): 29-49.
Critics such as Bennett and Lumiansky discuss Chaucer's Christianization of classical thought, but his adaptation of the "Somnium" in PF actually critiques its limitations. The naive narrator, looking for the "certayn" divine knowledge, is vaguely…
Jimura, Akiyuki.
Masuo Umedo, ed. Perspectives on Word: Essays on English Language and Literature (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1995), pp. 47-54.
Explores the use of "unsad," "untrewe," and "undiscreet" in ClT, relating these words to their stems--"sad," "trewe," and "discreet"--and to Chaucer's characterization of Griselda.
Purdon, L. O.
Papers on Language and Literature 25 (1989): 216-19.
Chaucer's reference to "wod" in "Form Age" 17 not only suggests England's flourishing dyeing industry (lacking in the former age) but also alludes to abuses of that trade.
Studies Chaucer's uses of "gan" and "do" with infinitive forms, tracing the history of the usage in English and providing statistics about Chaucer's uses and their relative chronologies. In Chaucer's works, "gan" is generally periphrastic and used…
Wood, Chauncey Derby.
Dissertation Abstracts International 25.05 (1964): A2970.
Describes medieval understanding of astrology and examines the "technical side of astrological passages in Chaucer" as well as their "meanings . . . in their poetic contexts. Includes discussion of FranT, Mars, GP, MilT, WBP, MerT, MLT, and ParsP.
Wood, Chauncey Derby.
Dissertation Abstracts International 25.05 (1963): 2970.
Examines the astrological passages in Chaucer's works, not only the technical details but the their mythographic and iconographic implications. Includes discussion of Astr, Mars, GP, WBP, MerT, MLT, and ParsP.
Freiwald, Leah Zeva.
Dissertation Abstracts International 44 (1984): 2467A-68A.
Chaucer treats and reshapes myth variously (allusion, catalogue, portrait, or narrative) to suit audience and purpose. BD, LGWP, KnT, and TC illustrate varied sustained techniques.
Bertolotti, Georgene Mary.
DAI 33.09 (1973): 4330A.
Considers Chaucer's diminishing use of classical stories in various stages of his "development as a creative artist," focusing on the rise of realism in his works.
Hira, Toshinori.
Bulletin of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Nagasaki University, Humanities 13 (1972): 53-66.
Surveys Chaucer's uses of courtly notions in his poetry, focusing on courtesy, service, connections with feudalism and Christianity, and the lady's grace and mercy; also comments on the negative qualities of somnolence and gluttony. Draws examples…
Dean, Christopher.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics / Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 9.2 (1964): 67-74.
Tabulates and analyzes Chaucer's use of function words before nouns and pronouns, showing that his usage "resembles in the main that of modern English," although in at least one respect more similar to "modern vulgar English than modern standard…
McMahon, Arthur Henry.
Dissertation Abstracts International 52 (1992): 2546A.
Once Harry Bailly loses control of the game unifying CT, those who remain playful and detached become winners. Both pilgrims and readers must reassess the real rewards.
