Browse Items (16035 total)

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…

Argues that Dante's siren of "Purgatorio" XIX is analogous to the Wife of Bath and the transformation of the loathly lady of WBT, helping to undercut the Wife's views on female sovereignty and ironically "reasserting the medieval Christian idea of…

Critical views of the Wife, though based on the same Chaucerian texts, vary widely--roughly between realistic approaches and those that ignore or deny realism.

In GP, the Wife's "foot-mantel" is not a "skirt," but a set of leggings or riding chaps, pulled up over the feet and legs from the bottom. "Large" refers not to the size of the Wife's hips, but to the loose drapery of the garment. The Wife may be…

A comprehensive annotated bibliography of scholarly and critical discussion of WBPT, subdivided into the following categories: editions and translations (items 1-82), sources and analogues (items 83-206), the "Marriage Group" (items 207-56),…

Comments on the punning and aural effects of Chaucer's use of "quoniam" in WBP 3.608 and cites similar verbal play in RvT 1.3973-76.

Contrasts WBT with its English analogues and assesses the role of rhetorical dilation, which Chaucer derived from Roman and French traditions. The digressions compel readers to engage WBT dialogically.

The interpolated story of Midas's wife evokes Ovidian concern with poetic judgment and suggests Chaucer's perspective on the differing attitudes of the hag and the knight toward love and marriage. Complex Ovidian echoes imply the failure of Midas's…

Considers the date and thematic unity of HF, suggesting that the eagle is crucial to perceiving both of them, with the astrological sign of the eagle ("Aquila") indicating the date and the Eagle's discourse on sound central to the poem's concern with…

Commends the force and clarity of the passage on old age in RvP (1.3887-98), particularly the images of the wine cask and the tongue, the first familiar to Chaucer as a member of a family in the wine business

Close reading of rhythm, rhyme, and syntax discloses the wry control of the opening of GP.

Examines allegorical, typological, eschatological, and pathetic registers and word play in PhyT, showing how Chaucer thematizes violence and cultural forms that would valorize it. Pitcher compares Chaucer-s rendering with that in the "Roman de la…

Shows that the Prioress's portrait is closely related to PrT. She enjoys her own human freedom and is respected in her religious role.

A feminist analysis of the "Marriage Group" reveals that Chaucer draws his characterization of women largely from medieval stereotypes. He is unable to go beyond a Griselda (Virgin Mary) or a Dame Alisoun (Eve) to create a female "both virtuous and…

Relates the marriage theme in MerT to feminism and suggests that January's view of marriage is not defensible in light of medieval Christianity.

Argues that "in Chaucer's poetry women are consistently portrayed as seeking out a niche in the social (or religious) hierarchy which will permit them to serve in the subordinate position St. Paul insists they were intended to fill." Discusses all of…

Full-length studies of the women in Chaucer's poetry had to wait for the intense activity in feminist scholarship of the last two decades.

Argues that Chaucerian biographers and critics have both been horrified by the rape of Cecily Chaumpaigne and depicted it to reenforce Chaucer’s masculinity. Traces how these critics and authors have fashioned Chaumpaigne into a courtly lady, whose…

Surveys studies of Chaucer written in German from the middle of the nineteenth century until World War I.

Interpretations of the Wife of Bath through socioeconomic readings work less well than symbolic-aesthetic readings. The Wife's weaving reveals her less a businesswoman than an archetypal woman such as Eve or Mary, both portrayed as weavers of life.

Compiles more than 100 maps and images that illustrate the Chaucer's world and the imagery therein, arranged loosely around the GP descriptions of Chaucer's pilgrims, with additional topics. The accompanying text includes appreciation of Chaucer's…

Distinguishes between the "clerical" and "non-clerical" traditions of "de casibus" tragedy in medieval tradition, observing the emphasis on the goddess Fortuna in the latter, and claiming that MkT "belongs to the non-clerical tradition." In ignoring…

Questions how and to what extent recurrent mention of Hector in TC helps to characterize Troilus as a knight. Instances and collocations of “knight,” “worthy,” related terms, and references to Hector, generally not found in Chaucer's source…