Carruthers, Mary (J.)
English Language Notes 23 (1985): 11-20
"At hom" referred to "one's native dwelling," while "bord" signified "meals." "Gossib" referred to the baptismal sponsor and suggests that the Wife may well have had children. Jankyn's being "At hom to bord / With my gossib" implies that he lived…
Iconographic associations of Mary and Griselda have proved problematic in attempts to read ClT as allegory; however, if we hear in the "annunciation passage" a larger range of allusion--both secular and patristic--the allegorical force of the Marian…
Cowgill, Bruce Kent.
Susanna Freer Fein, David Raybin, and Peter C. Braeger, eds. Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in The Canterbury Tales. Studies in Medieval Culture, no. 29 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991), pp. 59-71.
Unlike the homogeneous portrayal of the two clerks in its two closest analogues--De Gombert et les II clercs and Le Meunier et les II clercs--RvT not only differentiates Aleyn from John but also suggests that John dominates their relationship,…
Johnston, Andrew James.
Heidelberg : Winter, 2001.
Tripartite study that first sketches the process of state formation in late-medieval England as a struggle between clerkly and chivalric cultures. Part II locates Chaucer's poetry within this process, assessing his reaction to chivalric culture in…
Explores the "ambivalent status" of clerks in the Middle Ages and the significance of clerkly success in "quiting" (defeating, taking vengeance on) carpenters and millers in MilT and RvT. In the latter, Chaucer avoids "quiting" the Reeve and thereby…
Demonstrates that "Tudor editions of Chaucer imagined Chaucer himself as a Tudor poet" (109); concludes with three illustrations from Houghton Library copies of STC 5075 and 5077.
Schulenburg, Jane Tibbetts.
Julia A. Sherman and Evelyn Torton Beck, eds. The Prism of Sex: Essays in the Sociology of Knowledge (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979), pp. 33-53.
One of the best and earliest observations of the basic distortion of history with regard to women and their roles is made by the Wife of Bath (III, 688-96). Christine de Pisan makes a comparable but more elaborate statement of the mistreatment of…
Davis, Carmel Brendon.
Estela Valverde, ed. A Universal Argentine: Jorge Luis Borges, English Literature and Other Inquisitions (Sydney: Southern Highlands Press, 2009), pp. 105-14.
Investigates the validity of Jorge Louis Borges' claim (1949) that Chaucer effected or recorded the "definitive shift from allegory to novel" when translating a line from Boccaccio's "Teseida" in his KnT. Davis focuses on the "slipperiness of…
Raybin, David, and Linda Tarte Holley, eds.
Kalamazoo : Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000.
Nine essays and an annotated bibliography that focus on ParsT. Includes an introduction by the editors and a comprehensive index. For individual essays, search for Closure in The Canterbury Tales under Alternative Title.
Ramsey, Roger.
Journal of Narrative Technique 7 (1977): 104-15.
ClT embodies two levels of meaning, realistic and allegorical. These levels are well represented by the handling of the detail and imagery of Griselda's clothing.
Savage, Anne.
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne et al., eds. Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain: Essays for Felicity Riddy (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), pp. 345-61.
Despite differences in genre, these narratives include a father who "constructs the circumstances in which he could marry his daughter." Pointedly excluded from consideration in MLP, paternal incest posed in ClT (between Walter and his daughter) is…
Jeske, Jeffrey M
Victorian Poetry 20 (1982): 21-32.
Clough arranges a group of tales, each representing a position in a debate between proponents of idealism and of naturalism. Like CT, these tales not only exist in a state of tension with each other but actually contradict the philosophical…
Dane, Joseph A.
Joseph A. Dane. Mythodologies: Methods in Medieval Studies, Chaucer, and Book History ([Santa Barbara, Calif.]: Punctum, 2018), pp. 105-10.
Comments on anachronisms in the portrait of Chaucer included in William Godwin’s Life of Chaucer (1803) and on the reception of the portrait and the biography, suggesting that the portrait is "more sincere" than other Chaucerian anachronisms and that…
Davidson, Mary Catherine.
Neophilologus 87: 473-86, 2003.
Examples from "The Chronicle of Peter Langtoft," "Piers Plowman," and CT (WBP and PardP) indicate how patterns of mixed-language speech reflect the social motivations of the speakers, especially their efforts to construct authority and restrict…
Schendl, Herbert.
Language and Literature 24.3 (2015): 233–48.
Discusses the main functions of code-switching in the poetry and drama of medieval England. Emphasizes how the friar in SumT uses the French phrase "je vous dy" to increase his authority and learnedness.
Putter, Ad.
Herbert Schendl and Laura Wright, eds. Code-Switching in Early English (Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2011), pp. 281-302.
Explores "how and why Middle English poets switch into French," confronting distinctions between switching dialects (diglossia) and switching languages as well as acknowledging the complicating conditions of social discourse (footing). Discusses…
Ma, Ruen-Chuan.
Dissertation Abstracts International A79.01 (2017): n.p.
Examines the treatment of books as physical objects in the works of Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve, suggesting that this treatment may create a way of perceiving the text on the part of the reader.
Boffey, Julia, and A. S. G. Edwards.
In Jamie C. Fumo, ed. Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess": Contexts and Interpretations (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2018), pp. 11-27.
Outlines the numerous problems surrounding BD's dating, occasion, early transmission history, title, and text. Because of the small number and lateness of manuscript witnesses, BD evinces significant "textual uncertainty"; consequently, literary…
Iyeiri, Yoko.
Yoshiyuki Nakao and Yoko Iyeiri, eds. Chaucer's Language: Cognitive Perspectives (Suita: Osaka, 2013), pp. 5-25.
Pointing out the coexistence of various forms of negation in the Middle English period, the author analyzes choices of negative forms in Mel, ParsT, and Astr from cognitive viewpoints. The analysis particularly focuses on elaboration of styles (in…
Koivisto-Alanko, Päivi.
Irma Taavitsainen, Gunnel Melchers, and Pivi Pahta, eds. Writing in Nonstandard English (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 1999), pp. 205-23
Quantitative analysis of the language of cognition (e.g., "intellect," "knowing," "wit") in Chaucer reveals how such language entered English usage. Borrowings from French and Latin entered with specific, high-prestige philosophical or scientific…
Chapman, Don.
Jacek Fisiak, ed. Studies in English Historical Linguistics and Philology: A Festschrift for Akio Oizumi Studies in English Language and Literature, no. 2 (Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang, 2002), pp. 37-49.
Describes the variety of ways Chaucer uses noun-adjective compounds to produce "strong connotations or heightened effects."
Edwards, A. S. G.
Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta, eds. Varianten - Variants - Variantes. (Tubingen: Max Niemeyer, 2005), pp. 79-90.
Edwards comments on the conceptualizations and uses of variants in textual studies of CT and "Piers Plowman," particularly those by Manly and Rickert and by Kane and Donaldson, arguing that some manuscripts are better regarded as separate versions of…
