Hanning, Robert W.
R. A. Shoaf, ed. Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde: "Subgit to alle Poesye": Essays in Criticism. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, no. 104. Pegasus Paperbacks, no. 10 (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1992), pp. 120-37.
In Filostrato, Troilo's accurate decoding of Criseyde's language enables him to discover her reciprocal desire, leading to fulfillment. In TC, fulfillment is more complex as Troilus, Pandarus, and the narrator each construct their own meaning of…
Brewer, Derek.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 95-109.
Encased in a larger, comic vision of "potential human freedom and happiness," Troilus's tragic misfortunes acquire new meaning in Chaucer's TC, which is neither comedy nor tragedy but a "curious mixture" of the two.
Hussey, S. S.
Elizabeth Maslen, ed. Comedy: Essays in Honour of Peter Dixon by Friends and Colleagues (London: Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, 1993), pp. 1-13.
The comedy of MerT is brought out through Chaucer's manipulation of various literary sources and styles.
Leonard. Frances McNeely.
DAI 33.11 (1973): 6316-17A.
Despite the apparent clash between comedy and moral allegory, writers from Chaucer to Spenser combine the two, a fusion rooted in 'La Roman de la Rose.' Treats BD and HF as well as works by Gower, Dunbar, Skelton, and Spenser.
Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2009.
Exploring the question "When is Chaucer known in Italy?" Heffernan surveys other scholars who have examined Chaucer's writings within the Italian tradition and focuses on shared comedic themes in the works of Boccaccio and Chaucer. She reviews…
Considers TC to be "amphibious," both a tragedy and, ironically, a comedy, when read in light of Chaucer's changes to Boccaccio's "Filostrato" and his additions from Boethius's "Consolatio."
Niebrzydowski, Sue.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 42 (2020): 325-36.
Explores evidence of medieval women's humor, drawing examples from Margaret Mautby Paston and Margery Kempe, preceded by contemplation of why such humor is understudied. Includes comments on Chaucer's Wife of Bath, Alisoun of MilT, and May of MerT as…
A classroom anthology of twelve examples of the literary mode of comedy, including MerT in Nevill Coghill's modern poetic translation. The volume describes the mode of comedy, offers brief biographies of the writers included, and lists discussion…
Bowker, Alvin W.
Modern Language Studies 4.2 (1974): 27-34.
Comments on the "theatricality" of MilT and explores how the comic characteristics of each of the main characters have darker sides, especially in the cases of Nicholas, Alisoun, and Absolon.
The Canterbury tale not written by Chaucer operates both as fabliau and as folk tale, with the relentlessly stupid hero both laughed at by the nobility and empathized with by the bourgeoisie, for whom he represents a triumph of the simple classes…
Siegel, Paul N.
Boston University Studies in English 4 (1960): 114-20.
Locates comic irony in several religious references and allusions in MilT, especially as they help to characterize Alison, Nicholas, and Absolon; the "final irony" is that the Miller is himself unaware of this irony.
Chapter 2, "Scraping the Rust from the Joking Bard: Chaucer in the Age of Wit," explores the long eighteenth century's conflicted reception of Chaucerian wit. While Chaucer was perceived as an "originary figure" of the English language as well as an…
"Pearl" is a divine comedy which views earthly matters from above with tolerance. In KnT Chaucer eliminates the flight to the heavens found in "Teseida"; the perspective of Theseus is earthly but still tolerant. In TC, by contrast, Troilus' ascent…
Symons, Dana M.
Sandra M. Hordis and Paul Hardwick, eds. Medieval English Comedy (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007), pp. 83-109.
Symons compares and contrasts the comic inaction of Th with comic spectacle in MilT and in the popular romance "Sir Tristrem." A "sophisticatedly 'bad' poem," Th depends for its success on expectations that differ from those of popular literature.
Wolterbeek, Marc.
New York, Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press, 1991.
Defines and traces the development of three genres of early medieval Latin comic literature: ridicula ("funny stories in rhythmic verse"), nugae ("trifles" of learned poets), and satyrae (vevality satires). Such tales, especially ridicula,…
Williams, Deanne Marie.
Dissertation Abstracts International 61: 3585A, 2001.
Postcolonial analysis of post-Conquest attitudes toward France and French in England, considering the formulation of English identity. Williams discusses Chaucer, Corpus Christi plays, Stephen Hawes, John Skelton, Shakespeare, and continuing effects…
Pinti, Daniel (J.)
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 22: 311-40, 2000.
PF engages the same issues as does Trecento commentary on Dante's Divine Comedy, largely matters of interpretation and meaning. Part of this intertextual tradition, PF participates in and comments on the "comedic" nature of literary history, i.e.,…
Wheatley, Edward.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 18 (1996): 119-41.
Compares the structure and interpretive techniques of NPT with those of scholastic fable commentaries widely used in medieval classrooms, arguing that Chaucer capitalized on these similarities to encourage readers to recognize the inseparability of…
Middleton reads the Pardoner materials as Chaucer's "formal and ideational" tribute to Langland's "Piers Plowman"--an embodiment of his appreciation of Langland's struggles with poetic self-representation, the gendered status of the poet, and the…
Davis, Walter R.
David A. Richardson, ed. Spenser: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern (Cleveland State University, 1977), pp. 84-91. [Microfiche available from the Department of English.]
Disagrees with Carol Barthel's assertion that Spenser derived Prince Arthur's dream of the Fairy Queen from Chaucer's Thop, but argues that, in completing SqT in Book 4 of "The Faerie Queene," Spenser encourages his readers to seek allegorical…
Anderson, Judith H.
Chaucer Review 41 (2007): 271-78.
E. Talbot Donaldson's commentary on FranT in "Chaucer's Poetry" exemplifies his criticism "at its best": "[c]onstructive provocation, rather than dogmatic mastery."
Chaucer and other writers of the "middle strata" of English society (Gower and Langland) "imagine economic activity" in ways that are much like the views recorded in documentary writing. Such writings by societal, administrative, and governmental…
