Kensak, Michael Alan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1998): 817A.
Entry into heaven and the approach to God properly conclude a pilgrimage, as represented by Dante and Alain de Lille. In ManPT, Chaucer inverts the topos to show logic and language vitiated (not transcended) as the Cook becomes literally drunk (not…
Shoaf, Richard Allen.
Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1983.
After an introduction, "The Discourse of Man 'By Nature a Political Animal,'" follow three parts: "Dante's 'Commedia' and the Promise of Reference," dealing with Narcissus--damned ("Inferno" 30), purged ("Purgatorio" 30), and redeemed ("Paradiso"…
The last eighteen stanzas are doomed attempts to forge a fixed moral for the tale--the reader must do it himself. The "contemptus mundi" theme is tried unsuccessfully to unify it. The last nine stanzas are compared to "Paradiso's" cantos 13 and 14…
Morgan, Gerald.
Eric Haywood and Barry Jones, eds. Dante Comparisons: Comparative Studies of Dante and Montale, Foscolo, Tasso, Chaucer, Petrarch, Propertius and Catullus (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1985), pp. 73-95.
"Courtly love" is a critics' term that was never used by medieval poets. To understand Chaucer's treatment of love, we must turn not to the principles of courtly love but to medieval philosophy and the treatment of love by poets such as Dante.
Ordiway, Frank Bryan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 51 (1991): 2373A
Unlike Dante, who recognizes his poetic "fathers" in the Divine Comedy and sees himself as surpassing them, Chaucer in TC adopts the stance of the translator of an ancient text but questions the value of its tradition.
Simpson, James.
Essays and Studies 39 (1986): 1-18.
The eagle in HF, pt. 2, with its immediate source in Dante's "Purgatorio," also parallels a passage in the "De vulgari eloquentia" (2.4) that cautions poets not to follow the "astripetam aquilam" ("star-seeking eagle"). The eagle is a parody of the…
Shoaf, R[ichard] A[llen].
Donald M. Rose, ed. New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism (Norman Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1981), pp. 83-103.
Modern literary theory is concerned with the problem of "how language 'refers' in the critical text that has lost faith in the communion between language and reality." Shoaf observes this faith, which was stronger in the Middle Ages, at work in the…
Havely, Nick.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Assesses the general or "public" familiarity with Dante and his works in British culture, acknowledging his impact on poets such as Chaucer, Milton, and T. S. Eliot, but exploring instead a more pervasive presence. Includes references to Chaucer's…
Hughes, Jonathan.
New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
Studies the reception of Dante in England, 1370–1450, focusing on ecclesiastical concerns about the "Divine Comedy" (DC) and literary responses to the poem and its worldview. Includes assessment of possible routes for Chaucer's initial access to DC…
An anthology of translations from Greek and Roman by English writers, including a section on Chaucer (pp. 32-33) with a brief (and erroneous) biography and a selection from Chaucer's Dido legend (LGW 1180-1209), from Virgil's "Aeneid" 4.129-50,…
Seaman, Myra, Eileen A. Joy, and Nicola Masciandaro, eds.
Brooklyn, N. Y.: Punctum Books, 2012.
A collection of essays highlighting "dark," unsettling, and culturally unsavory elements across the Chaucer canon. For individual pieces, search for Dark Chaucer under Alternative Title.
Barrington, Candace.
Myra Seaman, Eileen A. Joy, and Nicola Masciandaro, eds. Dark Chaucer: An Assortment (Brooklyn, N. Y.: Punctum Books, 2012), pp. 1-11.
Studies the poem "Chaucer" by Benjamin Brawly, an early twentieth-century African-American poet.
Linden, Stanton J[(ay].
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
Assesses literary references and allusions to alchemy as an aspect of the transition from the medieval to the modern age, focusing on works by Chaucer, Bacon, Jonson, Donne, Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Milton, and Samuel Butler, but also considering a…
A social history of Dartmouth and the lower Dart river valley; includes the suggestion that William Smale was the model for Chaucer's GP description of the Shipman.
Objective evaluation reveals the "elusive" and contradictory "evidence" on which chronologies of Chaucer's works--and, most notably, constructions of his artistic maturation--are based. These constructions are essentially interpretive activities;…
Reiss, Edmund.
Papers on Language and Literature 6 (1970): 115-24.
Explicates the "Gerveys scene" of MilT, focusing in particular on the meaning of "viritoot," the implications of "seinte Note," the demonic and infernal associations of blacksmithing, and Absolon's transformation of character from lover to wrathful.
Fleming, John V.
Chaucer Review 15 (1981): 287-94.
For his portrait of the Monk in GP, Chaucer probably recalled Dante "Paradiso" 21.118-20, 127-35, an encomium of Peter Damian, and Damian's own words regarding "unholy hunters, cloisterless monks, and waterless fish." "Palfrey" may be an echo of…
Argues that the "key fact" in Chaucer's satiric GP description of the Monk is that he is an "outrider," allowing leeway for suggestive details about diet, hunting, and other worldly concerns. Fabricates a fictional dialogue between the Monk and the…
Wilson, William S.
American Notes and Queries 4.6 (1966): 83-84.
Observes the presence of "symmetrical numbers" in the dates mentioned in Chaucer's poetry, e.g., third day of the third month equals May 3 when the annual calendar began in March rather than January. Comments on HF, TC, KnT, MerT, and FranT, as well…
Karnein argues that the "De amore" was written at the court of Philip Augustus, not in Champagne; that it was to condemn "courtly love'; and that it was so interpreted by its earlier, clerical audience and only later taken nonironically by lay…
First-time translation of CT into Frisian, following Chaucer's verse forms and omitting Mel and ParsT. Designed for a popular audience rather than a scholarly one. The source text is Albert Baugh's "Chaucer's Major Poetry" (1963), with translation…
Blandeau, Agnès.
Karine Martin-Cardini and Jocelyne Aubé-Bourligueux, eds. Le Néo: sources, héritages et réécritures dans les cultures européennes (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016), pp. 169-80.
Examines echoes, resemblances, and differences between the evocations of Lucretia in LGW, BD, and CT, and German painter Lucas Cranach's portrait (1513) of the Roman paragon of wifely virtue. References to Chaucer's poems, its ancient sources, and…
