Browse Items (15542 total)

Considers the “authoritative weight" of dreams and visions in literature, focusing on their connections with other forms of prophetic or revelatory texts and offering a taxonomy of varieties. Includes chapters on the biblical Book of Daniel,…

Deeply engaged with literary tradition and the dynamics of translation, TC resists "the patriarchal biases of the founding myth the narrator transmits to us." It "denaturalizes the masculine literary corpus" by revealing the "radical contingency of…

Analyzes the ways in which Chaucer uses the word "sight" in order to examine concepts of taste and tastelessness in RvT.

Argues that FranT provided the "raw material and structures of dramatic feeling" for Shakespeare's "Cymbeline," encouraging critics to adopt a more expansive view of source relations, and observing how and where the tale and the play illuminate each…

Associates the liquidity of emotions in medieval literature with the Galenic theory of humours, exploring "the different uses of liquidity to represent emotions in Chaucer’s work," especially TC, where emotions such as sorrow and joy can be variously…

ParsT is an examination of conscience that prepares for the act of confession that is Chaucer's Ret. Late-medieval notions of self differ from modern ones; the process of preparing for confession led the penitent to recognize and discard the sinful…

The Augustans were the last English poets to possess enough confidence in their own idiom to attempt to make Chaucer their contemporary. Dryden's modernization of Chaucer was intended to achieve verisimilitude for his 17th-century audience. It…

Dryden's alterations of Chaucer's narrative division, versification, motif and thematic emphasis, and character portrayal follow his avowed principles of translation. But his alterations in the "spirit" of Chaucer's tale violate one of his important…

Documents Dryden's wide-ranging allusiveness in his adaptation of NPT and comments on the reception of this version, arguing that "The Cock and the Fox" presents a delicate balance between praise and blame of humanity.

In the opening poem of "Fables Ancient and Modern," Dryden draws a parallel between himself and Chaucer. The "fairest Nymph" in that parallel should be identified as the Duchess of Lancaster, as proposed by Walter Scott in 1808, rather than Joan of…

Examines the role of Dryden's conversion to Roman Catholicism in his literary career, with reference to his adaptations of Chaucer, expecially his recasting of the Parson.

Includes discussion of the treatment of KnT, WBT, NPT, and "The Floure and the Leafe" in Dryden's "Fables Ancient and Modern," arguing that he adjusted his sources to suit his neo-classical audience.

Summarizes John Dryden's theory of translation in his "Fables Ancient and Modern," and explores the discrepancy between this theory and his practice in his translations of KnT, NPT, and WBT, all of which "violate the spirit of their originals."

Reads Dryden's version of WBT (from his "Fables") and his comments on the tale as reflections of his sensitivity to Chaucer's wit, humor, "genial irony," "gentle sarcasm," and especially his clever juxtapositions--the "imaginative setting of one…

Compares and contrasts John Dryden's description of Zimri in "Absalom and Achitophel" with Chaucer's description of the Pardoner in GP, emphasizing the "fine tension" between "precision and . . . universality" in the latter, and remarking on how…

Dauby examines the transformations from living characters to artifacts and vice versa, the interplay between life and art. A comparative study of "Sir Degrevant," Lancelot, the Tristan legend, and poems by Chaucer leads to a typology of the…

The use of "but" helps the reader determine the moral character of both the Parson and the Narrator.

Analyzes "womanist dubbing" of male-authored texts, including WBP, that represents Afrasporic women's sexuality. Breeze's "sexually frank" poems, "The Wife of Bath Speaks in Brixton Market," and "Slam Poems," are set in the Caribbean, but share…

Assesses Spenser's Duessa in light of WBT and its Middle English analogues, exploring how Spenser turned the Irish sovereignty motif against the Irish.

In his love visions, Chaucer initially claims to be stupefied by love and love poetry. Dalton analyzes this topos-deriving from many sources, including Boethius, the Roman de la Rose, and poems of Machaut-in BD, HF, PF, and TC.

Lexicographical study of Dunbar with occasional reference to Chaucer.

Surveys what is known of the life and context of William Dunbar, and discusses his canon and language, focusing on Dunbar's range of genres and his idea of himself as a poet or "makar." Comments frequently on Dunbar's debt to Chaucer (and others),…

Chaucer's four dream poems, especially PF and LGWP (both the F and G versions) are sources of Dunbar's "Golden Targe," although Dunbar's imagery owes much to CT, Anel, and Rom. Dunbar seeks innovation within tradition, and the praise he bestows on…

Related to court pageantry, "The Golden Targe" is important politically. Imagery suggests courtly origins and borrowings from Chaucer and the masque.

Observes that William Dunbar ridicules sexual impotence by means of the image of a dog ineffectively lifting its leg and maintains that the image and its implications derive from the "striking (and probably original)" use in ParsT 10.858,