Browse Items (16035 total)

Studying CT alongside early and late versions of the Wycliffite Bible reveals examples of Chaucer's nearly direct quotations from LV and of his sympathy with developments in translation theory from EV to LV, which favored more idiomatic renderings of…

Chaucer's many references to Rome in CT reflect an interest that originated in a visit there. In particular, classical associations and the decoration of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere illuminate the style and meaning of SNT. A visit to Rome may have…

Traces two medieval constructions of Nature as goddess: the antifeminist tradition that runs from Alan de Lille through Jean de Meun to Chaucer's PF, and the relatively profeminist legacy of Heldris of Cornwall ("Roman de Silence") and Christine de…

Both Donne ("The Sun Rising") and Chaucer (TC 3.1415-1527) were familiar with Ovid's Amores 1.13), but Chaucer may well have influenced the Renaissance poet directly. Such intertextual issues are complicated by the fact that Renaissance editors had…

Witnesses' statements and other court documents concerning marriage litigation in the Northern Province (including the dioceses of York, Lincoln, Chester, and others) indicate that many lay people would have known the stipulations of canon law well…

Argues that Don Juan Manuel's "El Conde Lucanor" and Chaucer's CT have many parallels and that CT may have been influenced by Manuel's work. Explores the presence of both authors in Spain and compares their didactic methods and their many…

By deliberate excision lines 1188-1203 of LGW can be reduced from decasyllables to octosyllables, illustrating the different effects of the lines, especially the longer "breath" of the decasyllable.

Chaucer's Dido, Emelye, and Custance differ from their respective literary ancestors. In each case, Chaucer gives to his heroine a significant speech or set of speeches that subverts the narrative in which she appears, counterpointing the dominant…

Assesses the characterizations of Dido in HF, LGW, and William Caxton's "Eneydos," analyzing their direct discourse and representations of mental state as examples of how premodern authors present well-known figures from the literary past.…

An examination of the source, Machaut's "Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne," proves that the Knight's and the Dreamer's mutual lack of understanding--which serves a powerful dramatic purpose--stems from differences in social background and rank.

Examines structural and thematic roles of the Ceyx and Alcyone episode in BD, the Dido episode in HF, and the Dream of Scipio in PF.

An introduction to the phonetics and phonology of Chaucer's language in two parts: first, the reconstruction of the phonetic and phonemic system of Chaucer's English and its diachronic development; second, the text of GP with a phonetic…

German translation of CT, with introduction and notes.

German translation of CT, with notes and glosses,originally produced by Adolf von Düring as part of his three-volume "Geoffrey Chaucers Werke" (Strassburg, 1883-86). Hoevel's edition was reissued in 1974.

Facing-page translation (Middle English verse/German prose) of selections from the CT, with introductions, commentaries, and bibliographies. Includes GP, KnT, MilT, WBPT, FranT, PardPT, and NPT. Translations by Bergner, Waltraud Böttcher, Günter…

Examines the narrative devices of WBP, classifying the Wife's oaths, metaphors, logic, euphemisms, and proverbs and suggesting that her appropriations of these traditional devices underpin her broader challenge to male authority.

German verse translation of CT in iambic tetrameter.

Argues that Chaucer's depiction of fame in HF is skeptical, emphasizing its dependence upon fortune, and arguing that it is more similar to Montaigne's notion of glory than to those of Dante or Petrarch.

Compares RvT with its analogue in Boccaccio's "Decameron" and with the Middle High German "Studentenabenteuer," exploring their concerns with disorder and its effects.

The lament for the dead is a literary form that critics have found difficult to appreciate, even in Chaucer. The book sketches the sociocultural background in medieval England in connection with older traditions, native, biblical, Greco-Roman,…

Studies the interconnected development of fabliaux, tales, and novellas in the European Middle Ages, with emphasis on the German tradition and the impact of Boccaccio. Includes discussion of CT (pp. 292-97) as an early ("früher") response to…

Includes twelve chapters, organized as follows: a passage from TC (usually 100 lines each from MS Cambridge Corpus Christi 61) is followed by a discussion of specific grammatical or phonological features. Thus, chapter one contains the first night…

Assesses the morning-scene in TC 3.1415ff. in light of source-and analogue materials in Ovid's "Amores," Boccaccio's "Filostrato," and elsewhere, arguing that Chaucer combines elements from various genres and forms ingeniously to produce something…

Deeply rooted in late-medieval social and religious ambivalence toward women, Chaucer's poetry both subverts and asserts traditional gender differences, as seen in LGWP, FranT, and WBP.

Reprint of essay that first appeared in Florilegium 10 (1988-91): 83-92. See entry there.