Discusses "the narrator's rhetoric of pity," alluding to Augustine, Aristotle, Cicero, and others, while arguing that both pity and poetry involve "a kind of authentic inauthenticity" that is unstable, paradoxical, and contingent in LGW.
Lorenz, Lee.
Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981.
Bowdlerized version of MilT, adapted and illustrated by Lorenz for children. Carpenter John is Alison's grandfather in this version, and Nicholas connives to steal money. Absolon is eliminated.
Bolton, W. F.
Modern Philology 84 (1987): 401-407.
Yearbook law reports and plea-roll law records contain information about members of Chaucer's "legal 'circle'" (p. 402) and Thomas Pynchbeck, Chaucer's prototype for the Man of Law. Legal terminology from these sources informs the portrait in both…
Biebel, Elizabeth M.
Martha Carlin and Joel T. Rosenthal, eds. Food and Eating in Medieval Europe (London and Rio Grande, Ohio: Hambledon Press, 1998), pp. 15-26.
Surveys references to food in CT, arguing that they capitalize on traditional associations of the "feminized Christ" and butchered animals.
Anecdotal revisitation of Harbledown, Bobbe-up-and-down, a mile from Canterbury. Chaucer himself likely traveled the Blean in official duties. As a type of Dante's "selva oscura," the Blean may have been in Chaucer mind in BD, TC, KnT, FrT, NPT,…
Historical fiction that reinterprets CT from the points of view of the Wife of Bath and the Prioress, integrating the pilgrimage plot with those of individual tales.
Markland, Murray F.
Research Studies: A Quarterly Publication of Washington State University 33 (1965): 64-77.
Explores how each of the three major characters in TC seeks "happiness in earthly love." Even though they know that such pursuit is misguided, they are in "an unadmitted conspiracy not to recognize" their error, deceiving themselves and each other,…
Suzuki, Masayuki.
English Department Journal (Miyagi Gakuin Women's University) 45 (2017): 27-54.
Analyzes William Blake's "Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims" by paying special attention to its ordering of the pilgrims, and investigates Blake's understanding of Chaucer and his intention in his classification of the pilgrims. In Japanese.
Fitzpatrick, Joan.
In Charlotte Boyce and Joan Fitzpatrick, A History of Food in Literature: From the Fourteenth Century to the Present (New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 15–62.
Includes discussion of food, drink, abstinence, feasting, gluttony, hunting, etc. in CT (pp. 35-52), observing Chaucer's consistent attention to moral and social implications, and comparing his depictions with those found in "Piers Plowman," "Sir…
Dyas, Dee, ed.
York: University of York; Nottingham: St. John's College, [2007].
Interactive, illustrated exploration of the "multiple meanings of pilgrimage within the Christian tradition," especially as expressed in the Middle Ages, although set in the broader context of worldwide practice. Includes a wide variety of…
Morris, Colin, and Peter Roberts, eds.
Cambridge and New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Nine essays by various authors explore the activities and significance of pilgrimage in medieval and early modern England, focusing on "shrine-seekers," Thomas Becket, regional and international practice, and related topics. None of the essays…
Suggests that Chaucer "creates a literary imitation of a real pilgrimage" in CT, exploring the extent to which this enables him to accommodate the sacred and social, a version of the medieval "earnest and game" topos. Focuses on WBPT and PardPT.
Morrison, Susan Signe.
Juliette Dor and Marie-Élisabeth Henneau, eds. Femmes et pèlerinages / Women and Pilgrimages ([Santiago de Compostela]: Compostela Group of Universities, 2007), pp. 141-52.
A number of the most famous fourteenth-century poets used pilgrimage as a genre to promote the use of vernacular language. Morrison's essay considers pilgrimage, gender, and use of the vernacular, raising questions about intertextual anxiety and the…
Craig, Robert M.
Claudette Stager and Martha Carver, eds. Looking Beyond the Highway: Dixie Roads and Culture. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006, pp. 267-87.
Compares people and places of twentieth-century journeys on the Dixie Highway to several medieval pilgrimages, real and fictional, including CT.
Davidson, Linda Kay, and Maryjane Dunn-Wood.
New York and London: Garland Press, 1993.
This annotated bibliography of 1,062 entries is analyzed in seven categories: history of pilgrimage, introduction to the study of pilgrimage, Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela, other sites, and pilgriamge in the arts. Each category includes…
Whalen, Brett Edward, ed.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.
A sourcebook of "fifteen centuries of history" about the historical, social, political, and religious development of pilgrimages. Includes a section on "Pilgrimage and Piety in the Late Middle Ages," with an abridged version of GP, pp. 325-30.…
A literal journey and lifelong spiritual experience, pilgrimage involves new surroundings and new levels of understanding. Dyas discusses pilgrimage in early Christian tradition and in Old and Middle English literature, including Chaucer's choice of…
Webb, Diana.
London and New York : Hambledon, 2000.
Describes the activities, theology, sociology, and psychology of medieval English pilgrimage from its roots in Anglo-Saxon tradition to criticism of the institution in the late Middle Ages. Considers English and British sites primarily, discussing…
McLaughlin, Becky Renee.
Dissertation Abstracts International 57 (1996): 2493A.
CT develops "horror and abjection" through struggles for mastery of many kinds, leaving its characters suspended between the Tabard and Canterbury amid images of mutilation and death. Chaucer critics may also be seen as pilgrims struggling among…
Stopford, J[ennifer], ed.
Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y. : York Medieval Press, 1999.
Ten essays on aspects of the anthropology and archeology of medieval and pre-medieval pilgrimage. Related to Chaucer studies are Ben Nilson, "The Medieval Experience at the Shrine" (pp. 95-122), which uses "The Tale of Beryn" as a source; and A. M.…
Owen, Charles A.,Jr.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.
The conception of CT is an inherent conflict between the pilgrimage to a martyr's shrine in Canterbury and the game of storytelling to be consummated by a feast in Southwark. The development of the collection reveals movement away from Canterbury…
Brown, Peter, and Darryll Grantley, eds.
London: Yorick, 1987.
Produced to accompany a dramatic presentation of adapted versions of selections from CT. Includes comments on adapting the tales and directing the adaptations, accompanying music, parallels with medieval drama, medieval cooking, the "Tale of Beryn,"…
Discusses the medieval practice of selling "Canterbury signs" to the visitors of Beckett's shrine (as mentioned in 'The Tale of Beryn'), the archeological finds, and the possibility that Ellesmere portraits may have been modeled on the signs. The…
Cullen, Dolores L.
Santa Barbara, Calif. : Fithian Press, 1999.
Reads CT as a drama-with Chaucer as "director/producer" (158) and leading player-focusing on Th and Mel as psychological and moral extensions of Chaucer. Thopas and the father are one, with Thopas representing the phallus. Melibee is "the elevated…
Leicester, H. Marshall [Jr.]
M. Teresa Tavormina and R. F. Yeager, eds. The Endless Knot: Essays on Old and Middle English in Honor of Marie Borroff (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995), pp. 151-60.
Leicester explores nuances of "pietee" and "pietas," distinguishes between institutional and affective piety, and asserts that texts cannot be pious but can only represent piety.
