Summerfield, Thea, and Keith Busby, eds.
Amsterdam and New York : Rodopi, 2007.
Fourteen essays by various writers and a bibliography of works published by Erik Kooper, presented to Kooper on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Topics range widely in English and French medieval traditions, with recurrent focus on romance.…
Horobin, S. C. P.
English Studies 84: 426-30, 2003.
In RvT 3944 and FrT 1614, "panne" can be read as the plural of penny instead of pan or dish. In early fourteenth-century Type II London dialect, "panne" is a common variant of "peni." In this light, Chaucer's authorship of fragments B and C of Rom…
Giot, P.-R.
Bulletin de la Societe Archeologique du Finistere 90 (1973): 117-19.
Addresses the toponymical references to Penmark and Kayrrud in FranT (5.801 and 807), locating them specifically in Brittany, commenting on the local rockiness and military value, and noting an association with the story of Tristan and Iseult.
Ward, Jessica D.
Dissertation Abstracts International A80.01 (2019): n.p.
Addresses the "challenge posed to Christian ethics due to the proliferation of urban markets and increased personal wealth in medieval England," examining various
aspects of avarice in "Piers Plowman"; John Gower's "Confessio Amantis"; and CT,…
Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
Abigail Firey, ed. A New History of Penance. Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, no. 14 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008), pp. 239-317.
Describes two late medieval penitential treatises--John Burough's "Pupilla oculi" (late fourteenth century) and William Lyndwood's "Provinciale "(early fifteenth century)--discussing their influence on Chaucer's understanding of the sacrament in…
Allen, Mark.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 9 (1987): 77-96.
Wrongly used speech and counsels to silence in ManT should be read in terms of fourteenth-century Lenten sermons indicating the necessity of speech for the sacrament of penance. Like SNT and CYT, ManT with its emphasis on transformation prepares…
Ret, an "authorial form of self-elimination," is formally like irony; it is also a penance, which, also like irony, protects the author from adverse judgment. Thus CT irony can be neatly exchanged for Ret penance. Penance, however, a sacrament and…
Wall, John.
Gregory Kratzmann and James Simpson, eds. Medieval English Religious and Ethical Literature (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1986), pp. 179-91.
Examines penance in poems of the "Pearl" MS, "Piers Plowman," and CT. Neither a collection of disparate stories nor an illustration of one theme, CT reflects the "quarternity or reality" in which penance, though not the chief theme, is yet a…
"Pace" Allen's and Sayce's ironies, dramatic and symbolic propriety for ParsT require penance, and predict, by the figure of the supper and the Host's unwitting use of Pauline imagery, an eschatological end.
Laird, Edgar, and Robert Fischer, trans.
Binghamton, N.Y. : Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1995.
Facing-page (French-English) translation of the earliest French treatise on the astrolabe (1362), a work that shares the same source as Astr. The introduction assesses the relations among Pélerin's "Practique," Astr, and their source text, John of…
Kelen, Sarah A.
Paul C. Gutjahr and Megan L. Benton, eds. Illuminating Letters: Typography and Literary Interpretation. Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press), pp. 47-67, 2001.
Assesses factors in Thomas Dunham Whitaker's decision to print Piers Plowman in 1813 in blackletter type, even though Chaucer had been printed in roman type nearly one hundred years earlier (by Urry) and anthologists of medieval poetry such as Joseph…
Holsinger, Bruce W.
New Medieval Literatures 1 (1997): 157-92
Both ManT and PrT reflect the violence inherent in medieval teaching of music, especially evident in the role of tactile solmization--through the use of the Guidonian hand--in ecclesiastical tradition. In both, Chaucer suggests that music fuels the…
Smilie, Ethan K., and Kipton D. Smilie.
Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought 58 (2017): 349-70.
Assesses the "merits and drawbacks" of teaching "grit" (i.e., the "ability to work hard and diligently for long-term goals") as a pedagogical goal, comparing modern notions with Thomistic "studiositas" and "curiositas" and assessing three "gritty…
Everest, Carol A.
Melitta Weiss Adamson, ed. Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays (New York and London: Garland, 1995), pp. 161-75.
May's request for pears in MerT indicates that she is pregnant, since medieval texts align the condition with a desire for unripe fruit. Moreover, medieval medical treatises recommend pears for the treatment of stomach disroders, "especially the…
In BD, Chaucer complicates the chess metaphor by adding the concept of gambling, which had become standard both in literary depiction and in actual play. By doing so, he adds an economic dimension, characterizing marriage relationships in the Middle…
Paul Bush's dream vision, "The Extripacion of Ignorancy," was influenced by Chaucerian models and coins the phrase "lycour laureate" to describe Chaucer.
Purdy, Dwight H.
Texas Studies in Literature and Language 23 (1981): 197-213.
Surveys Joseph Conrad's allusions to Chaucer and to the Bible, and argues that in the novel "Victory" Conrad expresses his "sense of radical modern otherness." In Conrad's novel, "Jones's sexual anomaly mirrors a spiritual malaise," as does the…
Treats problems of authority and artistic originality encountered by the medieval narrator of a religious story, and the solutions in CT. Parallels between translating and producing the narrative appear in ClT, SNT, PrT, and Mel; subversion of the…
Includes ten essays by various authors and a comprehensive index. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Patterns of Love and Courtesy under Alternative Title.
Cowgill, Jane.
C. David Benson and Elizabeth Robertson, eds. Chaucer's Religious Tales (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990). pp. 171-83.
Like MLT, SNT, ClT, and WBT, Mel employs a feminine style of persuasion. Prudence "demonstrates" the values she counsels her husband to abide by, thus adding actions to arguments as means of persuasion and subverting the male hierarchy. ParsT, by…
Pattwell, Niamh.
Clíodhna Carney and Frances McCormack, eds. Chaucer's Poetry: Words, Authority and Ethics (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013), pp. 37-47.
Looks at Chaucer's use of "two sententiae" to explore the interplay between Chaucer's use of silences and pauses in PrT, and the reader's engagement with the story.
Davenport, W. A.
Edward Donald Kennedy, Ronald Waldron, and Joseph S. Wittig, eds. Medieval Studies Presented to George Kane (Woodbridge, Suffolk, and Wolfeboro, N.H.: D.S. Brewer, 1988), pp. 127-45.
Discusses Middle English debate poems but touches on dialogue in CT, TC, and PF.
Sánchez-Martí, Jordi.
Cuadernos del CEMYR 20 (2012): 93-102.
Analysis of literary patronage from the Anglo-Saxon times until the end of the fourteenth century, when royal patronage was essential for authors such as Chaucer.
Halverson, John.
College English 27 (1965): 50-55.
Parodies patristic criticism by reading Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" as an indictment of concupiscent love, drawing recurrent comparisons between the structure and imagery of Twain's novel and BD.
