Browse Items (15986 total)

Treats TC and Thomas Walsingham's "Ditis ditatus" as the two major Troy narratives of late fourteenth-century England, considering the influences of Dictys and Dares (along with Boccaccio) on the two works, and focusing on their depictions of various…

Edits "two glossed texts" of the "Disticha Catonis," constructed for use by students of Chaucer, Langland, and Gower. The Introduction juxtaposes passages from their poetry with "Catonian materials" to indicate the "poets' indebtedness" to the text…

Describes the lives and works of Robert Henryson and William Dunbar, with recurrent attention to their borrowings from Chaucer and their similarities to and differences from the earlier poet. Includes a select bibliography (pp. 45-48).

Explores how the presentation of texts, as well as the reader's response to them, might be influenced by new textual forms, focusing on the manuscript (MS Glasgow University Library, Hunter 197), printed (William Thynne's edition), and electronic…

Bowers describes the habits and activities of the two scribes, assessing what such factors can tell us about the scribes' careers and early fifteenth-century book production. Scribe D reflects "commercial opportunism" in producing works by prestige…

Sallust's association of avarice with effeminacy in "The War with Catiline" and Aulus Gellius's subsequent reiteration of the link in his "Attic Nights" are two possible sources for the combination of avarice with effeminacy in Chaucer's Pardoner.

In two parts: 1) Elliott admires the unity and aesthetic qualities of PardT and addresses PardP as Chaucer's successful means to insert commentary on Church corruption; 2) Thomas argues that the Pardoner's effrontery and the moral failings of the…

Although the two pilgrims look very different, they have similarities.

Reads "hostes man" in SumT 3.1755 as referring to the "servant of the innkeeper at whose inn the two friars are staying," and adduces paleographical evidence for retaining unemended "swan" as a suggestive detail in SumT 3.1930.

Justifies the placement of PhyT after FranT on the grounds of the contrasting "personal traits" of the two tellers, and argues that NPT is a personal rejoinder to MkT. Both arguments attend to details of diet and nutrition.

Provides context for the references to a cope in the GP description of the Friar (1.259-63) and to Elijah and Elisha in SumT 3.2117-7, connecting both with Richard Maidstone's polemical responses to John Ashwardby's attacks on mendicant friars.

Explicates the allusion to Joshua 9.21 in KnT 1.1422, and hypothesizes that KnT 1.2415-17 may allude to Samson.

Suggests that when referring to St. Peter's sister in MilT 1.3486 and to Thomas's combination of wrath and frigidity in SumT 3.1825-31 Chaucer was influenced by Robert Grosseteste.

In BD and HF, Chaucer uses the "symplegades" or "clashing rocks" motif, which is related to the "Cliff of Death" theme in Germanic literature, as identified by Donald K. Fry.

Suggests that the Monk's "celle" of GP 1.172 is a storeroom rather than a subordinate monastery, and hypothesizes that the storm that occasions Troilus's clandestine visit to Criseyde in TC is based upon the legend of St, Benedict and his sister…

Challenges previous arguments that the name "Malyne" is appropriate to the character in RvT because it means "dish cloth," arguing instead that "Malyne," "Aleyn," and their roles in RvT can better be understood in light of the denotations and…

Offers evidence that "embosed" in BD 352-53 means that the deer "had well concealed itself in a thicket and was not easy to find" and that the meaning of "double worstede" (Friar's cloak; GP 1.262) is worsted fabric of "considerable width."

Uses visualization software (the "network analysis software Gephi") to represent the interactions among the pilgrims in the links between tales in CT, focusing on the importance of the Host and his "twin anxieties"—concern with haste and with…

Tallies similarities in the works of Chaucer and of Juan Ruiz (themes, sources, allusions, details, etc.) that they share as "representatives of the fourteenth century."

Describes the emphasis on short stories in the Danish literary magazine "Cavalcade" and analyzes several of its Danish translations from CT published in the late 1940s, suggesting that the translators--Lis Thorbjørnsen and Jørgen Sonne--were…

Includes discussion of WBT as "inspiration" for Reginald Heber's fragmentary verse-drama "The Masque of Gwendolen" (1830).

Analyzes the placement of proper names in the verse lines of Chaucer's CT, tabulating and commenting upon the total number of incidences of names and the numbers of their initial and terminal placements in the verse lines of twelve of the tales. Then…

"Townes end" translates, literally, as "the town's end," a concept that has lost its meaning in our modern society of expanding cities. Chaucer's "estres" has a much broader meaning than merely "the ins and outs of a building." Virtually the entire…

Identifies allusions to Chaucer from the "Periamma Epidemion" of 1659: to the description of the Physician in GP 1.437-38 and to WBP 3.227-28

Examines Troilus's two speeches on the "problem of free will and determinism" in TC (4.958-1082 and 3.813-40), observing complex irony whereby readers are led to agree with a perspective, then disagree, and then agree again. Chaucer "affirms both…