Jordan, Robert (M.)
Chaucer Yearbook 1 (1992): 135-55.
Contrasts TC and ManT as examples of metafiction, showing that in each the narrative persona is not a character in any traditional sense but a voicing of the author's concerns with language and fiction. ManT overtly declares the instability of…
Kinney, Clare Regan.
Studies in Philology 89 (1992): 272-92.
In contrast to the 'Filostrato,' TC gives lyrical expression to both male and female speakers. Antigone's song is central to the female lyrical discourse in TC, establishing a "poetics of presence" that culminates in the poem's closing concern with…
McKinley, Kathryn L.
English Language Notes 30:2 (1992): 1-4.
Criseyde's niece Flexippe is named after Plexippus in Ovid's story of Meleager. The reference to Flexippe in TC 2 is clarified in TC 5 by Cassandra's relating this very story and giving it an allegorical interpretation.
Nakao, Yoshiyuki.
Hiroshima Studies in English Language and Literature 37 (1992): 14-26.
Discusses ambiguity in TC, first from the standpoint of the reader, then as a key to meaning, and finally from the imaginary standpoint of an ideal reader who can be at once sympathetic and detached.
Peyton, Henry H. III.
Tennessee Philological Bulletin 29 (1992): 6-13.
Compared to figures in Boethius's "Consolatio," Pandarus appears neither as Philosophia nor as Fortune but rather as an amplification of Fortuna. The leaping and hopping of TC 1-2 echo the upward climb of Fortuna's wheel, while the silence and…
Reale, Nancy M.
Philological Quarterly 71 (1992): 155-71.
Compares the consummation scenes in Boccaccio's "Filostrato" and Chaucer's TC, focusing on Pandarus's role, and demonstrates how Boccaccio served as Chaucer's intermediary in a critical dialogue with Dantean assertions about language, love, and…
Sadlek, Gregory M.
Chaucer Review 26 (1992): 350-68.
Chaucer altered his source to make Troilus guilty of the sin of sloth, depicting him as one who dislikes "love's work" and who rarely does it. By exploring this concept of sin in a courtly context, Chaucer shifts the moral focus of his work, causing…
Chaucer uses the word "syn" in TC ninety-nine times; the word "sith," thirty-one times. The former not only designates "since," but also reinforces the morality--or lack thereof--in the poem. The final "syn" clause is connected with Christ to…
The relationship between Troy's story and Criseyde's demonstrates Chaucer's vision of how common Destiny frames but ultimately releases individual free will. The "de casibus" frame comments on the human condition; like Troy and Criseyde, we are…
Stillinger, Thomas C.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
Stillinger addresses intertextual and formal strategies used by Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer "in search of new ways to make a book." The "Vita nuova" explores structures in relation to authority in prose and verse, and "Filostrato" mines the…
Storm, Melvin.
Yearbook of English Studies 22 (1992): 154-61.
In TC 3, Chaucer evokes the geography and atmosphere of Dante's "Inferno," while in Pandarus's actions he evokes Virgil's role as guide through hell. These associations provide a context for "judging Troilus's position at the poem's centre" and…
Pandarus does not commit incest with Criseyde. Chaucer's contemporaries would not have allowed it, and the text itself, while titillating, does not admit of it. One discerns the narrator expressing his own involvement with the heroine, but there is…
Vitto, Cindy L.
Medieval Perspectives 4-5 (1989-90): 217-27.
Allusions to Christian heaven and hell suggest the inadequacy of the love of Troilus and Criseyde. Troilus's end, contrary to his Boethian source, indicates that he has no free will. It is unlikely that he achieves either Christian or pagan…
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Studies in Philology 89 (1992): 293-313.
"Hazel" imagery in medieval and Renaissance literature suggests a meaning for Chaucer's "haselwode" quite different from the traditional interpretations--one rooted in poetic convention (erotic imagery) and social custom (going a-nutting).
Critical introduction to major issues in the study of TC arranged by topic: date, text, sources, genre, structure, themes, style, imitation, and allusion before 1700. Discursive survey of each topic and subtopic, linked by reference to a…
Chaucer's lyrics have been neglected not because Chaucer was an incompetent lyric poet but because they have been overshadowed by his narrative poetry. Ruud introduces the lyrics to those not familiar with them, providing a separate "reading" of…
"The Plowman's Tale" was regularly included in editions of CT from William Thynne's second edition in 1542 until Thomas Tyrwhitt's 1778 edition. Various qualities of the tale might have led sixteenth-century readers to accept the poem as Chaucer's:…
Jonassen, Frederick B.
Fifteenth-Century Studies 18 (1991): 109-32.
The "Beryn" poet defuses the moral menace of Chaucer's Pardoner. The Pardoner in "Beryn" is more of a fool than a threat to either the Inn or the Cathedral, the symbolic "poles" of the pilgrimage.
Blodgett, James Edward.
Dissertation Abstracts International 36 (1976): 5311A.
Two mss and a copy of Caxton's edition contain marks indicating that they provided printer's copy for Thynne's edition. The readings which differ from the printer's copy indicate that Thynne also collated with other mss. Because of his access to…
