Spencer, H. L.
Review of English Studies 65, no. 272 (2014): 790 -811.
F. J. Furnivall founded seven literary and publishing societies (including the Chaucer and New Shakespeare Societies). Furnivall describes Wyclif "as the first translator of our Bible and THE FATHER OF ENGLISH PROSE" in an attempt "to foist prose…
Spencer, H. L.
Review of English Studies 66, no. 276 (2015): 601-23
Details Furnivall's founding of the Chaucer Society in 1868, and argues that his greatest contribution was his parallel text edition of CT, a publication that has far-reaching consequences for the later editing of Chaucer. Brief references to Astr,…
Ramsey, Roy Vance.
Studies in Bibliography 42 (1989): 134-52.
Robinson's first edition (1933) is founded on unsound editorial practices, most notably an overreliance on Skeat (Robinson's true base text, not Ellesmere as usually claimed). Even in his second edition (1957), Robinson failed to profit from the…
Reinecke, George F.
Paul Ruggiers, ed. Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1984), pp. 231-51.
Describes the "elephantine gestation" of Robinson's edition of Chaucer's "Works," summarizes its early reception and progress to becoming a "standard edition," and assesses the text as "conservative, highly informed, and eclectic, though arrived at…
Plummer, John F.
T. L. Burton and John F. Plummer, eds. "Seyd in Forme and Reverenceœ": Essays on Chaucer and Chaucerians in Memory of Emerson Brown, Jr. (Provo, Utah: Chaucer Studio Press, 2005), pp. 237-45.
Considers citations of Paul's epistles to Timothy in WBPT, PardPT, and ParsPT, reading them in light of late fourteenth-century concern with preaching and pastoral care--Lollard and anti-Lollard, mendicant and antimendicant. Chaucer was concerned…
Kordecki, Lesley.
Robert Graybill, John Hallwas, Judy Hample, Robert Kindrick, and Robert Lovell, eds. Teaching the Middle Ages II. (Warrensburg: Central Missouri State University, 1985): pp. 121-30.
Works by Henryson and Chaucer's NPT can be used to teach the nature of fable literature. NPT develops contrasting meanings in both explicit and implicit morals.
Pearcy's structural approach enables us to recognize the generic markers of fabliau in nonfabliau tales by identifying dupers, dupes, and misinterpretations of signs. Two episodes in KnT reflect fabliau structures: Arcite's reading of Palamon's…
Blake, N. F.
Hans-Jürgen Diller and Manfred Gorlach, eds. Towards a History of English as a History of Genres. Anglistiche Forschungen, no. 298. (Heidelberg: Winter, 2001), pp. 145-57.
The realism of fabliaux (and some drama) makes them valuable in studying the history of colloquial language, especially sexual colloquialisms. Blake draws examples from "Dame Sirith," MilT, RvT, WBP, and MerT, remarking on Chaucer's…
DuVal, John, trans. Intro. and notes by Raymond Eichmann.
Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1992.
An anthology of twenty French fabliaux, translated into English verse. Includes historical introduction, brief headnotes to each tale, and a selective bibliography of fabliau materials.
Manning, Stephen.
South Atlantic Review 52 (1987): 3-16.
With all its verbal activity or "jangling," NPT functions as a "metonymy for the nature of poetry itself." Chauntecleer and the Narrator struggle with rhetoric and meaning; the Poet "sees beyond the jangling," transforming apparent absurdity into "a…
Cosman, Madeleine Pelner.
New York: George Braziller, 1976.
Describes medieval food preparation and presentation, providing over 100 recipes as an appendix. Chapter three, "A Chicken for Chaucer's Kitchen: Medieval London's Market Laws and Larcenies" (pp. 67-91) details the conditions of medieval London…
Doyle, Kara.
Seeta Chaganti, ed. Medieval Poetics and Social Practice: Responding to the Work of Penn R. Szittya (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012), pp. 124-42.
Reads the figure of Alceste in LGW as a "fable" of female patronage, and argues that texts such as John Metham's "Amoryus and Cleopes" and an anonymous English translation of a portion of Boccaccio's "De Mulieribus Claris" do not follow Chaucer's (or…
Knapp, Ethan.
Andrew James Johnston, Ethan Knapp, and Margitta Rouse, eds. The Art of Vision: Ekphrasis in Medieval Literature and Culture (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015), pp. 209-23.
Explores the "function of faciality" in medieval poetry of Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve. Examines Chaucer's portraits of faces in GP, MLT, and TC.
Miralles Pérez, Antonio J.
Juan Camilo Conde Silvestre and M. Nila Vázquez González, eds. Medieval English Literary and Cultural Studies (Murcia: Universidad de Muscia, 2004), pp. 205-22.
Conan Doyle's portrayals of knights from the Hundred Years' War in "The White Company" (1891) and "Sir Nigel" (1906) embody the same contradictions and ambiguities found in Chaucer's depiction of a fourteenth-century knight in CT.
Olson, Mary C.
New York and London: Routledge, 2003
Proposes and applies several "reading strategies" for understanding the relationships between word and image in several Old English manuscripts and the Ellesmere manuscript of CT.
Comments on Chaucer's status as a member of the middle class, and explores his depiction of middle-class society in CT, with attention to how it reflects his contemporary world. Includes four b&w illustrations.
Similar concerns with fairies and male oppression encourage comparison of WBT and Jane Eyre; they reflect either Brontë's familiarity with Chaucer's work or a significant coincidence.
Discusses fairies and elves within medieval romances and folklore. Analyzes Chaucer's use of "fayrye" in the MerT, "fairy mistresses" in Th, and the "fairy woman" in the WBT.
Gallacher, Patrick J.
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 5:1 (1997): 55-62.
Considers relations among fairness, generosity, and justice as depicted in MilT, ClT, and PardT, discussing them as they might be presented to an audience of high school students.
Jordan, Tracey.
Studies in Short Fiction 21 (1984): 87-93.
Treats antifeminist reversal when Absolon must replace his romantic vision of Alisoun with his experience of her bestiality, but Chaucer ridicules antifeminist themes and celebrates Alisoun's desirable physicality.
In PrT, as in much canonical medieval literature, Jews are largely voiceless and depicted as vile. The lamentations, or "kinot," of Hebrew liturgical poets who mourn the Jewish victims of the crusades record the voices of medieval Jews. The imagery…
Wright argues that the conditional faith and reciprocal acceptance of narrative reception are intrinsic to human communication and that FranT explores similar principles and their relations to love. The love between Dorigen and Aurelius gives way to…
