Roddy, Kevin.
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 10 (1980): 1-22.
Problems of tone--comic versus tragic--make the reader of MLT uneasy. There is also the problem of the weakness of the "literal narrative and the heavy-handed intrusions of the author." One can discern meaningful form, however, if one observes that…
Piehler, Paul.
J. Stephen Russell, ed. Allegoresis: The Craft of Allegory in Medieval Literature (New York and London: Garland, 1988, for 1987), pp. 187-214.
Although scholars agree that Chaucer failed to provide a solution to the problems raised in PF, Piehler argues through a reading on scholastic principles that Chaucer solves them "in accordance with principles characteristic of his age and…
Kelly, Edward Hanford.
Papers on Language and Literature 03, supplement (1967): 28-30.
Assesses the Helen-Deiphebus sub-plot in TC for the ways that it reinforces the poem's theme of inconstancy and anticipates Criseyde's relationship with Diomedes.
Urban, Malte.
Thomas Honegger, ed. Riddles, Knights and Cross-dressing Saints: Essays on Medieval English Language and Literature (Bern: Lang, 2004), pp. 33-54.
Presenting Troy in TC as the mirror image of London in the 1380s, Chaucer engages conflicting notions of history and historiography. In particular, his depiction of the Trojan parliament is a warning to his contemporaries. Chaucer embraces…
Meecham-Jones, Simon.
Neil Thomas and Françoise Le Saux, eds. Myth and Its Legacy in European Literature. Durham Modern Languages Series (Durham: University of Durham), 1996, pp. 93-113.
Meecham-Jones contrasts LGWP with BD, showing how the former exhibits the poet's confidence in adapting sources. Discusses the depiction of Alceste as a parody of figures such as Boethius's Philosophy, Dante's Beatrice, and the Pearl-maiden -…
Cady, Diane.
Craig E. Bertolet and Robert Epstein, eds. Money, Commerce, and Economics in Late Medieval English Literature (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp. 109-26.
Explores "links between gender ideology and money in the late Middle Ages," arguing that Chaucer's "depiction of his purse as a faithless female lover" in Purse reflects the "cultural imaginary around money before the emergence of
political…
McLane, Maureen N.
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012.
Combines memoir with literary criticism to explore the importance of poetry in the examined life. Begins with discussion of TC and Chaucer's use of "kankedort."
Autobiographical remembrance/contemplation by a gay medievalist in New York. Includes frequent references and allusions to medieval topics, including Chaucer, here described as "really the most important thing in the world."
Arguing for the prominence of the Biblical account of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac in medieval culture, the author observes the presence of children as sacrificial figures in MkT, PrT, PhyT, MLT, and ClT, and notes the rewards of faith in those…
Pugh, Tison.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 33 (2011): 149-81.
Assesses Jacques Lacan's and Slovoj Žižek's discussions of courtly love, focusing on the hermaphroditic potential of the Courtly Lady, and discusses FranT for the ways that hermaphroditic and masochistic tendencies inhabit the main characters'…
Considers the narrative structures of various narrative poems in Old and Middle English, especially as these relate to an "apocalyptic sense of history" and the dislocations it produces. Includes a chapter on TC.
Raybin compares the work by the Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer with ClT. Both works involve a powerful man who marries a poor girl and who eventually dismisses her. Pramoedya pays careful attention to the heroine's thoughts and feelings,…
Chamberlain, David.
John P. Hermann and John J. Burke, eds. Signs and Symbols in Chaucer's Poetry (University: University of Alabama Press, 1981).
Chaucer uses both conventional and original musical signs, some "in bono," some "in malo." His originality manifests itself in five main areas: "single signs, elaborate combinations, vivid contrasts, recurring symbolism, and overall structure," as…
The Pardoner ironically depicts his musicians playing the wrong instruments for a successful performance, thereby indicating the inherent (and disastrous) competitive nature of their fellowship.
Boenig, Robert.
Curtis Perry, ed. Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, no. 5 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), pp. 1-15.
For medieval poets, the "hyperreality of musical instruments" was "more significant" than was their reality. In "Beowulf," the harp signifies Hrothgar's agenda of political conquest and order; in Machaut's "Remedy of Fortune," the "instruments…
Lanoue, David G.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1981): 1141-42A.
Medieval musical allusions provide an internationally shared set of signs for allegorical poetry and help unify medieval literature stylistically. Ruiz ironically conflates the fleshly and heavenly aspects of music, and Machaut employs harmony to…
Holsinger, Bruce Wood.
Dissertation Abstracts International 57 (1997): 3928A.
Patristic tradition regarded music as both carnal and spirtual, capable of evoking a gamut of emotions. Diatribes against musical innovation parallel those against unconventional sexual practices. Holsinger considers musical imagery in KnT, MilT,…
Holsinger, Bruce W.
Stanfords : Stanford University Press, 2001.
In a wide-ranging study of the corporeality of medieval musical culture, Holsinger assesses the "polyphonic perversity" of Chaucer's Pardoner, i.e., the performances that highlight the Pardoner's rhetorical adeptness and distinguish his musical body…
A general guide to fourteenth-century music in France, Italy, and Britain. The main composers, musical forms, and centers of musical activity are surveyed and illustrated in facsimiles, pictures, and music examples. Musical references in Chaucer's…
Chamberlain, David Stanley.
Dissertation Abstracts International 27.11 (1967): 3834A.
Explores the impact and significance of music in Chaucer's works in light of three traditions: philosophic, Scriptural, and poetic, concluding that "Chaucer's music is far more meaningful and amusing than critics have thought," and the "major…
Berkeley, Michael, comp.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Commissioned in 1983 by the BBC "as incidental music for a series of radio programmes to texts by Chaucer." Includes parts for instruments (two trumpets, one horn, one tenor trombone, one tuba, and "Optional Percussion"), with scoring for five…
Berkeley, Michael, comp.
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. PJBE Finale: Music Written for Philip Jones (London: Chandos, 1987). 1 CD: tracks 9-13.
A five-movement suite, composed by Michael Berkeley for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, who are recorded here. Includes "Triton's Trumpets" (1:25), "The Grieving Queen" (3:46), "A Fanfare for the Huntsmen" (0:35), "The Sorrowful Knight" (1:51), and…
Focuses on three extant Tudor song-books to chart the relations between lyric and song in early English tradition, including discussion of popular and courtly works, late-medieval and early modern music, and the impact of the Reformation. Two issues…
Heffernan, James A. W.
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Surveys "how painting and sculpture have been represented by poets ranging from Homer's time to our own," focusing on Homer, Ovid, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer and Gower, Spenser and Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Browning, Auden, William…
