Cooper, Helen.
Richard K. Emmerson and Sandra Clayton-Emmerson, eds. Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 131-35.
An introduction to Chaucer and his works, with attention to his sources and influences. Includes a brief bibliography.
Williams, David.
Mary Reichardt, ed. Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature. 2 vols. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2004), 1:93-104.
Summarizes Chaucer's life and the plot and themes of CT; then gives "something of the flavor" of the CT by assessing the theological perspectives of pilgrims from differing social classes, treating KnT, WBP, PardPT, and NPT. Closes with a description…
Introduction to late medieval social and literary history, focusing on Chaucer. Illustrated with modern footage and reproductions from medieval life and narrated by Peter Morgan Jones. Interspersed with portions of an interview with Terry Jones that…
Armstrong, Dorsey.
In Great Minds of the Medieval World (Chantilly, Va.: The Teaching Company, 2014), disc 10 of 12; lecture 19.
Audio recording of a lecture that aligns the achievements of Dante and Chaucer, focusing on their attention to individuals and uses of their vernacular languages. The discussion of CT emphasizes Chaucer's social variety as it contrasts traditional…
Moulton, Carroll.
Princeton, N.J. : Films for the Humanities, 1985; 1988; 1993.
Introduces the themes and genres of major works of Middle Engish, with special emphasis on Chaucer and CT. Narrated by Protase Woodford; produced by Stephen Mantell.
Laird, Edgar (S.)
Thomas A. Prendergast and Barbara Kline, eds. Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority, and the Idea of the Authentic Text, 1400-1602 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999), pp. 145-65.
The status of Astr as an unfinished scientific treatise encouraged its manuscript compilators to finish or add to it in a number of ways: responding to the descriptive prologue included by Chaucer, adding to or reordering its materials, and placing…
Børch, Marianne.
Marianne Børch, ed. Text and Voice: The Rhetoric of Authority in the Middle Ages (Odense : University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004), pp. 97-120.
Assesses Nicholas's manipulation of language and signs in MilT as Chaucer's embedded analysis of typological or analogical thinking. The references to mystery plays in MilT counterpoint the "poetics of a trickster clerk" whose manipulations embody a…
The Cambridge, Peterhouse MS.75.I, containing Equat, is a Chaucer holograph, perhaps the author's rough draft, since it contains copious revisions, both in content and style. The manuscript's notation, "Radix chaucer," was also written by the poet,…
Blake, N. F.
Journal of the Early Book Society 1 (1997): 96-122.
Describes uncertainties related to the manuscripts of CT and surveys critical efforts to resolve them--uncertainties about the state of Chaucer's papers at the time of his death and the circulation of tales before his death, the order and…
Lacey, Robert.
Robert Lacey. Great Tales from English History: Chaucer to the Glorious Revolution, 1387-1688 (London: Little, Brown, 2004), pp. 1-5.
Appreciative commentary on CT. Chaucer's "cheery and companionable writing" in the vernacular "sets out the ideas" for the rest of Lacey's volume of anecdotal history.
Quinn, Esther Casier.
Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2008.
Identifies how and where Chaucer's poetry engages contemporary society and politics, as well as how it adjusts to changes in these arenas. As a court poet, Chaucer was knowledgeable about worldly affairs but unwilling to comment or criticize openly.…
Dor, Juliette.
Bruno Meniel, ed. Ecrivains juristes etjuristes ecrivains, du Moyen Age au siecle des Lumieres. Esprits des lois, Esprit des lettres, no. 8 (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2015), pp. 522-26.
Reviews issues of justice in Sted and explores how Chaucer's irony reveals his bias against medieval judicial practices in ABC. Also, questions the relationship among Church/Rome/nation, political vs. religious law(s), and ascending vs. descending…
Explores Chaucer’s uses of "fama," perhaps reflecting his ambiguous relationship with the concept. At times, he seems to switch from desire of acknowledgment to a more bitter view.
Chute, Marchette.
William Targ, ed. Bibliophile in the Nursery: A Bookman's Treasury of Collectors' Lore on Old and Rare Children's Books (Cleveland: OH: World, 1957), pp. 106-12.
Excerpts and re-titles a portion of chapter two of Chute's 1946 "Geoffrey Chaucer on England," describing the nature of Chaucer's education and the books he likely encountered in his early studies.
Bryant, Brantley L.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
An eclectic collection of materials related to new-media play that focuses on Chaucer, including the following: a faux poem by "John Gower"; an introduction, by Bonnie Wheeler, to play and parody among medievalists at the conferences of the Medieval…
Johnson, Ian, ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Includes fifty brief essays that offer "historical and conceptual information and perspectives" to aid in understanding Chaucer's works: J. A. Burrow, "What Was Chaucer Like?"; Andrew Galloway, "Chaucer's Life and Literary 'Profession'"; Jeremy J.…
Silvia, D. S.
Revue des Langues Vivantes 33 (1967): 228-36.
Considers "gentilesse" (the "quality that makes human relationships most proper and ennobling") to be the main theme of the "Marriage Group" in CT, commenting on the virtue as it is presented in Mel, NPT, WBPT, ClT, MerT, and FranT, and exploring its…
A series of interlinked webpages that provides a variety of texts, translations, glossaries, selected essays and graphics, instructional aids, and supporting information about language, analogues, social conditions, and other backgrounds to Chaucer's…
Hernández Pérez, Ma Beatriz.
Liminar: Estudios sociales y humanisticos 6.2 (2008): 15-30
Examines Chaucer's works, particularly BD and LGW, in connection to female patronage networks in the late fourteenth century in England, France, and the Iberian Peninsula. Argues that the new cultural and political role of many aristocratic women had…
Lehnert, Martin.
Zeitschrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik 32:1 (1984): 5-18.
Chaucer explores complex psychology of love in TC and CT, juxtaposing carnal with spiritual, crude with refined, translating the ideal into the everyday, synthesizing French and Italian traditions.
Truter, Wolfgang.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1979): 4698C.
A line-by-line commentary on NPT reveals that the primary difficulties of the poem are not linguistic, but lie rather in the tremendous range of subjects from which Chaucer draws in the work: medicine, theology, astrology, and music, among others.
Fruoco, Jonathan.
Iris 39 (2019): n.p.
Available at http://ouvroir-litt-arts.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/revues/actalittarts/553-geoffrey-chaucer-the-merchant-s-tale-et-la-dialectique-de-l-elevation. Accessed January 12, 2021.
Explores the implications of ascent and descent in MerT, focusing on the significance of the tale's vacillations between courtliness and the fabliau genre in comparison with several analogous narratives that include fruit-tree episodes. In French,…
Weise, Judith.
Walton Beacham, ed. Research Guide to Biography and Criticism, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Research Publishing, 1985): pp. 218-223.
Brief synopsis of Chaucer's life, listing of his works, and selective review of biographical sources, critical approaches, criticism, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.
