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Sixteen essays by various authors on Eastern and Western medieval literature and medievalism, plus a bibliography of Manzalaoui's publications. For six essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for From Arabye to Engelond under Alternative Title.

Examines the iconographic and literary traditions of Saint Francis.

Stevenson interprets William Blake's depiction of the Canterbury pilgrims (rendered in several manifestations) in light of contemporaneous works and Blakes "Descriptive Catalogue" (1809). Visual symbols, juxtapositions, and contrasts indicate that…

Reads Chauntecleer's descent from the perch in NPT as evidence that medieval stage entrances were marked by "masculine assertiveness," useful for clarifying differences among characters in a limited troupe. Compares the narrative scene with dramatic…

Explores political and ideological similarities between PhyT and Livy's version of the story, and traces these similarities in later English and German versions, especially the Tudor interlude "Apius and Virginia" and G. E. Lessing's bourgeois…

The Virgilian "Iuppiter descendens" in CT combines the sacred and the profane. Sexual motivation governs the behavior and storytelling of some of the pilgrims. Medieval man was able to integrate the serious with the comical because he possessed a…

Reconsiders Harold Bloom's argument that Shakespeare, when creating Iago, was influenced by Chaucer's Pardoner. Goth explores the "dramatic" nature of the Pardoner's character and his relations with Vice figures from late medieval drama as well as…

While Chaucer approached TC as a "historical" poet, Henryson wrote as a "literary" poet, relying less than Chaucer on rhetorical ornamentation and more on his own invention.

Relates Chaucer's references to aristocratic upbringing to contemporary social practice.

In LGW, Chaucer suppressed most of the Cleopatra tradition (asps, etc.) to make her a medieval "good woman," who builds a shrine for Anthony and enters a snake pit to dramatize the grave-worm "topos." Alceste transcends the grave--the thematic…

Explores the "connection between dirty words and dirty things," focusing on the speech of "three outspoken female figures": Raison and La Vieille from the "Roman de la Rose" and Chaucer's Wife of Bath. While Raison attacks "linguistic equivocation"…

Recognizes the progress from "conflict" to "harmony" of authority and experience seen in both WBP and WBT within the framework of CT.

From ABC through dream poems to LGW, Chaucer attempts to oppose cupidity to charity by ennobling the latter. However, he amalgamates various types of love in CT.

From Old English representations of doomsday to medieval romances, "layered narratives" provide audiences with visual judgment. The fair-to-foul transformations of Old English sermons and "Christ III" give way to the foul-to-fair transformations of…

The controversy regarding "the moral intelligence of the narrator" of FranT maps the "poetic terrain" of the tale., i.e., rhyme, meter, poetic structure, and complex literary plan. Gaylord examines the tale by two complementary and yet contradictory…

In rendering Petrarch's explanation for why God tests humans in the form of a disjointed sentence (ClT, 1153-61), Chaucer points out its irrationality. Argues how this ploy resonates with the Clerk's expression of qualms about Petrarch at the…

Discusses Chaucer's works in the context of a tradition of depicting women's dreams as deceiving and women as deceivers.

Margery Kempe and Alison of Bath represent a basic conflict: as representatives of the nascent bourgeoisie, they seek to inscribe themselves in a tradition that, since they are women, silences them.

Andreas explores the "interplay of serious and comic materials" in the "best work" of Chaucer and Shakespeare, commenting on the use of KnT in A Midsummer Night's Dream and on Shakespeare's adaptations of Chaucer's comic figures in his mechanicals.

Examines the contents and provenance of MS Digby 86 (Bodleian); MS Harley 2253 (British Library); MSS fr. 837 and 19182 (Bibliothque Nationale); and Carmina Burana MS (Munich), Bayerische Staatsbibliothek CLM 4460 and 4460a. The literary techniques…

Comments on thematic similarities between Plato's "Gorgias," Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," and several of Chaucer's works, observing in TC a particular concern shared by Plato and Boethius: the "futility of earthly existence."

In FrT, Chaucer satirizes some "excesses of fourteenth-century logical demonstration" and develops a "theory of fiction from the theories of intention current in his day." Intentionality involves the "relation of language to the real," and…

Chaucer's representations of the child as pathetic and passive (in Th and PrT) contrasts with images of children in romance ("Havelock the Dane") and miracle tales ("Child Slain by Jews" and "The Jewish Boy"). Chaucer "canonizes" this negative view…

Chapter 12 opens with an introduction to Chaucer's life and works, followed by appreciative commentary on CT as a comedy that is "social, not divine." Includes "Questions for Study and Discussion" on CT generally, and focused questions on KnT, MilT,…

Argues that the dream vision aspects of HF and NPT can be read "through their shared preoccupations with writing, reading and problematic quest for 'authority' by vernacular texts." Addresses the importance of textual authority, allegory, and parody,…