Coote, Lesley A., ed.
Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Poetry Library, 2002.
A student edition of the complete CT based on British Library MS Harley 7334, supplemented with Hengwrt. The edition-Middle English text with modern punctuation and normalized spelling (y/i, u/v, /th)-includes marginal glosses, brief introductions…
Following Manly and Rickert, Blake sees Hengwrt as the most reliable early manuscript, but omits links for fragments E-F, which Blake believes were added by someone other than Chaucer--i.e., those links joining SqT to MerT and MerT to FranT. Blake…
Halverson, John, ed.
New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.
Edits a selection from CT, with text based on Robinson's 1957 edition, modified in light of Manly and Rickert's collations. Includes complete versions of GP, KnT, MilT, RvT, WBT, FrT, SumT, ClT, MerT, FranT, PardT, PrT, NPT, and Ret, with summaries…
Blake, N. F.
Archiv fur das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 221:1 (1984): 65-79.
Endings may have been lost for HF and other works. The thesis that works were abandoned by Chaucer leads to untenable theories that Chaucer lost his patronage or became bored or dissatisfied.
Summary (without text) and commentary on MerT, arranged in sections, accompanied by glosses to Middle English phrases. Also includes a brief introduction to Chaucer and his backgrounds; commentary on themes, characterization, and style of MerT; the…
Mack, Peter, and Chris Walton, eds.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Textbook edition of the Miller's sketch from GP, MilPT, and RvP, including glosses and discursive notes, and a discussion of "approaches" to the works--sources and analogues, character analysis, assessment of theme and topic, and analysis of poetic…
Study guide that includes text and facing-page prose translation of the GP description of the Pardoner and of PardPT, with same-page notes, end-of-text glosses, a "structural summary," and shaping the Pardoner's materials.
King, Ronald, illustrator.
Guildford, Eng. : Circle Press, 1978.
Fine art printing of GP, with accompanying abstract visual renderings. Each copy (250 printed) includes one of twenty additional original screen prints by King and an accompanying poem or commentary by Roy Fisher, Andrew Crozier, Kevin Power, or…
Wynne-Davies, Marion, ed.
London and New York: Routledge, 1992.
An edition of WBPT and ClPT, based on the Hengwrt manuscript. The introduction and critical commentary address the social context of the works, discusssing Griselda and the Wife as accurate reflections of the medieval status of women.
Beidler, Peter G., ed.
Boston and New York: Bedford-St. Martin's, 1996.
Based on the Hengwrt manuscript, this edition of WBPT and the Wife's sketch from GP is designed for classroom use. It includes notes and glossary, a biographical sketch of Chaucer, a guide to pronunciation and verse, and a summary of historical…
Thynne, William ed. Intro. by D. S. Brewer.
London: Scolar Press, 1969.
Thynne's edition was the first substantial effort at a complete edition of the "Works" of Chaucer. A facsimile of the 1532 edition is here accompanied by appendices containing material from the later editions of 1542, 1561, 1598, and 1602.
Andrew, Malcolm, and A. C. Cawley, eds.
London: Dent, 1998.
Text and notes of WBPT, ClPT, and MerPT in Middle English, originally edited by Cawley and here revised by Andrew. Includes a Chronology of Chaucer's life and times and an Introduction (xiv-xx) by Andrew that focuses on the theme of marriage in the…
Text and notes of KnT, SqPT, and FranPT in Middle English, originally edited by Cawley and here revised by Andrew. Includes a Chronology of Chaucer's life and times and an Introduction (xii-xvii) by Andrew that focuses on the Tales as romances and…
Places Chaucer's TC text side by side with its main source, Boccaccio's "Il Filostrato," with variant spellings of TC MSS. Includes introduction discussing TC as translation, the scribal medium, the text of TC, the meter, and lists of manuscripts.
Bloom, Harold, ed.
New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2007.
Ten previously printed or excerpted essays by various authors, with an introduction by the editor, a Chaucer chronology, and a bibliography. Topics include the ending of TC (E. Talbot Donaldson); LGWP (Robert Worth Frank, Jr.); interplay between KnT…
Cader, Teresa D.
Robert Pack and Jay Parini, eds. Touchstones: American Poets on a Favorite Poem (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England, 1996), pp. 31-36.
Explicates the opening eighteen lines of GP to demonstrate Chaucer's rich combination of formal prosodic devices, colloquial variety of register, and thematic resonance. The appeal of his verse "lies primarily in its sound."
Crépin, André, and Juliette Dor.
Sylvie Parizet, ed. La Bible dans les littératures du monde (Paris: Cerf, Collection Dictionnaires, 2016), pp. 526-28.
Claims that Chaucer contributes to the debate concerning the translation of the Bible into English through his exploitation of the Old Testament in MLT and WBT.
Burrow, J. A.
Claude Rawson, ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Poets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 20-36.
Introduces Chaucer's life and describes each of his major works in chronological order, identifying the French context of BD, the Italian travels and reading that influenced him later, the philosophical concerns of TC, and his self-representations in…
Nelles, William, and Evelyn Newlyn.
Charles E. May, ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. 2nd rev. ed. Vol. 2, Italo Calvino--Louise Erdrich (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem, 2001), pp. 518-31.
Introduces Chaucer's life and works, emphasizing the "scope and diversity" of his poetry. Describes each of his major works, and anatomizes CT as "one of the earliest collections of short stories of almost every conceivable type," describing the…
Describes Chaucer's life and works, with an introduction to historical backgrounds, a chronology of events, a summary of critical reception, a bibliography for further reading, and an index. The biography emphasizes dates and events, and the survey…
Dean, James M., ed.
Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2017.
Collection of essays that explores various literary aspects of Chaucer's oeuvre, with particular focus on the "international motif" and "transnational" themes found in many works. Essays address critical contexts and readings to help understand…
Barrington, Candace.
Candace Barrington and Sebastian Sobecki, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 135-47.
Reviews Chaucer’s experience with law and legal proceedings, and argues that in his poetry he "questions the fourteenth-century English legal system" and critiques its tendencies to favor the powerful. Focuses on "virtuous women undone or ignored by…
