McClellan relates Giorgio Agamben's theory of the ambiguity of political sovereignty and his ideas on "gesture" and "shame" to Walter's sovereignty and Griselda's submission in ClT. Argues that these are key to understanding the Tale: "The paradoxes…
Sheridan, Christian.
Sandra M. Hordis and Paul Hardwick, eds. Medieval English Comedy (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007), pp. 111-23.
Sheridan assesses the "common logic" of puns and money in ShT. Both pose the threat of vacuity--meaninglessness or lack of value--while simultaneously offering pleasure.
Includes discussion of MerT that explains Chaucer's precision in using astronomical data for poetic purposes. Suggests that Chaucer used Alfonsine tables, and aligns the astronomical details and imagery of MerT with celestial events that occurred in…
Mogan, Joseph J., Jr.
Papers on Language and Literature 1 (1965): 72-77.
Identifies two examples of the "memento mori" motif and two of "ubi sunt" in TC, three of these added by Chaucer to his material, and all of them contributing to the poem's dominant theme of the transitory nature of human love and life.
Jacobs, Edward Craney.
Chaucer Review 15 (1981): 151-54.
Madame Eglentyne's "Amor vincit omnia," where we would expect "Caritas vincit omnia," is used for ironic effect. Since Paul defines "caritas" as the "bond of perfection," Chaucer's use of the motto to bind together the Prioress' rich beads is…
Cossio, Andoni.
SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval Language and Literature 27 (2022): 166-76.
Identifies which folios of Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 75.I are included (photostatic copies) in the Tolkien archive of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tolkien VC 277, using the copies to assess Tolkien's possible assistance to Derek J. Price and R. M.…
Isaacs, Neil D.
Studies in the Literary Imagination 4.2 (1971): 11-27.
Challenges D. W. Robertson's moral condemnations of the major characters of TC, and justifies personal affection for the character of Criseyde; presented in the pose of a legal defense against prosecution.
Doyle, A. I., and George B. Pace.
Studies in Bibliography 28 (1975): 41-61.
Transcriptions of previously unpublished manuscript versions of three minor poems: "ABC" from Melbourne MS.; "Truth" from Nottinghame ME LM I; "Wom Unc" from Bodleian Fairfax 16.
Goldstein considers Custance of MLT and Alisoun of WBP in relation to the Augustinian theology of perfection, particularly in light of late fourteenth-century adaptations of Augustine, both orthodox and heterodox. MLT exemplifies the deterministic…
Greenwood, M[aria] K.
Wendy Harding and A. Mathieu, eds. Le futur dans le Moyen Âge anglais (Paris: Publications de l'Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 1999), 1: pp. 153-74
Examines structural and thematic functions of Chauntecleer's dream exempla in NPT. The exempla all suggest "an unresolved sense of guilt" that casts into tragic relief the events in the barnyard, transforming NPT from comedy to tragedy. The Tale…
Hacht, Anne Marie, and Dwayne D. Hayes, eds.
Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2009.
This encyclopedia of world authors describes how the works of individual authors "fits with the context of the author's life, historical events, and the literary world"; it includes a comprehensive index, printed in each of the four volumes. The…
Although the link between ManT and ParsT has been seen as tenuous, ManT leads symbolically and actually into ParsT, and it simultaneously extends the piety of ParsT back into CT as a whole.
Lanham, Richard A.
English Studies 48 (1967): 1-24.
Challenges Matthew Arnold's assertion that Chaucer's poetry lacks "high seriousness," considering the issue in light of game theory and Chaucer's attitude toward characterization. Because Chaucer's viewed character as performative role-playing…
Applying ANOVA/Tukey's Range Test on nine early CT manuscripts, the author finds that none of them is based on exemplars written in more than three hands. Attributes the final ordering in the first manuscripts of CT to "the poem's first two scribes,…
Patterson, Serina, ed.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Collects interdisciplinary essays focusing on the breadth and depth of games in medieval literature and culture. For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search for Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature under Alternative Title.
Lanham, Richard A.
Lanham, Richard A. The Motives of Eloquence: Literary Rhetoric in the Renaissance (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976), pp. 65-81.
Chaucer's "detached role" in CT establishes his "characteristic attitude toward human behavior--the rhetorical attitude," which views social interaction as a series of roles played in accord with conditional games. Comments on the Host, the Wife of…
McClintock, Michael W.
Chaucer Review 5.2 (1970): 112-36.
Contrasts ShT with its fabliau analogues, arguing that Chaucer creatively adapts the genre by adding complicated characterization to the stark comic plot and by developing a serious thematic concern with the commercialization of sex and marriage,…
McDonald, Nicola F.
Carolyn P. Collette, ed. The Legend of Good Women: Context and Reception (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 176-97.
McDonald describes the principles and operation of two late medieval ribald games of "amorous divination" - Ragman Roll and Chaunce of Dice - as a means to explore the female audience for such games and related literature, particularly LGW. "Demandes…
Greenwood, Maria Katarzyna.
Roberta Mullini, introd. Tudor Theatre: For Laughs? Puzzling Laughter in Plays of the Tudor Age/Tudor Théâtre: Pour Rire? Rires et Problèmes dans le Théâtre des Tudor (Bern: Peter Lang, 2002), pp. 21-39.
Bakhtinian analysis of references to garlands and garlanding in KnT and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Greenwood traces the classical traditions of garlands of love and glory, arguing that depictions of both "veer towards negative criticism" in these two…
Greenwood, Maria K.
Colette Stévanovitch, ed. Marges/Seuils: Le liminal dans la littérature médiévale anglaise ((Nancy: AMAES, 2006), pp. 271-89.
As Greenwood has shown in a previous study, garlanding often implied criticism. In KnT and A Midsummer's Night's Dream, however, it is an acknowledgment of power.
