English political poetry of the 1380s and 1390s was deeply marked by the self-image of the monarch, which shifted about the time of the Merciless Parliament (1388), as Richard II became more experienced and less playful. Chaucer's PF and revision of…
Bennett, J. A. W.
J. A. W. Bennett. The Humane Medievalist (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura; Wolfeboro, N.H.: Boydell & Brewer, 1982), pp. 49-66.
Defends Gower's "Confessio Amantis," with brief allusions to Chaucer's BD, ParsT, GP, and TC.
Fischer, Olga C. M.
English Studies 66 (1985): 205-25.
The two tales have a common ancestor, but the very different motives of the Confessor and of the Wife are reflected in the language texture. Gower's style complements his vision of order and harmony; WBT is more vivid, dramatic, and suspensful.
Burrow, J. A.
Cristina Maria Cervone and D. Vance Smith, eds. Readings in Medieval Textuality: Essays in Honour of A. C. Spearing (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2016), pp. 157-68.
Argues that CT and Gower's "Confessio Amantis" take the form of French "dit" poems. Claims that both works fit the genre because they have "sufficient 'dit'-like features."
Gastle, Brian.
Elisabeth Dutton, with John Hines and R. F. Yeager, eds. John Gower, Trilingual Poet: Language, Translation, and Tradition (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010), pp. 182-95.
All of the recensions of the Prologue to "Confessio Amantis"--especially the Ricardian recension--reflect Gower's economic concerns. His Tale of Florent also engages commercial concerns, particularly those of marital contracts, although to a lesser…
Kim, Chong-Ai.
Medieval English Studies 5 (1997): 59-82.
Compares the treatment of women in "Confessio Amantis" and LGW. In each case, the frame of the poem and the male-authored perspective disallow true praise of women.
Williams, Deanne.
Ananya Jahanara Kabir and Deanne Williams, eds. Postcolonial Approaches to the European Middle Ages: Translating Cultures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 127-50.
Compares Nebuchadnezzar in Gower's "Confessio Amantis" with his depictions in Chaucer's HF and MkT.
Assesses Gower's virtues and achievements as a narrative poet rather than as a moralist in "Confessio Amantis," occasionally comparing and contrasting his techniques and accounts with analogous ones by Chaucer. Considers the frame of LGW to be…
Galloway, Andrew.
Annette Harder, Alasdair A. MacDonald, and Gerrit J. Reinink, eds. Calliope's Classroom: Studies in Didactic Poetry from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Dudley, Mass.: Peeters, 2007), pp. 245-67.
Chaucer and Gower compete in seeking to articulate political and moral ideals. Whereas Gower endorses "communal governance of the ideology of self-interest," Chaucer explores a less certain "ideal union" among political, moral, and personal forms of…
Correale, Robert M.
R. F. Yeager, ed. John Gower: Recent Readings. Papers Presented at the Meetings of the John Gower Society at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 1983-1988 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1989), 133-57.
Tabulates correspondences between Gower's Tale of Constance ("Confessio Amantis" 2.587-1598) and available manuscripts of Trevet's Anglo-Norman original, seeking to identify Gower's source manuscript. Includes recurrent attention to Chaucer's MLT,…
Ito, Masayoshi.
Studies in English Literature (Tokyo) 46 (1969): 29-44.
Analyzes "rime riche" (identical rhyme) in Gower's poetry, focusing on the "abundance" of rime-riche couplets in "Confessio Amantis," and discussing a number of points of comparison and contrast with Chaucer's practice in his verse.
Yeager, R. F.
Charlotte Brewer and Barry Windeatt, eds. Traditions and Innovations in the Study of Middle English Literature: The Influence of Derek Brewer (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2013), pp. 144-53.
Primarily discusses medieval humor in Gower, yet addresses how Gower's and Chaucer's humorous characters are female. Looks at Criseyde in TC, Alison in WBT, the merchant's wife in ShT, and Alisoun in MilT.
Wetherbee, Winthrop.
Susan Yager and Elise E. Morse-Gagné, eds. Interpretation and Performance: Essays for Alan Gaylord (Provo, UT: Chaucer Studio Press, 2013), pp. 13-22.
The key rhyming pair place and grace appears several times in TC, notably at the center of the poem. Up to the moment of the lovers' consummation, both words have a positive, sometimes spiritual connotation and intensity, but after that passage each…
Laskaya, Anne.
Claire Vial, ed. 'Gode is the lay, swete is the note': Résonances dans les lais bretons moyen-anglais / Echoes in the Middle English Breton Lays (2014): n.p. (web publication).
Includes the argument that the material context of FranT must be considered as a relevant framework for reading Middle English Breton lays.
Wheeler, Bonnie.
Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic Literary Studies (Tokyo) 44 (1995): 13-22.
Chaucer and Murasaki Shikibu, author of "Genji Monogatari," share a number of literary features: a commitment to vernacular expression, grammatically and stylistically open texts, celebration of generic variety, and preoccupation with the female…
Chaucer's hedonist monk tells unexpectedly conservative tales. But his "accessus" and first four tales betray him as a "grammaticus" bent on "curiositas," evoked by hunting (Augustine) and "vagatio" (Peter Damian). The rest define "what is man" by…
Facsimile reproduction of Greaves' grammar (1594), which was the second grammar of English to be printed; includes as an appendix a six-page "Vocabula Chauceriana," the first glossary of Chaucer's lexicon.
Renevey, Denis.
Medieval Translator/Traduire au Moyen Age 14 (2018): 363-77.
Clarifies the biography of Oton de Grandson (here "Othon"), particularly his role as "one of the leading knight-poets of his time," exploring how his status inflected his influence on other writers, including Chaucer. Chaucer's lower social status…
Smallwood, Philip.
Cedric D. Reverand II, ed. Queen Anne and the Arts (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2015), pp. 99– 117.
Explores Alexander Pope's "transformation" of MerT in his "January and May," focusing on his "reading of Chaucer," and his poem's "consonance with the time of Queen Anne." Also comments more generally on Pope's reception and uses of Chaucer's…
Noble, Thomas F. X.
Chantilly, Va.: Teaching Company, 2004.
Includes two thirty-minute audio-visual recordings of lectures (nos. 35 and 36) on "Geoffrey Chaucer--Life and Works" and "Geoffrey Chaucer--'The Canterbury Tales'." The first surveys Chaucer's life and works; the second describes CT, with attention…
Ormond, Richard and Leonee.
London: H. M. S. O., 1969.
Reproduces portraits or busts of twenty-four English poets, from Chaucer to T. S. Eliot, held in England's National Portrait Gallery, with a very brief biography and short selection of poetry for each. The portrait of Chaucer is labeled as "By an…
The section on Chaucer (pp. 5-28) includes a biographical introduction, a reader's guide to CT, brief summaries of PF and TC, and discussion of the literary and historical contexts in which Chaucer wrote.
