Browse Items (16470 total)

Explicates the unity or the "designed togetherness" of GP, focusing on various pairings and oppositions as they evoke and engage varieties of love (heavenly and worldly in the Prioress), mature and youthful (Knight and Squire), clerical and secular…

Offers historical "bird-lore" as evidence of the poisonousness of the "wariangles" (shrikes, or butcher-birds), cited in the description of the summoner in FrT 3.1408).

Suggests that "Chauntecleer's dream . . . prophesied the col-fox's attack" in NPT 73215-18, adducing the neo-Platonic tradition that associates "the imagination with prophetic vision through dreams," and noting that Dante uses "alta fantasia" ("high…

Suggests that NPT "reflects . . . the controversy which took place in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries between the secular clergy and the friars." Adduces use of the name "Russell" and several other parallels with French moralized analogues…

Anthologizes selections from poems by British and American writers. arranged alphabetically by author, some accompanied by critical and pedagogical materials. Includes selections from GP: 1-78, 118-62, and 361-92 (opening, Knight, Prioress, and Wife…

Identifies an approximate quotation from Chaucer's Pity in Edward Du Bois's satirical novel, "Old Nick" (1801), and suggests that it is "in all probability the first quotation from Chaucer's works in prose fiction."

Reviews opinions about the textual status of NPE and six additional lines found in four manuscripts of the CT often thought to be spurious. Considering issues of tale order, sequence of composition, dramatic consistency, and authorial or scribal…

Describes records available in the "Black Prince's Register" that pertain to Walter Roet, a "member of the family into which Chaucer married" and, perhaps, a "brother of Chaucer's wife" Philippa.

Identifies parallels between various aspects of PardPT and Master Odo of Cheriton's sermons, and includes passage on pardoners from Cheriton's "Fables." Suggests that these intertextualities, both general and specific, indicate that it is "possible,…

Suggests that "wynne" in TC 1.390 means to "complain," connecting it with rare but similar usage in Old and Middle English.

Argues that the Reeve's sword is rusty (GP 1.618) "because the Reeve is past the age for using it." Suggests that he wears it as a symbol of his desire for youth and comments on Chaucer's multiple uses of signifying details.

Argues that the "the bulk of Milton's system of elision was a part of the traditional mechanics of English syllabic verse," detailing the tradition that precedes Milton and Milton's own practices. Chapter 2 analyzes Chaucer's practices in elision,…

Suggests that the expansive moralizing about silence at the end of ManT is "directed" by the Manciple "toward the inebriated Cook," effectively linking the GP description of the Manciple, ManP, and ManT.

Collects nineteen essays by various authors on topics in medieval and early modern English literature, accompanied by Harden Craig's appreciative essay, "Walter Clyde Curry and Contemporary Scholarship," and a bibliography of Curry's publications…

Shows how Paul Hamilton Hayne adapted FranT in his narrative poem "The Wife of Brittany" (1870), addressing his acknowledgement of Chaucer's influence, and his claims of originality. Focuses on modifications of the main characters, simplification of…

Explores the "free-ranging points of view" of the narrator of GP, identifying its conventionality modeled on the "Roman de la Rose" and arguing that Chaucer's various manipulations of first-person and omniscient perspectives in individual…

Explores parallels and tensions between earthly and heavenly love in TC, investigating how the theological "doctrine" of grace--inflected by ideas of merit, hope, and despair--is adapted to courtly, earthly conventions in the poem. Focuses on uses of…

Identifies parallels between Browning's "Childe Roland" and HF, evinces Browning's familiarity with Chaucer's poem, and indicates that, thematically, "Roland's quest" represents the "lifelong struggle of a poet in search of lasting fame."

Reads PF as Chaucer's "most voluptuous poem," a love poem with the Garden of Love as its unifying center where Nature and Priapus serve as its "presiding deities." Comments on the poem's range of attitudes toward love and its source materials.

Anthologizes GP, PardPT, PrPT, MilT, WBPT, ClT, FranT, NPT, and Ret., each with a brief introduction and bottom-of-page glosses. Also introduces Chaucer's life, works, literary techniques, and language, with suggestions for further reading.

Suggests on textual and etymological grounds that "verye"/"werye" in MilT 1.3485 be emended to "nerye," reading the line to mean "May the White Pater Noster save (us) from (the perils of the) night."

Distinguishes between Chaucer the poet. and Chaucer the pilgrim-narrator of CT, characterizing the "persona" of the latter as "shy" but "gregarious," one who admires the "values" of high society, the "material prosperity" of the bourgeoisie, and good…

Provides background to Chaucer's "championship of the secular clergy . . . and his satire of the fraternal orders," and considers how this attitude reflects a general, "secular tradition," appreciative of allegorical poetry and found in works by Jean…

Clarifies--etymologically and musicologically--that "cordes" mentioned in HF 696 refers to instrumental strings, not to musical chords. the latter being anachronistic in Chaucer's era.

Chronological anthology of English and American poetry, beginning with selections from Chaucer (Truth, Gent, GP 1-30, and NPT), with bottom-of-page glosses and notes. Text from F. N. Robinson's edition; preceded by a brief "Note on Reading Chaucer's…