Browse Items (15542 total)

Describes classical, biblical, and patristic notions of "counsel" as background to Chaucer's "transcendentalizing notion of counsel."

Readers who refuse to recognize Pandarus's incestuous desire risk participating in the denial of such desire in patriarchal societies; they also risk colluding in society's invocation of the incest taboo, which underlies traffic in women.

The fact that Chauntecleer defies his dream and still escapes harm "raises serious questions about the validity of dream interpretation, leaving the reader with a sense that dreams mean whatever we want them to."

Assesses Troilus as a courtly lover in TC, as seen through the perspective of Augustine's Confessions.

The Wife's portrayal of the rape, the judgment, and punishment of the knight reflect wish fulfillment, legal anachronism, and the inversion of the natural order of legitimate authority, though the tale ends in "true freedom and order."

Describes the "host of moral issues for high school readers to consider" in MilT and WBPT and argues for an ethic of inclusion rather than exclusion in selecting books.

A Marxist reading of WBPT that regards the "link between sexuality and monetary gain" as the "key to the sexual economy of the Wife's performance." WBP reflects the violence potential in "primitive accumulation," an early stage of capitalism defined…

Describes how, increasingly identified with Chaucer in early editions, "The Plowman's Tale" advanced "Chaucer's status as an early Protestant figure," noting in particular the association of them in Milton's "Of Reformation."

Following a methodology outlined in Gabriel Naud's seventeenth-century history of magic, the essay examines early modern historical accounts of magic to understand how magic came to be defined and debated. The title derives from WBT.

Bromyard's denunciation of "popular views on sex" in the Luxuria section of his "Summa Predicantium" resonates verbally and structurally with WBP, suggesting that the Wife's performance functions in part as a counterattack to such sermonizing by …

Reads the Wife's comments on her constellation (WBP 3.609-23) in light of late medieval pastoral commentary on astral determinism as an excuse for sin. The Wife mocks male-authored confessional speech but embraces male-authored astrological discourse…

PardT shows the polysemous aspects of gluttony as a sin, suggesting that gluttons are similar to heretics, who use the mouth to deny sacred truths. In contrast to the Parson, the Pardoner embodies the idea that "peccata oris" are not confined to…

A brief history of private rooms in fourteenth-century England and an explanation of the significance of Nicholas's desire for privacy in MilT.

Comparison of traditional rites to the feelings and actions of the characters shows that lack of structure does not mean disorder. Moore contends that there is no correlation between ritual and the outcome of KnT; in fact, a ritualistic beginning…

The text of the "Alma Redemptoris Mater" in PrT may have been written by Hermannus Contractus. A reconstruction of its tune must depend on the Use of Sarum. This particular text and this tune are especially appropriate to the themes of the tale.

Examines how the epithets and titles applied to Mary disperse and fictionalize her powerful humanity. Discusses various Marian lyrics, including ABC, in which Chaucer subtly but significantly alters the theology of Marian praise.

Cawsey suggests an emendation to HF 1124 and argues that the image of an "ice mountain limned in light, illuminated with gold, covered with melting writing" indicates Chaucer's concerns about literary transmission.

Chaucer's references to Seneca in CT outnumber those to any other philosopher save Solomon. Except for the references in ParsT and Mel, the use of Seneca generally serves as an amusing way of condemning characters who quote him.

Considers the ambivalent treatment of fame in HF: as a sinful desire, as a goal for poets, and as an "amoral record of the past." Argues that this ambivalence is rooted in Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and that it reflects Chaucer's…

Examines "amor hereos" as a medical phrase, identifying its roots in classical tradition and tracing its development in the humoural tradition of the Mid-East and Western Europe.

Analyzes Chaucer's use of Virgil for portrait of the Prioress,suggesting that her brooch has magical properties as well as a religious function.

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby rehabilitates the Chaucerian treatment of the love story of Troilus and Criseyde (TC) and counters the less positive depictions of Henryson and Shakespeare.

Assesses how MLH and MLP reflect the anxiety of Chaucer's poetics-how they indicate Chaucer's awareness that he is both following and improving upon the poetic model of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron and the "penitential" poetics of John Gower's…

"Hood" is used both literally and figuratively by Chaucer. The problematic occurrence in TC 2.954 probably means "Don't be deferential."

Land tenure laws and cloth industry figures suggest that the Wife was a bondswoman with holdings in the industry acquired from her first husband and used to attract four more and to finance expensive pilgrimages. A bondswoman character is also…