Schembri, A. M.
Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies 2 (1992): 1-35.
Influenced by Dante, Chaucer's TC represents the "dramatic interplay" of three kinds of love: "the courtly, the natural, [and] the rational." Chaucer departs from his sources, however, adapting the love of Troilus and Criseyde to an English,…
Smith, Nicole D.
Notes and Queries 258 (2013): 498-502.
Echoes of Peraldus's notion of sin as "amor inordinatus" in the section of ParsT on contrition and confession, thought to have been adapted primarily from Pennaforte, suggest that the former's "Summa de vitiis" "exerts a more significant influence on…
Blamires, Alcuin.
Helen Phillips, ed. Chaucer and Religion (Cambridge: Brewer, 2010), pp. 3-23.
Discusses how Chaucer deals with "regulations and expectations of fourteenth-century Christianity," especially in relation to Chaucer's views on sex, virginity, gender, and marriage. Focuses on BD, PF, TC, ClT, MerT, WBP, NPT, MilT, and PardT.
McCarthy, Conor.
English Studies 83 : 504-18, 2002.
FranT raises problems rather than providing a solution in the Marriage Group. Like ClT, it poses "a problematic marriage agreement" at the outset; like MerT, it shows that disastrous consequences can result from introducing non-marital love into a…
Traces views of the medieval church and of Chaucer's sources for BD and PF. Treats love based on reason, affection, and friendship in sources: Aelred of Rievaulx, Jean de Meun, Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle.
Kooper, Erik Simon.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 2651A.
The Aristotelian view that the marital relationship can involve friendship (found not in Augustine but in Aelred of Rievaulx and Thomas Aquinas) influenced Jean de Meun, translator of Aelred. De Meun's treatment of the matter in "Roman de la Rose"…
Knowles views deployments of the medieval concept of "service" (which encompassed an elaborate network of interpersonal and institutional relationships) in Langland, Julian of Norwich, and TC.
Sadlek, Gregory M.
Chaucer Review 26 (1992): 350-68.
Chaucer altered his source to make Troilus guilty of the sin of sloth, depicting him as one who dislikes "love's work" and who rarely does it. By exploring this concept of sin in a courtly context, Chaucer shifts the moral focus of his work, causing…
Johnston, Andrew James, Russell West-Pavlov, and Elisabeth Kempf, eds.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.
Includes twelve essays by various authors and an introduction by the editors on affect, periodization, queer history, and Chaucer's and Shakespeare's versions of the story of Troilus and Criseyde/Cressida. For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer,…
Flake, Timothy H.
English Studies 77 (1996): 209-26.
Challenges the discussion of Angela M. Lucas and Peter J. Lucas (SAC 15 [1993], no. 215), arguing that the marriage of Dorigen and Arveragus "is a poetic expression of freedom and love brought to life by the power of 'trouthe'," a force so much…
TC indicates that love letters were written on paper in England as early as the 1380s. Uses TC to frame connection of paper with verse love epistles and their fictions.
Georgianna, Linda.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 12 (1990): 85-116.
CT examines such religious practices as pilgrimage, pardon, and penance within medieval soteriological traditions, which often analyzed redemption in commercial language. Particularly in GP and PardT, "Chaucer's understanding of the terms of…
Allen, Peter Lewis.
Dissertation Abstracts International 45 (1985): 2516-7A.
Although classical and medieval rhetorics stress conventional "topoi," love poetry also supposedly emphasizes originality and sincerity. Certain classical and medieval poets including Chaucer ironically play off convention against their own ideas.
Lynch, Andrew.
Corinne Saunders, ed. A Concise Companion to Chaucer (Malden, Mass.; Oxford; and Victoria: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 113-33.
Lynch explains the centrality of the legend of Troy to European narratives as a symbol of human instability and as a mirror of the present, especially in late medieval London. In comparison to its sources, TC keeps war on the periphery of the love…
apRoberts, Robert [P.]
Chaucer Review 7.1 (1972): 1-26.
Suggests that Chaucer purges "sensuality" from Boccaccio's "Filostrato" when he adapts it as TC, and demonstrates in detail where the quality is consistently present in the Boccaccio's poem.
Simmons-O'Neill, Elizabeth.
Modern Language Quarterly 51 (1990): 389-407
Unlike its analogues, MerT develops themes and images associated with the myth of Proserpine's rape and Ceres's search for her daughter. As a result, both May and January are presented as culpable and victimized.
Discusses Chrétien's "Knight of the Cart," including several points of comparison with TC: the poems as command performances, their inclusion of songs of love, and the possibility that the heroes are presented as humorous.
Sidhu, Nicole Nolan.
Literature Compass 6 (2009): 864-85.
Sidhu surveys recent attention to gender in medieval studies and assesses the "continuing marginalization" of gender studies. Recurrent references to Chaucer studies.
O'Callaghan, Tamara Faith.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59: 2014A, 1998.
These works use the language and motifs of love to distinguish gendered passion. In particular, the diction and imagery of love associated with Criseyde in TC show her, unlike the male characters, to be motivated more by fear and a sense of honor…
Cooper, Helen.
Helen Cooney, ed. Writings on Love in the English Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 25-43.
Before TC and KnT, most romances in England were Anglo-Norman and largely uninfluenced by the conventions of courtly love and the Petrarchan tradition. The reputation of Chaucer's works overshadows that of these other works and their more practical…
