Browse Items (16012 total)

The section of FranT in which January makes his decision to marry exemplifies Chaucer's use of materials from the 'Miroir de Mariage'.

MerT, particularly its marriage encomium, was influenced by exegetical treatments of Eve as "helper," drawn from the Augustinian tradition and from Albertanus of Brescia. Chaucer rewrites these two divergent strands, reverses their interpretations of…

The point of the proverb that a man may not sin with his own wife or cut himself with his own knife is reversed in MerT. Chaucer intends the effect of surprise to create a sense of the nature and significance of January's wrong headedness.

Explores why Chaucer connected the theme of marriage with a fabliau of a pear-tree story, observing January's view of marriage and his actual married life.

The instruments that January uses to solemnize his wedding in MerT are trumpets, the only instrument capable of making "loud mynstrancye."

Reads CYPT as Chaucer's response to the "pretentiousness, perverseness, and confusion he found in alchemy," exploring the poet's knowledge of alchemical sources, the place of CYPT in CT (especially in juxtaposition with SNT), and the skill and irony…

Suggests that three meanings of "sekte" obtain in LGW: sect, sex, and (law)suit.

Chaucer's audience would have considered the Miller's apparent lack of jealousy toward his wife in the context of a long-standing teaching that jealousy has a salutary side. According to that view, "[w]hoever is not jealous does not love."

Clermont-Ferrand edits d'Angoulême's copy of CT, providing continuous lineation (15,080 lines), sidebar glossing, and bottom-of-page explanatory notes. The introduction (pp. vii-xxxv) comments on editing a "bad" copy of CT, various exemplars of…

Like Chaucer, the fourteenth-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym borrowed from Jean de Meun, using "Le Roman de la Rose" as the source for "Y Gwynt" ('The Wind'). Breeze notes sixteen motifs common to both poems and contrasts the Welsh poet's method…

While vernacular precedents for Chaucer's satirical portrait of a pardoner have so far eluded scholars, five Latin exempla in a fourteenth-century French Dominican's collection, "Scala coeli," suggest that "the pardoner was already a type of the…

Records the generally positive view of Chaucer as a "compilator" of CT found in Bibliothèque Nationale Paris MS, fonds anglais 39, once owned by John of Angoulême. The rubrics of the manuscript, executed by the scribe Duxworth, record particular…

Virginius's fatal encounter with his daughter Virginia in PhyT can be seen as an instance of "torture," as Elaine Scarry defines it, the "most extreme" of political situations. In Scarry's terms and from Virginius's perspective,Virginia's existence…

Analyzes Chaucer's use and adaptation of the allusion to Jephthah and his daughter in PhyT, arguing that it helps to explain why the Physician's study is "but litel on the Bible" (GP 438), why Chaucer placed PhyT after FranT in the order of the CT (a…

Chaucer's concern with interpretive variety reflects the concern with open-ended hermeneutics in Jerome's "Prefaces," part of the Wycliffite Bible. Despite Jerome's efforts to restrict exegetical flexibility, and in response to late-medieval…

Ten essays and a personal testimony by the author on the interrelated topics of pilgrimage and exile in works from Homer and Plato to James Joyce. Focuses on the Middle Ages, with essays on female saints and mystics, "Song of Roland," Dante,…

Eleven articles in French and English by various authors exploring the themes of youth and age in Old and Middle English literature. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Jeunesse et vieillesse under Alternative Title.

Treats ceremonial, ritualistic, and ludic aspects (and symbolic applications) of the affairs of knighthood in medieval Continental Europe.

Compiles evidence for the presence of Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians in late medieval England, using as sources public records, sermons, and toponyms. Chaucer likely had significant contact with non-Christians--or recently converted…

Applies Freudian-based neighboring theory to PrT, comparing it with several medieval exempla about Jews, and explaining how such comparisons can help students to see the necessity of interpretation in determining affection and prejudice, crime and…

Comprises nineteen pedagogical essays in English, history, philosophy, theater, and Judaic studies by various authors who participated in a series of NEH research seminars conducted between 2003 and 2014. The introduction by the editors addresses…

Although Chaucer's "circle" has generally been considered wholly masculine, it may well have included contemporary women such as Joan of Kent. Joan was a prosperous and powerful woman, an interceder and a mediator: a model for a character such as…

In the Middle Ages, Job was regarded as a figure comparable to the heroes of classical epic, prompting allegorical readings of Job that parallel allegorical readings of works by Homer,Virgil, and Boethius. Astell traces the tradition of treating Job…

Gregory's Moralia in Job not only associates Job's wife with Eve as the archetypal temptress but also links her voice to the feminine speaking of poetry, with its imagistic power to move, delight, and (mis)instruct. Chaucer refashions her in CT in…

A heretofore unrecognized reference to KnT in the "Index Britanniæ Scriptorum," compiled by sixteenth-century antiquarian John Bale, provides evidence of a lost manuscript containing Hoccleve's "Regiment of Princes" plus at least Chaucer's KnT and…