Bertolet, Craig E.
In The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales. https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu, 2017. Relocated 2025 at https://opencanterburytales.lsusites.org/
Comments on the possibly harmful and/or fraudulent aspects of "japes" in CkPT, offering information about the food trade in medieval London and considering the Cook's "mormel" (GP 1.386) to be a sign of his vulnerability. Designed for pedagogical…
Examining how post-Chaucerian writers and critics even to the present day have added and responded to CT, Higl argues that their works are analogous to the pilgrims' fictive contest. The dissertation assesses the evidence of reception in select CT…
The mayor of London reviews the history of London from the Celts to the present, organizing each developmental period around an historical person. The chapter on the later Middle Ages features Chaucer's connection to London, including his dwelling in…
Demonstrates that Chaucer "occupies a more prominent place" in Samuel Johnson's "Dictionary" than has been acknowledged. Corrects some misconceptions of previous scholars and adds new data about attention to Chaucer in the "Dictionary"--quotations of…
Traces the medieval tradition of translating or adapting Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" into vernacular languages, especially French, and argues that Walton's verse translation of 1410 is an "improvement upon his model, Chaucer's prose" Bo,…
Alderson, William L.
Paul Ruggiers, ed. Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1984), pp. 93-115.
Summarizes the practices and impact of John Urry's 1721 edition of Chaucer's works, describing its conservative canon and its text that, though based on multiple witnesses, was radically emended in order to achieve metrical regularity. Published…
Steiner, Wendy.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Considers John Trevisa's translations of "compendious" encyclopedic texts as examples of a prose literary form that is an influential part of a late medieval literary history, an "alternative" to the better-known tradition of Trevisa's poetic…
Pearsall, Derek.
Ian Gadd and Alexandra Gillespie, eds. John Stow (1525-1605) and the Making of the English Past: Studies in Early Modern Culture and the History of the Book (London: British Library, 2004), pp. 119-25.
Despite his expertise, Stow was not associated directly with Speght's 1598 edition. Speght "was able to ornament the edition with the names of his eminent friends," while Stow, lacking class, continued behind the scenes, providing "barrowloads of…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Ian Gadd and Alexandra Gillespie, eds. John Stow (1525-1605) and the Making of the English Past: Studies in Early Modern Culture and the History of the Book (London: British Library), pp. 109-18.
Considers the texts Stow used in his career. His 1561 edition of Chaucer is marked less by its engagement with Chaucer than by the inclusion of Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes." The evidence of Stow's annotations suggests interest in Lydgate but a…
Hudson, Anne.
Paul Ruggiers, ed. Editing Chaucer: The Great Tradition (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1984), pp. 53-70.
Best known for his "Survey of London," John Stow produced an edition of Chaucer's works in 1561 that influenced Elizabethan readers, even though it is largely a reprint of William Thynne's edition of 1532 (1550 reprint) that adds several works,…
Gadd, Ian, and Alexandra Gillespie, eds.
London: British Library, 2004.
Fifteen essays explore the life and legacy of John Stow, the sixteenth-century author of Survey of London (1598) and the editor of the 1561 edition of Chaucer. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for John Stow (1525-1605) under…
Veeman, Kathryn.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 38 (2016): 255-63.
Establishes that scribe John Shirley lived in Westminster/London early in his career (in the 1390s) and therefore may have been familiar with Chaucer at the time, lending credibility to Shirley's opinions about Chaucer's works and their dates of…
A biography of John Shirley (d. 1456) that examines available life-records and assesses his scribal output and influence. Shirley was a scribe of several important manuscripts that include works by Chaucer, Lydgate, and Gower; a collector and…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 38 (2016): 245-54.
Suggests that John Shirley's motives for his scribal activities were "commercial," rather than antiquarian or courtly, motivated by a "shared interest" with John Lydgate.
Edwards, A. S. G.
Evelyn Mullally and John Thompson, eds. The Court and Cultural Diversity: Selected Papers from the Eighth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, The Queen's University of Belfast, 26 July-1 August 1995 (Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N. Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 309-17.
John Shirley lived on the "fringes of the aristocracy," and aspects of the manuscripts he produced suggest that he desired to emulate courtliness in his book production.
Although of "no use to chaucerians," the fragmentary text of John Rastell's version of PF reflects the humanist's admiration of Chaucer's works even though he mangled the text.
Dor, Juliette.
Pieter De Leemans and Clément Goyens, eds. Translation and Authority--Authorities in Translation (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 143-53.
The Medieval Traslator/ Traduire au Moyen Age 16 (2017): 143-54.
Describes John of Trevisa's ideas about translating scientific and religious texts from Latin into English, commenting on similarities among these ideas, Wycliffite theory of translation, and Chaucer's approach in Astr.
Surveys scholarship pertaining to Chaucer's 1366 visit to Spain and Gaunt's 1386-87 campaign in Spain, commenting on historical events and Chaucer's involvement with them.
Goodman, Anthony.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.
Historical biography that emphasizes John of Gaunt's reverence for royal authority and his consistent service to the English Crown. Unlike many magnates, Gaunt pursued personal ambitions within a royalist ideology, foreshadowing Tudor ideals of…
Taggie, Benjamin F.
Fifteenth-Century Studies 10 (1984): 195-228.
Treats Chaucer's use of the story of Pedro of Castile in MkT and BD; argues that Chaucer was unique in showing Pedro favorably--which suggests Gaunt was Chaucer's patron.
Bland, Cynthia Renee.
Charlotte Cook Morse, Penelope Reed Doob, and Marjorie Curry Woods, eds. The Uses of Manuscripts in Literary Studies: Essays in Memory of Judson Boyce Allen (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992), pp. 213-35.
John of Cornwall's "Speculum grammaticale" uses English as well as Latin sentences for examples, and such vernacular pedagogy seems to have been widely established by late fourteenth century. The unidiomatic phrase "conservatyf the soun" (HF 847)…
