Mitchell, J. Allan.
Myra Seaman, Eileen A. Joy, and Nicola Masciandaro, eds. Dark Chaucer: An Assortment (Brooklyn, N. Y.: Punctum Books, 2012), pp. 91-102.
Demonstrates how the resolution of FranT turns on so much semantic play with "fre" that the ending itself remains unresolved or "fre."
Includes brief comments on MilT as an example of "a carnival-like rejection of hierarchies," aligning it with Alenca Zupančič's theory that "comedy creates what we understand 'human' to be."
Wolfe, Alexander Carlos.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.12 (2010): n.p.
Explores Western medieval accounts of the Mongols in the context of historic antipathy between "agricultural" societies and their "pastoral"/nomadic rivals. Includes comparative assessments of hunting practices (as seen in BD, "Sir Gawain and the…
Kiser, Lisa Jean.
Dissertation Abstracts International 39 (1979): 4275A.
LGWP reveals the God of Love's misreading of TC and Rom. The stories that follow must be read with Alceste's self-sacrifice and resurrection in mind. With Alceste's powers of "translatio," the sinful pagan lovers rise again to live in Christian…
Dane, Joseph A.
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. 145-55.
Traces Stow's declining reputation among eighteenth- and nineteenth-century editors of Chaucer as well as a gradual revival of appreciation of Stow's edition, first among bibliophiles and later with modern Chaucerians. Dane examines the variants in…
Hines, Jessica N.
Dissertation Abstracts International A78.09 (2017): n.p.
Considers how Chaucer (in ClT, LGW, and ParsT) develops the concept of pity from European sources, and privileges the concept in English literary discourse.
The character Malyne, more complex than her fabliau antecedents, adds an ambiguous subplot to RvT. Emphasizing disorder, the subplot undercuts the theme of "retribution" in the main storyline.
Rex, Richard.
Massachusetts Studies in English 8 (1982): 20-32.
Among the hitherto unrevealed examples of subtle bawdy humor in Chaucer's poetry are many in KnT. These provide suggestive commentary on the Knight's character. The Miller's values probably come closer to Chaucer's own sentiments than do those…
Bronson, Bertrand H.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960.
Engages several critical approaches to Chaucer works and incorporates them into appreciative commentaries, with particular attention to the poet's "habit of working" or process of composition, his narrative techniques (not inorganic, but…
Brookhouse, Christopher.
Larry D. Benson, ed. The Learned and the Lewed: Studies in Chaucer and Medieval Literature. Harvard English Studies, no. 5 (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974), pp. 67-80.
Appreciative comments on BD, HF, TC, and CT, addressing their concerns with death, isolation, knowledge of self, and above all, the hman need for self-disclosure in confronting these concerns. The human need for narrative is particularly evident in…
Rissanen, Matti.
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 31 (1997): 237-48.
Compares Bo with the versions by "Alfred," Walton (1410), Colville (1556), "I. T." (1609), and Preston (1695), tracing the assimilation of sophisticated Latin terminology into English discourse.
In the Middle Dutch "Wrake van Ragisel" (adapted from the Old French "Vengeance Raguisel"), "Walewein, who is transformed into a dwarf, learns what women are exclusively led by their sexual desire," a different answer to the life question than is…
Haught, Leah.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 114 (2015): 240-60.
The Middle English romance "Amis and Amiloun" explores the complex concept of "trewth" in the fourteenth century. This essay contends that the binding oath made by childhood friends is reminiscent of the agreement of the GP pilgrims, as well as…
Kobayashi, Yoshiko.
Martha Driver, Derek Pearsall, and R. F. Yeager, eds. John Gower in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020), pp. 231–46.
Considers why Gower's verse-epistle “In Praise of Peace” was included in William Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer's works and explores possible motives and collaborations in the process of editing the poem and the volume.
Ramson, W. S.
A. P. Treweek, ed. Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association 1969. Proceedings and Papers of the Twelfth Congress Held at the University of Western Australia, 5-11 February 1969 ([Sydney]: AULLA, 1970), pp, 456-76..
Accepts that much fifteenth-century admiration of Chaucer praises his rhetoric and "ornate eloquence," but explores comments that convey wider, more sophisticated appreciation of his stylistic range and philosophical depth, considering comments by…
Item not seen. WorldCat record indicates that this is a poem composed of lines drawn from a select group of literary works, including CT and works by Kerouac, Camus, Hemingway, Pound, and more.
Hirose, Sutezo.
Hisayuki Sasamoto et al., eds. Hearts to the English-American Language and Literature: Essays Presented to Emeritus Professor Sutezo Hirose in Honour of His 88th Birthday (Osaka: Osaka Kyoiku Tosho, 1999), pp. iii-vi.
Discusses the work of J. B. Severs, the manuscript tradition of Petrarch's Griselda narrative, and the form in which it would have been accessible to Chaucer.
Friedman, Bonita.
David Chamberlain, ed. New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems (Lanham, Md.; New York; and London: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 173-90.
Thought to be the work of Chaucer until the 1870s, "The Court of Love" manipulates the conventions of love lyric and allegory, including several details from LGW, PF, and Pity. Such manipulation produces humor, depicting Philogenet as a kind of…
Wallace, David.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 19 (1997): 63-91.
Summarizes the political, economic, and social aspects of late-medieval Flanders and evokes a sense of English attitudes toward them. Chaucer's references and allusions to Flanders and Flemings in GP, Th, ShT, PardT, and CT anticipate the more…
Argues that the Summoner "triumphs over" the Friar in their tale-telling competition, revealing his greater intelligence and competence, but also indicating that his social success discloses a more fundamental "malignancy and egotism." Compares the…
Keiser, George R.
Chaucer Review 12 (1978): 191-201.
The arrangement of CT proposed by Henry Bradshaw a century ago solves the problems of geography and the Endlink to MLT which are present in the Ellesmere arrangement. Recent arguments against the Bradshaw shift offer no real evidence to reject it.
Olsen, Alexandra Hennessey.
Geardagum 08 (1987): 1-12.
Critics have argued that Chaucer intended the reader to view Criseyde as a woman destined to be a whore, Diomede as an unscrupulous seducer, and Troilus as an ideal knight. But if a fourteenth-century view is adopted, Diomede can be viewed in a…
