Browse Items (15544 total)

“This study aims to offer a new literary biography of Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632) and demonstrates the ways in which he refashions his principal source, Geoffrey Chaucer.” Includes attention to Dekker’s uses of ClT, WBT, and ideas of “game” and…

Describes and analyzes a deed of property conveyance indicative of the complex relations and interactions among Thomas Chaucer, Richard Wyot, William Paston, Sir John Fastolf, John, duke of Bedford, and others. Compares Thomas Chaucer's appended seal…

Contrasts the printing history of Gower's "Confessio Amantis" with that of CT, describing how Berthelette's 1532 printing the "Confessio"--the only edition between Caxton and the nineteenth century--contributed to the critical privileging of Chaucer…

Impartially uses documents, including fifteen contemporary accounts.

Excerpted from Chaucer's LGW and thus lacking a narrative frame, the Legend of Thisbe in the Findern manuscript leaves room for the assumption that the manuscript's female readers saw Thisbe "as simply a victim." The excerpt's codicological context,…

Item not seen. WorldCat records indicate that this is an historical novel, set in 1398, when in response to an upcoming duel between Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, Chaucer decides to keep a journal of events.

Twelve studies on historical linguistics, Anglo-Saxon studies, and Middle English literature. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for This Noble Craft under Alternative Title.

Compares Troilus's speech on free will and predestination (TC 4) with John Walton's poetic exposition of the source passage in Boethius 5, prose 3. Aware of TC, Walton "competes" with Chaucer and better succeeds in clearly rendering the nuances of…

In light of medieval commentary on sound, the fart at the end of SumT allows a wide range of "physical, political, social, clerical, and intellectual" reverberations, particularly ones associated with the Peasants' Uprising of 1381. Travis also…

Chaucer's use of the Ovidian source of ManT, insisting on the tale of the crow--and not the connecting tale of the raven--allows him to argue for the "potentially treacherous nature of language" and to lead smoothly into Ret. The influence of Ovid is…

Thirty-five essays by various authors on English and comparative linguistics, arranged in four groups: geographic and diachronic variation, "Synchronic Description and Theory, "Grammars from the Past," and "Language Contrast and Teaching." For two…

Rogers and Dower review considerations of money and its circulation in ShT, questioning whether Chaucer praises or blames money or whether the topic was as mixed for him as it is today.

Illustrated social history of late-medieval England for a juvenile audience, with occasional references to Chaucer.

The tragedies of MkT resist any overarching "metahistorical paradigm" and thus reflect Jean-Francois Lyotard's definition of postmodernism. The Monk is a "serious-minded humanist with a bent toward postmodernism."

Considers the relations among jokes and short stories, focusing on MilT as a "well-made" short story and regarding the Reeve's response as evidence of the social balance accomplished through jokes and fiction.

The public ceremonies--the triumph, trial by battle, and the state funeral--underlining the Knight's conversion of romance into figurative narrative suggest that the public personality of Theseus, the ruler, is the dominant personality in KnT.

Examines various possible sources for Shakespeare's play, including KnT, arguing that such sources must be considered in light of the audience's perception.

Surveys relations between female literary characters and labyrinths from mythic accounts to Lady Mary Worth's "Pamphilia to Amphilanthus," commenting on Virgil's "Aeneid," Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," Dante's "Commedia," WBPT, and the…

The keywords to determine Theseus's roles in KnT are "lord," "governour," "conquerour," "hunter," "servant," and "judge." Theseus is analogous to Mars, Venus, and Diana, as "conquerour," "servant," and "hunter," symbolized in his construction of the…

Assesses Theseus in KnT as a character who is capable of anger, self-centeredness, pity, reason, restraint, and charity, considering him in light of Boethian philosophy and Boccaccio's characterization of Teseo in the "Teseida." Central to Chaucer's…

Greenwood examines the meaning of "manly" as applied to the character of Theseus in KnT.

A universal theme of metamorphosis, compelled or voluntary, relates to both the natural mutability of human life and the boundaries and hierarchies set by society, as shown in four texts ranging from KnT (Actaeon) through Gower's Ovidian passages,…

Briefly surveys the history of medieval nunneries, the typical responsibilities of a prioress, and critical attitudes toward the Prioress and PrT.

Includes thirteen New Historicist essays as examples of "practical theory," discussing how various historical and literary texts can be seen to reveal more than they say. Topics include legal proceedings, various aspects of Lollardy, John Capgrave's…

Surveys eighteenth-century translations of portions of Chaucer's CT, examining Ogle's translation of ClT as an example in which the translator adapted the original to contemporary taste. Ogle's Walter and Griselda are a couple with human feelings…