Crane, Susan.
Robert Boenig and Kathleen Davis, eds. Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon: Essays on Literary and Cultural Transmission in Honor of Whitney F. Bolton (Lewisburg, Penn: Bucknell University Press; and London: Associated University Presses, 2000), pp. 17-44.
Argues that scribe John Duxworth, rather than his patron Jean d'Angoulême, was the guiding intelligence behind the execution of the Paris manuscript of CT (Ps) and that his revisions and errors are consistent with the habits of other scribes who…
Describes the advantages of close reading of Chaucer's lyrics and shorter poems, examining ABC and Ros in detail for their riches of prosody, tone, structure, and meaning, with attention to narrative voice.
Markus, Manfred.
Dieter Kastovsky and Arthur Mettinger, eds. Language Contact in the History of English (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2001), pp. 217-31.
Markus examines several features of Chaucer's spelling--digraphs, vowel doubling, "ee" versus "e"--drawing data from ParsT and arguing that inconsistencies in vowel-doubling are related to vowel length's "having lost its former phonemic identity."…
Reiss, Edmund.
Jean-Jacques Blanchot and Claude Graf, eds. Actes du 2e Colloque de langue et de litterature ecossaises (moyen age et renaissance) (Universite de Strasbourg, 1978), pp. 326-38.
Dunbar's so-called autobiographical references are comparable to Chaucer's references to himself in his poetry. Also Dunbar's references employ conventions that may be found in Chaucer.
Quinn, William A.
Essays in Criticism 61.3 (2011): 215-31.
Studies fame, death, and related motifs in William Dunbar's "Lament for the Makars" ("Timor Mortis"), including comments on his echoes of and references to Chaucer.
Bawcutt, Priscilla.
Notes and Queries 209 (1964): 332-33.
Observes that William Dunbar ridicules sexual impotence by means of the image of a dog ineffectively lifting its leg and maintains that the image and its implications derive from the "striking (and probably original)" use in ParsT 10.858,
King, Pamela M.
Studies in Scottish Literature 19 (1984): 115-31. Available at https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol19/iss1/10. Reprinted in Pamela M. King and Alexandra Johnston, eds. Readings Texts for Performance and Performances as Texts (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 89-101.
Related to court pageantry, "The Golden Targe" is important politically. Imagery suggests courtly origins and borrowings from Chaucer and the masque.
D'Agata D'Ottavi, Stefania.
Marco Fazzini, ed. Alba Literaria: A History of Scottish Literature (Venice: Amos Edizioni, 2005), pp. 45-63.
Chaucer's four dream poems, especially PF and LGWP (both the F and G versions) are sources of Dunbar's "Golden Targe," although Dunbar's imagery owes much to CT, Anel, and Rom. Dunbar seeks innovation within tradition, and the praise he bestows on…
Bawcutt, Priscilla J.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Surveys what is known of the life and context of William Dunbar, and discusses his canon and language, focusing on Dunbar's range of genres and his idea of himself as a poet or "makar." Comments frequently on Dunbar's debt to Chaucer (and others),…
Bawcutt, Priscilla.
Caroline Macafee and Iseabail Macleod, eds. The Nuttis Schell: Essays on the Scots Language Presented to A. J. Aitken. (Aberdeen, Scotland: Aberdeen University, 1987), pp. 54-61.
Lexicographical study of Dunbar with occasional reference to Chaucer.
Dalton, John Paul.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60: 121A, 1999.
In his love visions, Chaucer initially claims to be stupefied by love and love poetry. Dalton analyzes this topos-deriving from many sources, including Boethius, the Roman de la Rose, and poems of Machaut-in BD, HF, PF, and TC.
Assesses Spenser's Duessa in light of WBT and its Middle English analogues, exploring how Spenser turned the Irish sovereignty motif against the Irish.
Gingell, Susan, and Tara Chambers.
English Studies in Canada 40.04 (2014): 79-106.
Analyzes "womanist dubbing" of male-authored texts, including WBP, that represents Afrasporic women's sexuality. Breeze's "sexually frank" poems, "The Wife of Bath Speaks in Brixton Market," and "Slam Poems," are set in the Caribbean, but share…
Dauby, Hélène.
Adrian Papahagi, ed. Métamorphoses (Paris: Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 2003), pp. 183-95.
Dauby examines the transformations from living characters to artifacts and vice versa, the interplay between life and art. A comparative study of "Sir Degrevant," Lancelot, the Tristan legend, and poems by Chaucer leads to a typology of the…
Compares and contrasts John Dryden's description of Zimri in "Absalom and Achitophel" with Chaucer's description of the Pardoner in GP, emphasizing the "fine tension" between "precision and . . . universality" in the latter, and remarking on how…
Reads Dryden's version of WBT (from his "Fables") and his comments on the tale as reflections of his sensitivity to Chaucer's wit, humor, "genial irony," "gentle sarcasm," and especially his clever juxtapositions--the "imaginative setting of one…
Summarizes John Dryden's theory of translation in his "Fables Ancient and Modern," and explores the discrepancy between this theory and his practice in his translations of KnT, NPT, and WBT, all of which "violate the spirit of their originals."
Spector, R. D.
Notes and Queries 201 (1956): 23-24.
Compares and contrasts examples of diction in Dryden's translations of CT to explain why Dryden did not translate the low-style fabliaux and to show that Dryden's translations of Chaucer's humorous passages evince metaphysical wit rather than the…
Includes discussion of the treatment of KnT, WBT, NPT, and "The Floure and the Leafe" in Dryden's "Fables Ancient and Modern," arguing that he adjusted his sources to suit his neo-classical audience.
Examines the role of Dryden's conversion to Roman Catholicism in his literary career, with reference to his adaptations of Chaucer, expecially his recasting of the Parson.
In the opening poem of "Fables Ancient and Modern," Dryden draws a parallel between himself and Chaucer. The "fairest Nymph" in that parallel should be identified as the Duchess of Lancaster, as proposed by Walter Scott in 1808, rather than Joan of…
Mason, Tom.
Translation & Literature 16.1 (2007): 1-28.
Documents Dryden's wide-ranging allusiveness in his adaptation of NPT and comments on the reception of this version, arguing that "The Cock and the Fox" presents a delicate balance between praise and blame of humanity.
Dryden's alterations of Chaucer's narrative division, versification, motif and thematic emphasis, and character portrayal follow his avowed principles of translation. But his alterations in the "spirit" of Chaucer's tale violate one of his important…
The Augustans were the last English poets to possess enough confidence in their own idiom to attempt to make Chaucer their contemporary. Dryden's modernization of Chaucer was intended to achieve verisimilitude for his 17th-century audience. It…
