Beichner, Paul E.
Mediaeval Studies 18 (1956): 135-44.
Includes examination of the verbal play on praying and belching in SumT 3.1934, arguing that the pun is effective satire even when manuscripts (including the Ellesmere) substitute "but" for the onomatopoetic "buf." Considers other puns…
Describes grammatical and metrical conditions that restrict or encourage pronunciation of final -e at the end of lines in Chaucer's verse. Introduces double-consonant rhymes as a previously unnoticed factor in these concerns, explores their…
Stillwell, Gardiner.
English Studies 37 (1956): 149-57.
Maintains that Chaucer indicates that there is a "single theme" in HF, arguing that "Distrust of worldly felicity . . . is Chaucer's 'o sentence'," and hypothesizing that the poem "was written for a New Year's entertainment." Cites several…
Trimble, Lester., composer.
No publisher indicated, 1956.
Item not seen. WorldCat record indicates this is a printed reproduction for rehearsal, for four male voices. Evidently a musical setting for KnT 1.2775ff.
Hazelton, Richard Marquard.
Dissertation Abstracts 16 (1956)
Edits "two glossed texts" of the "Disticha Catonis," constructed for use by students of Chaucer, Langland, and Gower. The Introduction juxtaposes passages from their poetry with "Catonian materials" to indicate the "poets' indebtedness" to the text…
Kleinstück, Johannes Walter.
Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter & Co., 1956.
Surveys courtly virtues in Chaucer ("courtoisie," "franchise," "gentillesse," "honour," "joie," "pitie," etc.) and the vices which are grounded in pride and the pursuits of fortune. Focuses on KnT when examining the virtues and on the fabliaux for…
Schless, Howard H.
Dissertation Abstracts 16.09 (1956): 1675.
Comments on Chaucer's possible access to Dante's works before traveling to Italy in 1372, and explores the "literary relationship of the two writers," arguing that "Chaucer drew on Dante not heavily but over many years," principally for the Ugolino…
Tornwall, William Allen.
Dissertation Abstracts 16.09 (1956): 1676.
Ranges throughout Chaucer's corpus, exploring imagery in a wide variety of works, arranged in five chapters: "Chaucer's Imagery and the Colors of Rhetoric," "The Appropriateness of the Subject Matter in Chaucer's Imagery," "Chaucer's Treatment of…
Wilson, Herman Pledger.
Dissertation Abstracts 16.11 (1956): 2154.
Identifies the "characteristics" of Chaucer's prose style in Bo, Mel, ParT, and Astr, comparing and contrasting them, and arguing that his reputation as a prose stylist has suffered because of linguistic changes and changes in taste.
Neville, Mark A., and Max J. Herzberg, eds.
Chicago: Rand McNally, 1956.
Illustrated anthology of English literature and literary criticism from Old English into the twentieth century, with a section entitled "The Time of Chaucer" that includes NPT and PardT, along with "Interesting Sidelights," "The Royal Tree," and "The…
Hartung, Albert E.
Ph.D. Dissertation. Lehigh University, 1957. Fully accessible via ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global and at https://preserve.lehigh.edu/lehigh-scholarship/graduate-publications-theses-dissertations/theses-dissertations/study-textual.
Compares "the accepted and variant readings of 'Melibeus' with the corresponding passages in the French source, 'Le Livre de Melibee et Prudence'," assessing variants from fifty-seven manuscriptsof Mel and arguing that there was "an earlier version…
Cawley, A. C.
Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society (Literary and Historical Section) 8 (1956-1957): 173-80.
Assesses "unsavory" details of the GP description of the Summoner, the "bad feeling" between the Friar and the Summoner (WBP 3.829ff. and FrP 1265ff.), and concerns that link the GP Summoner and the summoner of FrT, clarifying the Friar's "attack" on…
Olson, Paul A.
Dissertation Abstracts 19.10 (1959): 2603.
Places the medieval "Jaloux tale" in "its philosophic and historical framework," rooted in the marriage controversies of Sts. Augustine and Jerome with the Pelagians, Manichee, and Jovinians Traces the tradition in French humanists of the twelfth and…
Barnes, John, producer.
Morrison, Theodore, collaborator.
United States:] Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1957. Also released in VHS and DVD. YouTube version available at https://www.youtube.com/live/vJEVRxYDJz0?app=desktop&t=262s; accessed June 28, 2024.
Brief introduction to Chaucer, his age, and his language, with samples in Middle English and modern translation, followed by a dramatization of adapted portions of GP and PardPT, in stylized modern English, prose and verse.
Bennett, J. A. W.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. 2d ed. 1965.
Reads PF as a thematic exploration of Christian love infused with Neoplatonic thought and imagery, and influenced by Cicero, Macrobius, Alain de Lille, John de Meun, and Dante. Demonstrates the poem's tight verbal structure and its allusiveness,…
Bland, D. S.
[London] Times Literary Supplement April 26, 1957, p. 264.
Suggests that Chaucer was in 1345-46, with several rejoinders in ensuing correspondence: Margaret Galway, May 10, p. 289 and July 12, p. 427; C. E. Welch, May 17, p 305; and G. C. G. Hall, June 28, p. 397.
Argues that the Host's mention of "half-wey pryme" in RvP 1.3906 refers to the canonical hour of prime rather than "modern clock time" and means 6:30 am, rather than 7:30 as it is often explained. Compares other chronological references in CT…
Assesses the "artistic role" in TC of the narrator--a commentator and a "historian [who] meticulously maintains a distance between himself and the events in the story." Explores "temporal, spatial, aesthetic, and religious" devices in the poem…