Browse Items (16048 total)

The lament for the dead is a literary form that critics have found difficult to appreciate, even in Chaucer. The book sketches the sociocultural background in medieval England in connection with older traditions, native, biblical, Greco-Roman,…

Compares RvT with its analogue in Boccaccio's "Decameron" and with the Middle High German "Studentenabenteuer," exploring their concerns with disorder and its effects.

Argues that Chaucer's depiction of fame in HF is skeptical, emphasizing its dependence upon fortune, and arguing that it is more similar to Montaigne's notion of glory than to those of Dante or Petrarch.

German verse translation of CT in iambic tetrameter.

Examines the narrative devices of WBP, classifying the Wife's oaths, metaphors, logic, euphemisms, and proverbs and suggesting that her appropriations of these traditional devices underpin her broader challenge to male authority.

Facing-page translation (Middle English verse/German prose) of selections from the CT, with introductions, commentaries, and bibliographies. Includes GP, KnT, MilT, WBPT, FranT, PardPT, and NPT. Translations by Bergner, Waltraud Böttcher, Günter…

German translation of CT, with notes and glosses,originally produced by Adolf von Düring as part of his three-volume "Geoffrey Chaucers Werke" (Strassburg, 1883-86). Hoevel's edition was reissued in 1974.

German translation of CT, with introduction and notes.

An introduction to the phonetics and phonology of Chaucer's language in two parts: first, the reconstruction of the phonetic and phonemic system of Chaucer's English and its diachronic development; second, the text of GP with a phonetic…

Examines structural and thematic roles of the Ceyx and Alcyone episode in BD, the Dido episode in HF, and the Dream of Scipio in PF.

An examination of the source, Machaut's "Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne," proves that the Knight's and the Dreamer's mutual lack of understanding--which serves a powerful dramatic purpose--stems from differences in social background and rank.

Assesses the characterizations of Dido in HF, LGW, and William Caxton's "Eneydos," analyzing their direct discourse and representations of mental state as examples of how premodern authors present well-known figures from the literary past. Chaucer's…

Chaucer's Dido, Emelye, and Custance differ from their respective literary ancestors. In each case, Chaucer gives to his heroine a significant speech or set of speeches that subverts the narrative in which she appears, counterpointing the dominant…

By deliberate excision lines 1188-1203 of LGW can be reduced from decasyllables to octosyllables, illustrating the different effects of the lines, especially the longer "breath" of the decasyllable.

Argues that Don Juan Manuel's "El Conde Lucanor" and Chaucer's CT have many parallels and that CT may have been influenced by Manuel's work. Explores the presence of both authors in Spain and compares their didactic methods and their many…

Witnesses' statements and other court documents concerning marriage litigation in the Northern Province (including the dioceses of York, Lincoln, Chester, and others) indicate that many lay people would have known the stipulations of canon law well…

Both Donne ("The Sun Rising") and Chaucer (TC 3.1415-1527) were familiar with Ovid's Amores 1.13), but Chaucer may well have influenced the Renaissance poet directly. Such intertextual issues are complicated by the fact that Renaissance editors had…

Traces two medieval constructions of Nature as goddess: the antifeminist tradition that runs from Alan de Lille through Jean de Meun to Chaucer's PF, and the relatively profeminist legacy of Heldris of Cornwall ("Roman de Silence") and Christine de…

Chaucer's many references to Rome in CT reflect an interest that originated in a visit there. In particular, classical associations and the decoration of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere illuminate the style and meaning of SNT. A visit to Rome may have…

Studying CT alongside early and late versions of the Wycliffite Bible reveals examples of Chaucer's nearly direct quotations from LV and of his sympathy with developments in translation theory from EV to LV, which favored more idiomatic renderings of…

Bestul reexamines the relevant evidence and shows that Chaucer lived at 179 Upper Thames Street rather than at 177. The study illuminates the history of scholarly politics and of conflicting "historical paradigms" behind the 1966 "Chaucer…

Chaucer's allusion to the legendary Welsh bard Glascurion in HF (line 1209) is paralleled by details that survive in the traditional ballad "Glasgerion," or "Glen Kindy." Echoes of the ballad tradition are also found in Gavin Douglas's "The Palice of…

Explores intertextual relations among versions of the Virginia / Virginius story (by Livy, Bersuire, Gower, and Chaucer), focusing on how the depiction of Virginia's mother in both Gower and Chaucer "offers a broader semblance of propriety by…

The entry on Chaucer (pp. 213-15, written by Paul Bacquet) summarizes the poet's life and comments on his language, his prosody, and the importance of CT.

Surveys the making of English, German, Latin, and Greek dictionaries from 1500 to 1650, including the contributions of Franciscus Junius (among others). Discusses the unpublished manuscript of Junius's glossary to Chaucer and the place of Chaucer's…