Includes links to verse modernizations of CT (Mel and ParsT excerpted in prose) TC, the Dream Poems, and various lyrics, imitating Chaucer's meter and rhyme schemes; translated and uploaded 2007-2008.
Lomperis, Linda Susan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2688A.
CT is read as an experiment in allegory in the sense of Isidore of Seville's "alieniloquium." The School of Chartres, the "Cosmographia" of Bernardus Silvestris, and Guillaume de Lorris contribute to the techniques of tension between rhetoric and…
Spearing, A. C., and J. E. Spearing, eds.
London: Edward Arnold, 1974.
An anthology of Middle English verse, with individual introductions and facing-page glosses and notes. The General Introduction (pp. 1-40) considers prosody and poetic techniques, genres, and various linguistic concerns. Includes FrT (discussed as…
Kader, David, and Michael Stanford, eds.
Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2010.
Includes the GP description of the Sergeant of the Law (ll. 309-30) in an anthology of 100 lyrics and poetic excerpts that pertain to lawyers and legal practice. Brief notes at the end of the work.
Includes comments on Chaucer's use of "deliberate space" in MerB and rhyme royal in TC, along with more extended discussion of the variety of voices and registers in CT, in which Chaucer "makes the pleasure and purpose of story-telling the very…
Grahame, Lucia, and Bob Taylor.
Wheeling, Ill.: Film Ideas, 2008.
Includes biographies of Homer, John Milton, Omar Khayyám, and Chaucer. The latter (approximately seven minutes) comments on Chaucer's life and works, accompanied by visual materials.
Edwards, David L.
London : Darton, Longman, and Todd, 2005.
Appreciative criticism of seven major poets, aware of academic theory (formalist, psychoanalytic, feminist) but addressed to a nonacademic audience. Chapter 1, "Chaucer" (pp. 1-33), considers Chaucer's characterization, moral tolerance, comedy,…
Forhan, Kate L.
Henrik Syse and Gregory M. Reichberg, eds. Ethics, Nationalism, and Just War: Medieval and Contemporary Perspectives (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 2007), pp. 99-116.
Forhan summarizes the "dynastic quarrel" of the Hundred Years' War and describes the pacifist recommendations as prudent in Chaucer's Mel and in several works by Christine de Pizan. Treats the two writers as "catalysts" in the late medieval…
Meyer-Lee, Robert J.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Many causes contributed to the change in climate, particularly Bolingbroke's seizure of the throne from Richard II in 1399 and the concomitant changes in relationships between princes and poets, between poets and audiences, and between audiences and…
Green, Richard Firth.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
Treats the modus vivendi of medieval poet in the context of the king's intimate circle, the literate court, the court of love, the writer as adviser or court apologist.
Kane, George.
Daniel Donoghue, James Simpson, and Nicholas Watson, eds. The Morton W. Bloomfield Lectures, 1989-2005 (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2010), pp. 1-19.
The first of the Bloomfield lectures. Traces the impact of "hamartiology" (the study of sin and crisis) in Langland's "Piers Plowman" and Chaucer's CT, especially in GP and the fabliaux. Estates satire, penitential handbooks, and other examples of…
Ransom, Daniel J.
Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1985.
Ransom demonstrates "the ironic tone of four Harley poems," reveals "the parodic intention (ambiguities, incongruities, exaggerations) that underlies that tone," and discovers irony in other Harley lyrics. Includes various references to and…
Scanlon, Larry.
Fiona Somerset and Nicholas Watson, eds. The Vulgar Tongue: Medieval and Postmedieval Vernacularity (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), pp. 220-56.
Scanlon considers contemporary ideas of vernacular literature and its potential for "subversiveness" through incompleteness, focusing on the concept of "poet laureate" as introduced into English by Chaucer in ClT and on the interdependence of…
Brown, Murray.
R. Barton Palmer, ed. Chaucer's French Contemporaries: The Poetry/Poetics of Self and Tradition (New York: AMS Press, 1999), pp. 187-215
Deschamps's "Ballade" dates from Sir Lewis Clifford's diplomatic mission to the French court in 1391, when France and England were closer to peace than they had been in almost a decade. Both Chaucer and Deschamps were associated with the Order of the…
Greenwood, Maria Katarzyna.
Colette Stévanovitch and René Tixier, eds. Surface et profondeur: Mélanges offerts à Guy Bourquin à l'occasion de son 75e anniversaire (Nancy: Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 2003), pp. 179-98.
Piety and pathos heighten the impact of PrT and promote the narrator's reputation for religious correctness, yet all aspects of her Tale are undermined by pointlessness. Greenwood argues that the Tale is dialogistic and Menippean; a satirical subtext…
Greenwood, M. K. Smolenska.
Guy Bourquin, ed. Hier et aujourd'hui: Points de vue sur le moyen age anglais (Nancy: Association des Medievistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Superieur, 1997),: pp. 45-55.
KnT creates puzzling effects. Chaucer's subversion of several issues (genre, nobility, love, wisdom) highlights their absurdity.
Hallissy, Margaret.
Essays in Arts and Sciences 10 (1981): 31-39.
Chaucer draws on the medical and literary traditions about poison current in his day. In KnT, Arcite's love for Emelye is pictured as a deadly infection.
Hallissy, Margaret.
Massachusetts Studies in English 9 (1983): 54-63.
In PardT details from poison lore add to the sophistication with which Chaucer develops the central paradox of the tale: the Pardoner as a channel of grace despite his evil character.
Magnani, Roberta.
Medieval Feminist Forum 50 (2014): 90-126.
Discusses Emily's subjectivity and "empowered devotional femininity" in KnT. Contends that Chaucer's "queer hermeneutics" adjusts "traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity" within KnT.
Dor, Juliette.
A. J. Tops, Betty Devriendt, and Steven Geukens, eds. Thinking English Grammar: To Honour Xavier Dekeyser, Professor Emeritus (Leuven: Peeters, 1999), pp. 33-40.
Lexicographical information on sely is inconsistent and often based on the assumption that there was no historical overlap between "pious-good" and "foolish-simple." Chaucer's uses of the term capitalize on uncertainty of tone in LGW, making it…
Eun, Hyesoon Lim.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 493A-494A.
Nouns of address and the two second-person forms offer clues to perceptions of rank, ideals, and tone, as well as to characterization. Chaucer and the "Gawain"-poet exploit linguistic resources brilliantly.
Burrow, J. A.
Anne Marie D'Arcy and Alan J. Fletcher, eds. Studies in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Texts in Honour of John Scattergood (Dublin: Four Courts, 2005), pp. 65-75.
Explores the concept of "civil inattention" ("a desire not to intrude on privacy") as it helps to explain the behavior of the dreamer toward the Black Knight in BD. The concept is described in modern sociology and occurs in several medieval romances…
Sell, Roger D.
Studia Neophilologica 57 (1985): 175-85.
Stylistic or linguistic thickening is a key to meaning, as in selectional politeness. Abrupt shifts of topic, disruption of narrative frames, and lack of deference to the reader's expectations make MilT more "impolite."
