Browse Items (16012 total)

Examines Horatian influence on works ranging from the Exeter Book to Langland, Gower, and Fragments VIII and IX of CT.

Argues that the repetition of the word "entente" in FrT affects the Tale's "characterization, plotting, and pervasive irony," and indicates "one of the fundamental theological dimensions of the piece"--disguised evil.

Discusses "erotic desire and the motif of going on pilgrimage" in the opening of GP and in Shakespeare's Sonnets, reading Chaucer's lines 1–18 closely as a kind of sonnet and observing numerological patterns that reinforce a transition from erotic…

Challenges scribal and editorial choices to use "swyve" at ManT, 256, where the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts (and two others) have some form of "et cetera," arguing that the latter is "likely an example of authorial play." Gauges the meanings,…

Studies shifting perspectives on love, marriage, and honor in FranT and WBT.

Concentrates on Damian in MerT to show how the tale links critique of hierarchical marriage to critique of medieval estates theory. Contends that the tale counters
problems with vertical governance through horizontal governance.

Analyzes how May in MerT and the wife in ShT "evade the oppressions" of marriage and "subvert their subjugation through negotiating and challenging the mercantile narration." Each female protagonist "generates her own meanings and pleasure."

Reads "The Isle of Ladies" for its "covert feminine resistance," arguing that such resistance is evident through the "divided, ambivalent lens" of the half-asleep dream vision of a city of ladies--perhaps influenced by Christine de Pizan's "Le livre…

Notes that Chaucer's treatment of the daisy in LGW differs from his typical use of flower imagery. Recognizes parallels between the daisy in LGW and its narrator Geffrey, notes differences between the narrator(s) of the F prologue and the G prologue,…

Focuses on how Chaucer influenced the writings of Cotton Mather, Anne Bradstreet, and Nathaniel Ward in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century New England.

Extends discussions of ClT as a "political fable," focusing on the theme of common profit and on the Clerk as a philosopher, assessing both in light of Bo as an "account of the philosopher's duty to the common profit." Rejects the "Griseldean values…

Argues that Cicero's "Somnium Scipionis" "had a much greater impact" on BD, PF, and especially HF than is usually acknowledged, showing that Cicero's themes and imagery permeate Chaucer's works and dominate his literary imagination for "some ten…

Maps out the way in which anger and community are depicted in different versions of Philomela's rape, displaying the power that is represented in this anger and community, before linking this history of female anger to contemporary artists, such as…

Uses the concept of "semyvif " (half-alive) to examine "Piers Plowman," the "Tale of Beryn," TC, SNT, and "Morte Darthur" for ways that they broaden "our historical understanding of disability and its conceptual range."

Suggests that "for the nones" in LGWP (F 292-96 and G 194-98), rather than meaning "for the occasion," refers to the canonical hour of Nones, i.e., for the ritual of the "celebration of Nones."

Considers the young child who watches the wife and monk in ShT, arguing that Chaucer's construction of narrative perspective, which the child embodies, anticipates more modern handling of narrative perspective, including that of Henry James.

Argues for a "plain and straightforward" (i.e., non-ironical) reading of a portion of Canacee's falcon's complaint in SqT, disagreeing with a previous discussion of the passage by Robert S. Haller.

Reinforces suggestions that the Black Knight's age at BD 455 should be emended to "nine and twenty yer" to coincide with the age of John of Gaunt at Blanche's death, justifiable because of evidence that twenty-nine years was considered to be young in…

Adduces details from the Old French "Floire et Blancheflor, Version 1" as evidence that Chaucer's "catalogue of magical accomplishments" in FranT 5.1139-51 was commonplace, i.e., part of a well-known tradition, deployed by the Franklin to outdo the…

Describes a change in Chaucer's "linguistic fame" from fifteenth-century praise of his rhetoric and aureate diction to sixteenth-century admiration of his plain speaking: a shift that reflects the early modern "Inkhorn Controversy" and efforts to…

Compares Chaucer's Pandarus with Boccaccio's Pandaro, arguing that "that Pandarus so loves Troilus that he consummates his passion vicariously on Criseyde, telling lies which kill the affair before the lady leaves Troy." The "cues" for this…

Treats Pandarus as a figure or personification of lust in TC, counterpointing courtly love as manifested in Troilus. Examines Pandarus's rhetoric, along with Troilus's and Criseyde's interpretations of it, arguing that Chaucer's use of allegory is…

Explains complications in defining "furlong wey" when it refers to time rather than distance, and examines Chaucer's several uses of the term to argue that it means "a short time, sometimes very short, sometimes only fairly short.

Explores multiple meanings of "game"--as transgression, violent activity, pleasure, source of food--in "Gamelyn " (which takes the place of CkT in several texts of CT). Identifies idea of boundaries (legal and social) and punning on the name of…

Focuses on Chaucer's rhetoric and presents a chapter targeted at students, with an "aim to persuade the student of the richness and literary fertility of Chaucer's rhetorical culture." Offers background of contemporary scholarship on Chaucer and…