Renoir, Alain.
Studia Neophilologica 32 (1960): 14-17.
Argues that medieval connections between stories of the sieges of Thebes and of Troy make the reference to Thebes at TC 2.83-84 a "masterstroke of supreme irony": directed at both Criseyde and Pandarus, the irony complicates aspects of predestination…
Anderson, David.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 4 (1982): 109-33.
Chaucer's uses of the events of the "Thebaid" depend for their significance upon an historical perspective that placed the seige and destruction of Thebes" before that of Troy; thus, Chaucer uses Theban material in "satirical counterpoint" to the…
By cryptic genealogic allusions, Chaucer challenges his readers to perceive parallels between the fraternal conflict of Palamon and Arcite and the similar disastrous divisiveness that troubled their forebears, notably Eteocles and Polynices.
Giaccherini, Enrico.
European Medieval Drama 2: 85-98, 1998.
Argues that oral/aural and visual aspects of MilT mark it as particularly theatrical, especially in its division of action into upper (John in the tub) and lower (bedroom scene) stages. Similarly, other fabliaux such as RvT and Dame Sirith share…
Barrington, Candace
Gail Ashton and Daniel T. Kline, eds. Medieval Afterlives in Popular Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 13-28.
Asserts that PrT "depends upon, and perpetrates, the worst stereotypes of Jews," and assesses thirty-two YouTube dramatizations and adaptations of the tale (posted 2006–11) as evidence of its contemporary reception among high school audiences,…
"The Plowman's Tale" was regularly included in editions of CT from William Thynne's second edition in 1542 until Thomas Tyrwhitt's 1778 edition. Various qualities of the tale might have led sixteenth-century readers to accept the poem as Chaucer's:…
Baldwin, R. G.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 61 (1962): 232-43.
Considers the implications of treating the Canon (CYP and CYT, Part I) and the canon (CYT, Part II) as the same character, exploring the unity of the prologue and parts, and assessing the characterization of the canon(s), the Canon's Yeoman, and his…
Thompson, Kenneth J.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 1 (2020): 55-69.
Corrects errors in the discussion of the Knight's Yeoman in criticism by offering a discussion of the Yeoman and his weapons in GP, and “contextualizes the peacock fletching of the Yeoman's arrows by explicating birdwing anatomy, the appearance of…
Schleicher, Frank N.
Essays in Medieval Studies 3: 60-77, 1986.
Assesses CYPT as an example of confession and contrasts it with SNT, demonstrating their different kinds of "bisynesse." By placing CYPT near the end of CT, Chaucer invites comparison between alchemy and poetry.
Pollard, Anthony J.
Stephen H. Rigby, ed., with the assistance of Alastair J. Minnis. Historians on Chaucer: The "General Prologue" to the "Canterbury Tales" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 77-93.
Explains the role of the "yeoman in medieval society," providing different interpretations for understanding the social significance of Chaucer's Yeoman.
Faulkner, Nancy.
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958.
Historical novel for juvenile readers, set in London in 1381. Follows the growing romantic friendship between Kate, serving maid to Chaucer in his Aldgate residence, and a young commoner, Adam, who chooses to remain in London after the Uprising…
Lerer, Seth, ed.
New Haven, Conn., and London : Yale University Press, 2006.
An introduction and ten essays by various authors, with several appendices (chronology, a guide to textual studies, order and pattern within CT, and maps), plus a bibliography and an index. Aimed at an American audience, the volume seeks to "combine…
Observes legal implications in the Clerk's reference to the Wife of Bath's "secte" (oath-helpers or compurgators), and suggests that the reference "functions to interanimate" the Wife's, Clerk's, and Merchant's shared views of female mastery.
Fleming, Donna.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 128-34.
Reads WBP in light of a dictionary definition of "narcissism."
Puhvel, Martin.
Studia Neophilologica 53 (1981): 101-106.
Similarities in the career of Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny, Ireland, and Chaucer's Alice suggest that the case against the former may have influenced Chaucer's portrait. Alice Kyteler was married four times and was accused of carnal relations with a…
Thiebaux, Marcelle, trans. and introd.
New York and London: Garland, 1987.
Presents translations of the "literature of medieval women from the fourth to the fourteenth century in a wide variety of genres: letters, travel accounts, lyrics, and religious works. Writers include Egeria, Dhuoda, Hrotswitha, Anna Comnena, Marie…
Miller, Jacqueline T.
Chaucer Review 17 (1982): 95-115.
A focus on book 1 of this dream poem shows the poet moving among several attitudes toward authority: they include meek acceptance and assertion of the author's own independence of it.
Crane, Susan.
Barbara A. Hanawalt, ed. Chaucer's England: Literature in Historical Context (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992), pp. 201-21.
Asserts the importance of assaults on written documents in the so-called Peasants' Revolt of 1381, exploring the hegemony that writing represented to the rebels. Assesses how Langland's revisions of Piers Plowman reflect his concerns with the…
Lee, J. Seth.
In The Discourse of Exile in Early Modern English Literature (New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 15-33.
Treats Nicholas Trevet's, John Gower's, and Chaucer's tales of Constance as seriatim clarifications of "mens exili" (the mind of exile) in preparation for discussing relations between "exilic experience" and "national formation and nationalistic…
Dunleavy, Gareth W.
Papers on Language and Literature 3, supplement (1967): 14-27.
Explores the pervasiveness of the influence of Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" on Chaucer's works, noting its role as the source of Bo, summarizing its well-recognized impact on Chaucer's "discourses on providence, 'gentilesse,' and truth" in…
Leslie, Nancy T.
Chaucerian Shakespear (Ann Arbor: Michigan Consortium for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 1983), pp. 25-41.
The Wife of Bath and Falstaff are superb "actors" who use rhetorical tools to triumph on their "stages," citing Scripture, twisting logic, and spouting proverbs for their own purposes.
