Explores "the complex thematic and structural functions" of the Pluto-Proserpina episode in MerT, treating it as a fit denouement in the traditional pear-tree plot, and arguing that it deepens the unifying thematic dimensions of the Tale by…
Peck, Russell A.
Alastair Fowler, ed. Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis (New York: Barnes and Noble; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970), pp. 73-115.
Describes parallels in plot and structure between BD and Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," arguing that Chaucer depicts a partial glimpse of full consolation. Identifies how "numerological composition" underlies the structure of BD and how…
Tallies Chaucer's varieties of word-play and explores their thematic value in relation to his concern with the interconnectedness of pilgrimage and play. Focuses on rhetorical tradition, play on "child" in PrT, the unity of SqT and FranT, and the…
Duder, Clyburn.
Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (1981): 4707A.
Contains a glossary of all saints referred to in CT, with notes relating them to medieval art, plus commentary on fourteen associated with Reeve, Wife of Bath, and Pardoner or named in FrT, SumT, and CYT.
Hatton, Thomas J.
Studies in Medieval Culture 4 (1974): 452-58.
The Squire's concupiscence and selfishness contrast with the Knight's love of chivalric virtues. Through the Squire and his tale Chaucer may be suggesting that the knights of Richard II's court return to the values represented by his own perfect…
Glancy, Ruth.
Westport, Conn.; and London:: Greenwood, 2002.
Glancy surveys twenty-nine themes (some with sub-themes) in British poetry, describing their occurrence from the late Middle Ages to the present. Topics include beauty, death, love, old age, sleep, and war. Glancy summarizes Chaucer's Marriage Group…
Identifies a "significant continuity of thought" in BD, HF, and PF: "their shared concern" with Nature and Fortune as principles of order and fertility, on the one hand, and disorder on the other. Traces the roots of these concerns in Boethius, Alain…
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:…
A murder mystery in which Geoffrey Chaucer and his friend John Gower try to solve a double murder while barricaded in the Tabard Inn, defended against the rebellious peasants in 1381. Features historical and fictional characters, some of the latter…
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…
Goodrich, Micah James.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 44 (2022): 297-306.
Explores aspects of "power differential and toxicity" in the mentor-mentee relationship of the Canon and the Canon's Yeoman, reading CYPT as the emancipatory complaint of the latter. For a response, see Response to Micah James Goodrich and Alice…
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…
