Chapter 2, "Scraping the Rust from the Joking Bard: Chaucer in the Age of Wit," explores the long eighteenth century's conflicted reception of Chaucerian wit. While Chaucer was perceived as an "originary figure" of the English language as well as an…
Siegel, Paul N.
Boston University Studies in English 4 (1960): 114-20.
Locates comic irony in several religious references and allusions in MilT, especially as they help to characterize Alison, Nicholas, and Absolon; the "final irony" is that the Miller is himself unaware of this irony.
The Canterbury tale not written by Chaucer operates both as fabliau and as folk tale, with the relentlessly stupid hero both laughed at by the nobility and empathized with by the bourgeoisie, for whom he represents a triumph of the simple classes…
Bowker, Alvin W.
Modern Language Studies 4.2 (1974): 27-34.
Comments on the "theatricality" of MilT and explores how the comic characteristics of each of the main characters have darker sides, especially in the cases of Nicholas, Alisoun, and Absolon.
A classroom anthology of twelve examples of the literary mode of comedy, including MerT in Nevill Coghill's modern poetic translation. The volume describes the mode of comedy, offers brief biographies of the writers included, and lists discussion…
Niebrzydowski, Sue.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 42 (2020): 325-36.
Explores evidence of medieval women's humor, drawing examples from Margaret Mautby Paston and Margery Kempe, preceded by contemplation of why such humor is understudied. Includes comments on Chaucer's Wife of Bath, Alisoun of MilT, and May of MerT as…
Considers TC to be "amphibious," both a tragedy and, ironically, a comedy, when read in light of Chaucer's changes to Boccaccio's "Filostrato" and his additions from Boethius's "Consolatio."
Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2009.
Exploring the question "When is Chaucer known in Italy?" Heffernan surveys other scholars who have examined Chaucer's writings within the Italian tradition and focuses on shared comedic themes in the works of Boccaccio and Chaucer. She reviews…
Leonard. Frances McNeely.
DAI 33.11 (1973): 6316-17A.
Despite the apparent clash between comedy and moral allegory, writers from Chaucer to Spenser combine the two, a fusion rooted in 'La Roman de la Rose.' Treats BD and HF as well as works by Gower, Dunbar, Skelton, and Spenser.
Hussey, S. S.
Elizabeth Maslen, ed. Comedy: Essays in Honour of Peter Dixon by Friends and Colleagues (London: Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, 1993), pp. 1-13.
The comedy of MerT is brought out through Chaucer's manipulation of various literary sources and styles.
Brewer, Derek.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 95-109.
Encased in a larger, comic vision of "potential human freedom and happiness," Troilus's tragic misfortunes acquire new meaning in Chaucer's TC, which is neither comedy nor tragedy but a "curious mixture" of the two.
Hanning, Robert W.
R. A. Shoaf, ed. Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde: "Subgit to alle Poesye": Essays in Criticism. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, no. 104. Pegasus Paperbacks, no. 10 (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1992), pp. 120-37.
In Filostrato, Troilo's accurate decoding of Criseyde's language enables him to discover her reciprocal desire, leading to fulfillment. In TC, fulfillment is more complex as Troilus, Pandarus, and the narrator each construct their own meaning of…
Scott, Anne.
Cynthia Kosso and Anne Scott, eds. The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity Through the Renaissance (Boston: Brill, 2009), pp. 407-26.
Scott addresses use of water imagery in medieval narratives. In MilT, flood imagery affects all classes of society and provides a common experience through which the satire of each individual class can occur.
Beckman, Sabina.
College Language Association Journal 20 (1976): 68-74.
In TC, though color words are sparsely used, green, red, blue, white, black are tellingly employed, frequently serving symbolically to connote psychological states of being, sexuality, and emotions, particularly in relation to "eros" and "agape."
Yoshimura, Koji.
Kansai University of Foreign Studies Journal 49 (1989): 19-42.
Shows that color expressions in TC are elaborately calculated to represent the characteristics of Troilus and Criseyde and that the color terms vary in almost every book.
Bowers, John M.
Susanna Fein and David Raybin, eds. Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010), pp. 116-31.
Bowers describes Chaucer's treatment of Latin texts throughout his "literary insurgency against [a] foreign incursion"--a kind of postcolonial resistance that is also consistent with Lollard vernacularization. Reads MLT as a "rejection" of Bede's…
Iglesias-Rábade, Luis.
Studia Neophilologica 83 (2011): 54-66.
Compares and contrasts late medieval English adverbial usage in a number of legal texts with those found in a "Reference Corpus," the latter including a number of examples from Chaucer's works.
Wimsatt, James I.
Andre Crepin, ed. L'imagination medievale: Chaucer et ses contemporains (Paris: Publications de l'Association des Medievistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Superieur, 1991), pp. 33-51.
Analyzes three manuscript collections (Pennsylvania French 15, Westminster Abbey 21, and Bibl. Nat. Nouvelles acquisitions fr. 6221) to infer their late forteenth-century exemplars.
Explores the advantages of computerized collation programs such as "CASE," "TUSTEP," and "Collate," commenting on how they can expedite traditional editing. Cites many applications to CT.
Edwards, A. S. G.
Christa Jansohn and Bodo Plachta, eds. Varianten - Variants - Variantes. (Tubingen: Max Niemeyer, 2005), pp. 79-90.
Edwards comments on the conceptualizations and uses of variants in textual studies of CT and "Piers Plowman," particularly those by Manly and Rickert and by Kane and Donaldson, arguing that some manuscripts are better regarded as separate versions of…
Witcher, Heather Bozant.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Chapter 4--"Typographical Adventures: William Morris, Community, and the Kelmscott Press"--includes discussion of the "sympathetic collaboration" (a concept theorized by William Morris) between Edward Burne-Jones and Robert Catterson-Smith in…
Ellison, Katherine E., and Susan M. Kim, eds
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
Collects twelve essays that provide context and background to the work of Manly, Rickert, and their collaborators as cryptologists, writers, and scholars, including recurrent mention of their work in Chaucer studies. For an essay that pertains to…
Chapman, Don.
Jacek Fisiak, ed. Studies in English Historical Linguistics and Philology: A Festschrift for Akio Oizumi Studies in English Language and Literature, no. 2 (Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang, 2002), pp. 37-49.
Describes the variety of ways Chaucer uses noun-adjective compounds to produce "strong connotations or heightened effects."
Koivisto-Alanko, Päivi.
Irma Taavitsainen, Gunnel Melchers, and Pivi Pahta, eds. Writing in Nonstandard English (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 1999), pp. 205-23
Quantitative analysis of the language of cognition (e.g., "intellect," "knowing," "wit") in Chaucer reveals how such language entered English usage. Borrowings from French and Latin entered with specific, high-prestige philosophical or scientific…
