Traces the theme of the decline of the world in biblical and medieval tradition, examining three literary texts: Bernard of Cluny's "De Contemptus Mundi," John Gower's "Confessio Amantis," and ClT, where the virtues of "steadfastness and patience"…
Dean, James M.
Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy, 1997.
Surveys the "senectus mundi" topos in late-medieval literature, particularly in Latin, French, and English literature, from Jean de Meun to Chaucer. Separate chapters address the topos, Middle English historical writing, Jean de Meun, Dante, "Piers…
In Form Age, as in medieval tradition, Nimrod represents the final stages of decline, especially the lust for political dominance, in the world after Adam's Fall.
Josipovici, Gabriel.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1971.
Studies modernism in English and French literature from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, focusing on narrative fiction and critical perception and misperceptions of what constitutes modernism. Includes a chapter (pp. 52-99) entitled…
Medcalf, Stephen.
A. J. Minnis, Charlotte C. Morse, and Thorlac Turville-Petre, eds. Essays on Ricardian Literature: In Honour of J. A. Burrow (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), pp. 222-51.
Summarizes Usk's life and career. While assessing the fusion of various levels of meaning in "The Testament of Love," Medcalf observes what Usk borrows from Chaucer (HF and TC) and Langland, as well as from Boethius and Anselm.
Facsimile edition of William Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer's "Works," accompanied by selected additional facsimile materials from the editions that followed (by John Stow and Thomas Speght), including apocryphal materials, hard-word lists,…
Reimer, Stephen R., ed.
Toronto : Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1987.
Includes a translation of the hymn "Alma Redemptoris Mater," which in the manuscript is accompanied by a note referring to the miracle Chaucer retold in PrT.
Robinson, F. N., ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Edits the complete works of Chaucer from various manuscripts, with end-of-volume explanatory notes, textual notes, and glossary. A general Introduction summarizes Chaucer's life, the canon and chronology of his works, his language and meter, and the…
Winterich, John T., intro.
Cleveland and New York: World Publishing, 1958.
A facsimile reprint of the 1896 Kelmscott Chaucer, with Winterich's Introduction that summarizes the lives of Chaucer and of William Morris, the production of the original book, and its place in the history of Kelmscott publications. Includes a…
Boffey, Julia,and A. S. G. Edwards, introd., with an appendix by B. C. Barker-Benfield.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997.
Includes TC, Truth, Mars, Ven, PF, LGW, several pieces of Chaucerian apochrypha, and works by Lydgate, Hoccleve, James I, and anonymous authors (twenty-five works total). Eight color plates complement the sepia-tone facsimile, photographed in 1994…
Allen, David G., and Robert A. White, eds.
London and Toronto: University of Delaware Press; Newark: Associated University Presses, 1992.
Nineteen essays on the continuities and discontinuities of medieval and Renaissance literature. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Work of Dissimilitude under Alternative Title.
Knapp, Peggy A.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30: 575-99, 2000.
In presenting "werk," "multiplie," and "privitee" as pivotal words and concepts, CYT differs from Jonson's "The Alchemist." Yet both works demonstrate links between material transformation and the early history of capitalism.
Knapp, Peggy (A.)
David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley, eds. Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of The Parson's Tale (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000), pp. 95-113.
Analyzes uses of "glose," "lewed," "estat," and "fre" to clarify the relation of the Parson and ParsT to Lollardy. Lollard diction is more prevalent in the GP description of the Parson and in ParsP than in ParsT, perhaps neutralizing the…
Tani, Akinobu.
John Ole Askedal, Ian Roberts, and Tomonori Matsushita, eds. Noam Chomsky and Language Descriptions (Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2010), pp. 149-68.
Tani examines the word pairs or doublets in Fragment A of CT and those in Chaucer's prose texts. The pairs are used for rhyme and for generic and stylistic differentiation among verse texts.
Jones, Sarah Rees.
Valerie Allen and Ruth Evans, eds. Roadworks: Medieval Britain, Medieval Roads (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), pp. 97-126.
Explores the "design and regulation of real streets" in late medieval Britain, and "streets as symbolic of capital" in contemporaneous literature, art, and architecture. Includes comments on windows and doors in TC.
Stenner, Rachel.
Comparative Drama 55 (2021): 259-82.
Argues that allusion to Apollo in TC conveys an ambivalent attitude toward literary authority by affiliating it with sexual violence, an ambivalence that Shakespeare echoes in "Troilus and Cressida." Both writers use Apollo to problematize…
"Checklaton" (jacket fabric) is recorded only in Chaucer's Thopas, Spenser's "Faerie Queene," and "A Vewe of the Present State of Ireland"--an indication that Spenser wrote the latter.
Pelling, Margaret.
Social History of Medicine 8 (1995): 383-401.
Comments on the appropriateness of PhyT to its teller, both in its classical learning and in its "gender-related ambivalences," also found among historical physicians.
Plummer, John F.
Vox Feminae: Studies in Medieval Woman's Songs (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 1981), pp. 135-54.
In the character of Absolon in MilT, Chaucer exploits the literary fact that "the minor orders were not taken seriously as lovers, but were found precisely in the burlesque world of the 'fabliau'." The willfulness and sexual appetite of the Wife of…
McWhir, Anne.
SEL: Studies in English Literature 23 (1983): 413-23.
Explores comic allusions in John Gay's pastorals "The Shepherd's Week" and "Trivia," along the way identifying "several allusions" to Chaucer's work in "The Shepherd's Week"--allusions to the Wife of Bath's red stockings, the use of "queynte" and the…
