Fifteen volumes comprise this reading of CT in Middle English: 1) MilT, 2) GP and RvT; 3) GP and PardPT; 4) WBPT; 5) FranPT; 6) MerPT; 7) NPT, ShT, and PrPT; 8) FrPT, SumPT, and Thop; 9) ClT and PhyT; 10) KnT [two cassettes]; 11) MLT, CkT, and ManT;…
Saunders, Corinne.
Corinne Saunders, ed. A Companion to Medieval Poetry (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010), pp. 452-75.
Introduces CT as the "epitome" of Chaucer's "literary experimentation," commenting on his social range, the unfinished nature of the work, and, especially, its generic variety--"romance, fabliau, beast-fable, saint's life, miracle story, sermon,…
An introduction to CT designed for student use, with questions for discussion, research suggestions, and a review at the end of several topical sections: (1) biography and socioliterary setting; (2) language, style, and form; (3) reading CT; (4)…
Blake, N. F.
Donald M. Rose, ed. New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism (Norman Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1981), pp. 223-40.
Studies based uncritically upon the Robinson text may have produced questionable readings in CT: KnT, ParsT and Prol, ClT, ShT, GP, RvT, MilT, NPT. The Hengwrt MS, currently being used for the "Variorum Chaucer" and by Blake, is the earliest…
Lindeboom, B. W.
Ph.D. diss., Free University, Amsterdam, 2003.
In response to Gower's words to Chaucer at the end of "Confessio Amantis" (8.2941-57), Chaucer first revised LGWP and then completely restructured the plan for CT (e.g., taking Mel away from the Man of Law and giving him a "Gower" tale instead).
Assesses the "tenderness" of Chaucer's own feelings by examining his adaptations of the genre of consolation in BD and his techniques for evoking "consolatory feeling" in TC.
Gaylord, Alan T.
English Miscellany15 (1964): 25-45.
Explores the "shock of contrast" between the rejection of worldly love at the end of TC and the celebration of love found in earlier sections of the poem. The address to "yonge, fresshe folks" (5.1835) is consistent with the protagonists' youthful…
Morgan, Gerald.
In Nicolas Jacobs and Gerald Morgan, eds. "Truth is the beste": A Festschrift in Honour of A. V. C. Schmidt (New York: Lang, 2014), pp. 137-68.
Reviews the "extreme implausibility" of attributing the art of individual tales in CT to the pilgrim-narrators, and argues that the "ideas and arguments" of the tales belong to Chaucer. Also reviews the sequential order of the tales as found in the…
Statistical analysis, based on Mersand's still-valid assumption that Chaucer's romance vocabulary increased throughout his career, establishes different dates for the composition of different parts of SNT. The first part was probably written in the…
Taylor, Willene P.
College Literature Association Journal 13 (1969): 153-62.
Attributes January's cuckholding in MerT to "his own stupidity," reading Chaucer's deployment of antifeminist motifs as deeply ironic and part of his broader thematic concern to show that "everyone is morally responsible for his own acts." Chaucer's…
Considers tears in devotional contexts as a model for viewing tears "as a mode of discourse that is as potent as it is paradoxical: both outward and inward, involuntary and applied, and forming a distinctive voice between passive and active."
Until mid-thirteenth century, the East was, in spite of some factual knowledge, the fabled land of Prester John. Then real travel in the Tartar empire gave Europe facts just as marvellous.
Meyer, Robert J.
Chaucer Review 18 (1984): 221-38.
Structural unity is achieved by the back-to-back romances in the tale, the first a mock quest, the second a narrative that asks what men most desire (gentility, youth, beauty). The Midas exemplum and the pillow talk of gentility are integral parts…
Nolan, Barbara.
C. David Benson and Elizabeth Robertson, eds. Chaucer's Religious Tales (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), pp. 21-38.
The "special quality" of MLT, ClT, PrT and SNT is their focus on spiritual transcendence rather than simply religious or moral values. All four tales "reveal exactly the same incandescent core of prayerful faith and spiritual aspiration presented…
Biography of Chaucer that centers on the events of 1386 when he left London for residence in Kent and, by "virtue of necessity," imagined a new audience for his poetry--the embedded audience of CT, depicted in GP. Explores social, civic, and…
Johnson, Lynn Staley.
Studies in Philology 89 (1992): 314-33.
Reads SNT as paralleling Wycliffite dissent, arguing that Chaucer's alterations of his sources emphasize Cecilia's challenges to institutional values and power.
Brinton, Laurel J.
English Studies in Canada 10 (1984): 251-64.
Identifies three concerns in Mel: being reasonable in worldly affairs, sovereignty and proper cousel as themes, and the role of the tale in the sentence / solaas dynamic in CT. Includes a survey of criticism.
Considers Mel as an allegory of translation, proposing that Chaucer applies legal theory drawn from Henry de Bracton's "De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae" to questions of ownership. In MelP, Chaucer uses "thyng" as a legal term pertaining to an…
Aers, David.
David Aers, ed. Medieval Literature and Historical Inquiry: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2000), 68-81.
Challenges the notion that Mel asserts orthodox Christian sensibility. By privileging prudence over the theological virtues and by omitting "Christ, the Church [. . .], the Trinity" and sacramental forgiveness, Mel suggests heterodox views.
Ferster, Judith.
Denise N. Baker, ed. Inscribing the Hundred Years' War in French and English Cultures (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000), pp. 73-89.
Argues that Chaucer produced Mel to demonstrate his allegiance to Richard II and to challenge the Appellants. Mel deconstructs the advice of Prudence, whose "advisory coup" echoes the Appellants' takeover.
London: Argo Sight and Sound; released in the U.S. by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
Item not seen; WorldCat records indicate that this audiovisual movie "Depicts the various institutions, traditions, and forces which shaped Chaucer's life and writings. Includes medieval paintings, tapestries, and music, and portions of Chaucer's…
Ono, Shigeru.
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. 405-17.
Argues that scribes altered Chaucer's modal auxiliaries, dative verb constructions, infinitives, and negations, simplifying Chaucer's syntax and making his stylistic compactness apparent by contrast.
Rowland, Beryl.
Notes and Queries 209 (1964): 48-49.
Argues that Chaucer's references to a swallow in Alison's song (MilT 1. 3257-58) and to a dove in the Pardoner's claim about preaching (PardP 6.397) are suggestive, and may well derive from his familiarity with the two birds.
