Amsel, Stephanie.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 43 (2021): 385–453.
Continuation of SAC annual annotated bibliography (since 1975); based on contributions from an international bibliographic team, independent research, and MLA Bibliography listings. 273 items, plus a listing of reviews for 41 books. Includes an…
Haller, Robert S.
Ph.D. Dissertation. Princeton University, 1960.
Explores a variety of sources, analogues, and backgrounds to WBPT and to the characterization of the Wife of Bath: the Bible (including St. Paul), St. Jerome, Philippe de Meziere's "Presentation Play," the tradition of the Ovidian "vetula" and La…
Davis, Deborah Ann.
Ph.D. Dissertation. Texas Women's University, 1984. Fully Accessible at https://twu-ir.tdl.org/items/668fcba6-645b-4fcf-a8e3-1ef1c6f4ff36; accessed November 14, 2023.
Argues from internal and external evidence "that there is the strong possibility" that Chaucer's dream visions (BD, HF, PF, and LGWP) influenced five early works by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "The Offshore Pirate" (1920), "The Ice Palace (1920), "The…
Gaskell, Philip.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
Includes the GP description of the Prioress in Middle English and in Nevill Coghill's translation; also comments on issues of readability, subtlety, and meter.
Introduces Chaucer's life and works, with a brief selected bibliography. Includes plot summaries and/or descriptions of BD, Rom, HF, PF, TC, LGW, each of the CT, and several lyrics.
Ashcroft, Dame Peggy, reader.
New York: Caedmon, 1961
Dramatic reading of WBPT, in the translation of J. U. Nicholson, directed by Howard Sackler. Liner notes quotes portions of GP description of the Wife in Middle English. Also issued on cassette tape and on CD-ROM.
Eberle, Gerald J.
Loyola University Studies in the Humanities 1 (1962): 75-90.
Surveys prior criticism of ManT and observes recurrent irony in the tale, particularly in Chaucer's assigning unnecessary expansions and repetitions to the verbose narrator.
Ruggiers, Paul G.
College English 19 (1958): 296-302.
Assesses Chaucer's uses of Boccaccio and Boethius as source material in KnT, addressing the omission of Arcite's apotheosis and the subordination of the pagan gods to providential order. Focuses on Palamon's and Arcite's prayers and Theseus' final…
Describes and critiques a number of the paratextual notes and hard-word glosses that Thomas Speght included in his editions of Chaucer's works, noting many inaccuracies, but also demonstrating Speght's efforts to clarify words and references for his…
Cautions that familiarity can blunt readers' awareness of the subtleties of satire in GP, recommending renewed attention to the characterization of the pilgrim narrator and differences between this character and "Chaucer the poet" as aspects of…
Weber, J. Sherwood, Jules Alan Wein, Arthur Waldhorn, and Arthur Zeiger.
New York: Holt, 1959.
Chapter 12 opens with an introduction to Chaucer's life and works, followed by appreciative commentary on CT as a comedy that is "social, not divine." Includes "Questions for Study and Discussion" on CT generally, and focused questions on KnT, MilT,…
Untermeyer, Louis.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959.
Surveys major British and American writers from Chaucer to Dylan Thomas. Praises Chaucer for his lively characterizations and his "variety and vitality" of narration, with particular attention to CT, but including commentary on the poet's life and…
Explores paradoxes of thematic and structural order in KnT--the "mechanical" ups and downs of Fortune, the narrator's control, the human order of design and progression, accumulative resonances of Boethian material, and the "logic, justice, and order…
Thomson, Patricia.
Comparative Literature 11 (1959): 313-28.
Explores unanswered questions about Chaucer's knowledge of Petrarch and use of Petrarchan material in TC 1.400-420 and in ClT, focusing on close reading of Chaucer's "deviations" from Petrarch's Sonnet 132 in his translation of it in TC, with…
Provides textual evidence to confirm that the three portions of the Middle English Rom--A, B, and C--derive from different manuscript groupings of their French source, the "Roman de la Rose," corroborating arguments that the three portions were…
Argues that the "citole" held in Venus's right hand in KnT 1.1959 evinces the influence of "the 'Ovidius moralizatus' of Petrus Berchorius (Pierre Bersuire)," and explores the possibilities of other influences on the depictions of Venus in KnT and in…
Explores resonances between the characterization of Chaucer's Prioress in GP and the life and legend of St. Eligius, clarifying how the Prioress's swearing by "Seint Loy" (i.e., Eligius; GP 1.120) is both appropriate and highly ironic.
Observes that NPT differs from most of its cock-and-fox analogues "in its explicit, reiterated warning against flattery," a traditional feature of, instead, "fox-and-crow" tales. Also, the explicitness of the moral in NPT is a "convention…
Exemplifies how several features of the characterization of Chaunticleer in NPT are "firmly grounded in medieval natural history," particularly his "uxoriousness, regal pride, and choleric temperament," as well as his connections with preaching, all…
Identifies a series of analogues to the book-burning episode in WBP 3.816 in eastern versions of the "Seven Sages" (or "Books of Sindibad"), identifying similarities and differences between them and Chaucer's account, and suggesting that oral…