Steinberg examines differences between depictions of Nature in Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos and in Chaucer's PF. For Spenser, disorder inheres in nature, while in Chaucer it results from human "pettiness and passion." Such differences remind us of…
Identifies a "consistent pattern" in Chaucer's works of comparing "the songs and melodies of lovers to sacred and philosophical medieval musics," religious and astronomical. Examines concord and discord in musical references in KnT, PF, ManT, TC,…
Hardman, Phillipa.
Review of English Studies 37 (1986): 478-94.
Studies Chaucer's sources, invocations to, and use of the muses in Anel, HF, TC, and CT. The use in CT is humorous. In HF, the muses are a "metaphorical model" for the "art poetical." In TC, muses chart the changing attitudes of the narrator.
Jimura, Akiyuki.
Shizuya Tara, Mayumi Sawada, and Larry Walker, eds. Language and Beyond: Festschrift for Hiroshi Yonekura on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday (Tokyo: Eichosha, 2007), pp. 265-83.
Discusses Chaucer's proverbial wisdom in Mel. In Japanese
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
North-Western European Language Evolution 34 (1998): 99-153.
Historical assessment of Chaucer's multi-word (or phrasal) verbs, assessing the syntax and semantics of such verbs, the drift to post-positioning of the particles in these verbs (e.g., "wente forth" rather than "forth wente"), and the effects of…
In contrast to the strong heroines in French romances, Criseyde is a weak, passive individual who does not act but is acted upon. Chaucer creates her this way deliberately to make her "magically attractive"--she is "lovely undefined responsiveness,"…
Wood, Chauncey.
R. F. Yeager, ed. Chaucer and Gower: Difference, Mutability, Exchange (Victoria B. C.: University of Victoria, 1991), pp. 75-84.
With its focus on sin, ParsT is the most Gowerian and least Chaucerian of the CT, even though Gower's presentation of sin is expository and Chaucer's indirect.
Each of the five names Chaucer uses for the moon goddess denotes a particular aspect of the goddess. A study of these names in TC, FranT, KnT, and MerT and of the functions they denote helps us understand the personalities of the women who invoke…
Read in accord with the medieval one-handed alphabet, the hand positions in Chaucer's Hoccleve portrait form the monogram GC. These positions appear to be a constant in the tradition of Chaucer portraiture, including the Ellesmere miniature. Such…
The labors of Hercules, employed by Boethius to show how man may determine his own fortune, are misused by the Monk, who sees the "Consolation" only as a source for secular tales.
The reference to Rochester just before MkT helps explain the choice of teller, the nature of the tale, and the narrator's refusal to "pleye" when he is interrupted. Rochester Cathedral included a monastic house; it contained a mural of Fortune's…
The Monk (who, alone among the pilgrims, discusses both meter and genre at length) with his hundred tragedies can be viewed as a "rival poet" whose "imaginative narrowness," "verbal repetition," "tiresome" syntax, and encapsulated world view stand in…
Grennen, Joseph E.
American Notes and Queries 6 (1968): 83-85.
Identifies the sexual and medical implications of several details in the GP description of the Monk, including his association with venery and food, his baldness, and his being fat "in good point" (1.200).
Wurtele, Douglas J.
Journal of Literature and Theology 1 (1987): 192-209.
Chaucer's portrait of the Monk is consistent throughout CT. In narrating MkT, the Monk distorts biblical passages such as the Samson exemplum, showing himself remiss in biblical studies just as the GP Monk is lax in other clerical duties.
MkT makes a political statement reflecting Richard II's tyrannous activities during the altter years of his reign. The stories of misgovernment suggest a late date of composition for the work. The character of the Monk is based on Nimrod, himself…
Chaucer may have intended to end MkT with the account of Zenobia--extracting it from LGW--and thereby to offer her narrative as a remedy for the Monk's "spiritual condition," which develops over the course of CT. Lindeboom compares Chaucer's…
Gillmeister, Heiner.
Jörg Sonntag, ed. Religiosus Ludens. Das Spiel als kulturelles Phänomen in mittelalterlichen Klöstern und Orden (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 149-70.
Explores the impact of medieval monastic culture on the evolution of sports, such as hockey, football and, in particular, tennis, including commentary on Chaucer's criticism of ecclesiastics engaged in sport. Argues that Chaucer's clerics reflect the…
Boyd, Beverly.
Anne Clark Bartlett, Thomas H. Bestul, Janet Goebel, and William F. Pollard, eds. Vox Mystica: Essays on Medieval Mysticism in Honor of Professor Valerie M. Lagorio (Rochester, N.Y.; and Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995), pp. 99-105.
Traces a strain of Marian mysticism in Chaucer's works, including ABC and several aspects of SNT and PrT.
Silverstein, Theodore.
Modern Philology 56 (1959): 270-76.
Reviews J. A. W. Bennett's 1957 book "The Parlement of Foules: An Interpretation," exploring the weaknesses and strengths of his critical methodology and application.
Barry, Gregory L.
English Language Notes 17 (1979-80): 90-93.
The short verse argument to the "Thebaid" prefixed to most manuscripts of TC had probably been memorized in Chaucer's youth and was used for the later books of TC. While the siege of Troy continues, Cassandra completes the story of the siege of…
Cowgill, Jane.
Essays in Medieval Studies 12 (1995): 39-53.
As in late-medieval lyrics and drama, the suffering of mothers and children in Chaucer's works is presented as analogous to the suffering of Mary and Jesus. Surveys the presence and absence of references to children in Chaucer's works.
The Miller is a stereotypical Celt, disparaged by society; Oswald the Reeve is an Anglo-Saxon who resents the Celtic Miller's "specialized trade." The Prioress is distanced from secular society by her profession and distanced from her profession by…
