Browse Items (15544 total)

Argues that as a mirror for princes Mel offers an "implicit critical view of Richard II," especially when read in the context of CT, which elsewhere provides a "complex analysis of advisers, advice, and the handling of counsel." Comments on the…

Links the characterizations of Nicholas and John in MilT to the genre fluidity of medieval literature and the interdependence of reading and performance. Focuses on Nicholas's "hyperliterate status," the "theatrical props of his learning implements,"…

Exemplifies the "Scandinavian influence" on Middle English, offering morphological, syntactical, and lexical samples of this influence on CT.

Describes the cultural landscape that underlies John's exhortation to Nicholas in MilT to "Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun!" (1.3478 ff.), showing that John's extended and naïve address resonates with the "affective piety" encouraged in the…

Offers evidence from Rom that "tidings" in HF means "tales" rather than "news."

Invokes the medieval ideal (exemplified by "Ancrene Wisse") of establishing self-identity and authority by memorizing and performing texts. The Prioress does this by "over-identifying" with the clergeon. Briefly considering the anti-Semitism of the…

Traces the Jewish and Christian understandings of crucifixion, arguing that the image underlies the "didactic nature" of PhyT where "repeated images of injustice" are "placed in dialogue with the symbolism of the cross," reminding the reader of…

Considers the addition of medical terminology to the lexicons of medieval laypeople, with particular regard to its use in metaphor. Authors under consideration include Chaucer, Henryson, Rolle, and Kempe.

Explains Criseyde's comment about Troilus in TC 3.88 in light of the Feast of Fools, suggesting that it means she considers him neither a fool nor "too bold or irreverent."

Assesses January's praise-of-marriage speech (encomium) as a "classical' thesis' as it appeared in the later Middle Ages." The speech engages the WBP through common source material and follows the topic and structuring of the thesis genre found in…

Tabulates and analyzes the "gender-based" nouns used of the marital couple in MerT, compared with uses elsewhere in CT, focusing on uses of "wyf" and "housbonde" (61 versus 4 uses in MerT), and on the locution of "taking" a wife. Such usages connect…

Views CT as one of several works that provide examples of the definition and theorization of the captive in late medieval and early modern texts.

Explores the Boethian themes, imagery, and conventions of the "Kingis Quair," and comments on similarities and differences between its uses of these devices and those in BD, PF, TC, and KnT.

Argues that in "Troilus and Cressida" Shakespeare "does not seem to have used" TC "as his main or direct source," adducing differences in theme, plot, and characterization.

Reads TC as a "romance in the tragic mode" that reflects the "mood of many Englishmen in the late fourteenth century." Focuses on the role of the narrator and the rhetorical strategies (with reference to the "Ad Herennium") that Chaucer uses to…

Reads George Meredith's novel "The Tragic Comedians" as "a modern version" of TC, an "adaptation of Princess Helen von Racowitza's 'Autobiography,' overshadowed by Chaucer's great work," particularly influenced by his characterization of Criseyde.

Argues that Chaucer perceives a tension in Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" regarding the role of romantic love in the relation of this world to the divine. Chaucer envisages a version of romantic love that is a bridge between this world and…

Translates TC into modern English rhyme royal stanzas, with footnotes and occasional marginal glosses. The introduction (by Christine Chism, pp. vi-xxx) addresses the social contexts of the poem; anachronisms; Chaucer's audience; the frontispiece…

Interprets the discontinuities and disunities of TC for the ways that they reveal the "growth and release" of Chaucer's creative imagination, reading them as evidence of his "dissatisfaction" with the characterization of Criseyde and the nature of…

Textbook edition of TC, conservatively edited from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 61, with modern punctuation, sidebar glosses and bottom-of-page notes, an index of characters, a glossary of common words and phrases, and a select bibliography.…

Examines the "shifts in point of view, authorial intrusion, changes in subject, and multiple closures" of the final seventeen stanzas of TC, reading their structure closely, and arguing that they produce an "artistic disorder, the purpose of which is…

Associates the genre of the "poetic triumph," found in examples from Ovid and Virgil, with an analysis of "Chaucer's 'Trophee'" in MkT.

Explores the alignment of "trouthe" and freedom in FranT, particularly as they relate to gendered honor, arguing that Dorigen's efforts to honor her marital "trouthe" limit her freedom.

Includes twelve essays by various authors on Middle English literature, and an introductory appreciation of A. V. C. (Carl) Schmidt, a list of his publications, and an index. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Truth is the Beste under…

Contends that Chaucer is "expecting, indeed exploiting, the gap between the reception of a poem when it is heard socially and its afterlife as a text," when it is a different thing. Argues "that a poem's form is itself a way of communicating ideas."