Shepherd, G. T.
D. S. Brewer, ed. Chaucer and Chaucerians: Critical Studies in Middle English Literature (University: University of Alabama Press; London: Nelson, 1966), pp. 65-87.
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…
d'Ardenne, S. R. T. O.
English Studies 44 (1963): 12-19.
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…
Glaser, Joseph, trans., and Christine Chism, intro.
Indianapolis: Hackett, 2014.
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…
Salter, Elizabeth.
John Lawlor, ed. Patterns of Love and Courtesy: Essays in Memory of C. S. Lewis (London: Edward Arnold, 1966), pp. 86-106.
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…
Dean, James M., and Harriet Spiegel, eds.
Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2016.
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.…
Markland, Murray F.
Modern Language Quarterly 31 (1970): 147-59.
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…
Lesler, Rachel.
Sigma Tau Delta Review 13 (2016): 40-47.
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.
Jacobs, Nicolas, and Gerald Morgan, eds.
New York: Peter Lang, 2014
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…
Moseley, C.W. R. D.
Critical Survey 29.3 (2017): 86-113.
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."
Behrend, Megan.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 43 (2021): 1-43; 6 b&w illus.
Uncouples Chaucer's fifteenth-century reception from "monolingual nationalist ideas of Englishness," focusing on rhetorical and codicological features of two trilingual love lyrics in Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.4.27 (Gg): "De amico ad…
Goldstein, R. James.
Chaucer Review 54.4 (2019): 482-92.
Identifies liturgical echoes in Chaucer's reworking of Dante at the end of Book V of TC, arguing that it exemplifies David Lawton's theory of voice and "public
interiorities."
Thomas, Reena, and Ethan K. Smilie.
Mosaic 52.2 (2019): 129-45.
Looks at how SqT frames the East as stereotypically strange and familiar in order to explore the corrupting effects of "vitium curiositatis" (the vice of curiosity) and the beneficial possibilities of wonder. Argues that Chaucer embraces fragmented…
Flannery, Mary C., and Katie L. Walter.
In Mary C. Flannery and Katie L. Walter, eds. The Culture of Inquisition (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2013), pp. 77-93.
Discusses inquisition and "examination in the ecclesiastical courts" for the ways that they, like confession, help to disclose the development of interiority as an aspect of medieval selfhood, discussing literary works such as "Dives and Pauper,"…
Parsons, Ben.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 119 (2020): 380-98.
Reveals how the common, generally lower-class forenames in the "Visio Anglie" portion of Gower's "Vox clamantis" reinforce the "degraded, bestial character" that Gower attributes to the rioters of 1381. Because the names could apply to animals or to…
Sottosanti, Danielle.
Studies in Philology 172 (2020): 240-60.
Focuses on the Sultaness in MLT and argues that the text explores the ramifications of forced conversion and feigned baptism, along with larger issues of deception and truth.
Musical setting for the song at the end of PF (ll. 680-90; 691 is omitted), in modernized Middle English; printed from the original in British Library, Additional MS 54779 as edited by Graham Parlett.
Davies, Daniel.
New Medieval Literatures 20 (2020): 74-106.
Identifies connections among "war, narrative, and literary technique" in TC to show "how Chaucer constructs . . . siege as a dynamic space in which to imagine the forces that shape and determine human behaviour." Chaucer "reconfigures the idea of a…
Greene, Darragh.
Garry L. Hagberg, ed. Literature and Its Language: Philosophical Aspects (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 149-71.
Explores the question of what Chaucer "holds to be the nature of reality," focusing on "the metaphysics of beauty" in PF, the "nature of the rocks" in FranT, and the "ontology of narrative itself" in NPT, and showing that "Chaucer’s sensate faith…
Interprets BD as an early example of "illness narrative." BD's structuring concern with sickness and healing, centered upon insomnia detached from the courtly discourse of lovesickness, reflects the preoccupations of late medieval natural philosophy…
Langdell, Sebastian.
New Medieval Literatures 16 (2016): 250-76.
Investigates the "moral version of Chaucer that emerges" in Hoccleve's "Regiment of Princes," arguing that it is a kind of poetic authority produced "in the face of an increasingly militant and repressive English Church," and that, unlike other early…
Edwards, Robert R.
Tamara Atkin and Jaclyn Rajsic, eds. Manuscript and Print in Late Medieval and Early Modern Britain: Essays in Honour of Professor Julia Boffey (Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 2019), pp. 167–81.
Considers Chaucer's uses of Theban material drawn from the tradition of Statius and Boccaccio, exploring how he adapted his sources and how, in turn, his works were adapted by others. Surveys the "exemplary power" of Thebes in Chaucer’s works, and…
Surveys translations and studies of medieval English literature produced in the People's Republic of China, commenting on the important role of Professor Li Fu-ning and describing translations, theses and dissertations, and critical books and essays.…
