Balliet, Gay L.
English Language Notes 28:1 (1990): 1-6.
The wife's attack upon her husband Symkyn at the end of RvT is not an accident as commonly believed. Rather, the action is a deliberate attempt to conceal her adultery.
Schuman, Samuel.
Studies in the Humanities 6.2 (1976): 12-14.
NPT establishes an idea of decorum or appropriateness as a philosophical/theological context for the marriage tales. The central themes of the tale is that happiness and virtue derive from recognizing one's place in the Great Chain of Being.
In Truth the reference to Vache is not to Sir Philip de la Vache but to Chaucer. "Vache, leve" translates the OF phrase "reis, vache!" which is (e)Chavsier spelled backwards. The reversal of letters points to a real conversion in Chaucer.
Nichols, Stephen G., and Siegfried Wenzel, eds.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
Nine essays by various authors and a closing commentary address organization, inclusion, and definition of medieval miscellanies--Latin, French, and English. The essays were first presented at a colloquium at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993.…
Surveys Chaucer's references to dogs, showing that his depictions of the animal are generally "pejorative," following a tradition of denunciation by satirists, homilists, and the writers of romances. Argues that the whelp in BD 389ff. is not…
Coley, David K.
Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012.
Discusses nominalism, speech, and power in ManT, along with speech and rhetoric in Gower's "Confessio Amantis," Langland's "Piers Plowman," and works of Hoccleve.
While considering how speech in narrative poetry may represent "a distinct category within linguistic discourse," Coley reads ManT as a Chaucerian interaction with William of Ockham's rejection of longstanding Augustinian "hierarchies."
Dor, Juliette.
Danielle Buschinger and Wolfgang Spiewok, eds. Etudes de linguistique et de litterature en l'honneur d'Andre Crepin. Greifswalder Beitrage zum Mittelalter, no. 5. WODAN ser., no. 20 (Greifswald: Reineke, 1993), pp. 123-33.
Surveys nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century French Chaucer criticism, from early appropriations of Chaucer into French literary tradition to recognition of his importance in anticipating the Renaissance.
Bowers, John M.
Chantilly, Va.: The Teaching Company, 2008.
Audio-visual recording of thirty-six lectures by Bowers (on topics ranging from the Bible to Tolkien and postcolonialism), illustrated with occasional still pictures and linguistic examples. One thirty-minute lecture (Lecture 17, "Chaucer--The Father…
Romps through the western literary canon, including commentary on CT and scoring it a 10 in Importance, 6 in Accessibility, and 9 in Fun; TC rates 4, 3, and 4, respectively. Distinguishes CT from the novel tradition, and summarizes, irreverently,…
Hinton, Norman (D.)
Nona C. Flores, ed. Animals in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays (New York: Garland, 1996), pp. 133-46.
Comparison of the protagonist of "William of Palerne" with Chaucer's Troilus makes William seem "a paragon of decision," while Alisaundrine is like Pandarus in bringing lovers together.
Tremaine, Hadley Philip.
Dissertation Abstracts International 26.03 (1965): 2732A.
Edits the early modern Welsh play, "Troelius a Chresyd," with commentary on its relations with TC, Robert Henryson's "Testament," and early modern drama, treating the Welsh drama as a "secular mystery play."
Ainsworth, Jeanette Therese.
Dissertation Abstracts International 40 (1980): 4015A-16A.
The dramatic Welsh work written in Shakespeare's time is a unique and important contribution to the Troilus-Cressida tradition. The author eliminates any elements of plot, theme, or character from his sources (Chaucer's TC and Henryson's "Testament…
Zaerr, Linda Marie.
Evelyn Birge Vitz, Nancy Freeman Regalado, and Marilyn Lawrence, eds. Performing Medieval Narrative (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005), pp. 193-208.
Zaerr explores the concept of "mouvance" (textual variation) as reflected in a performance of "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell," commenting on the process of performance and adaptation and tabulating variants between the manuscript of the…
Pearsall, Derek.
Geoffrey Lester, ed. Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 178-93.
Examines the editorial implications of one metrically unambiguous feature of Chaucer's grammar. Chaucer's final -e has syllabic value when it occurs as the ending of monosyllabic adjectives with unelided weak inflexion followed by nouns with stress…
Wax, Judith.
New Republic 169.10 (September 17, 1973): 24-25.
Sendup of the Watergate political scandal in pseudo-Chaucerian rhymed couplets, based on GP descriptions. Includes comic foonotes. Reprinted in "Time" 102.13 (1972): 20, with a brief introduction.
Lampert-Weissig, Lisa.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 43 (2021): 111-49; 3 b& w illus.
Reads PrT and the thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman "Hugo de
Lincolnia" as "conspiracy theory narratives," showing "how they use language and imagery to generate aesthetic emotions, especially fear and disgust," and revealing connections "both to…
Mitchell, Ken, Thomas Chase, and Michael Trussler, eds.
Regina, Saskatchewan: University of Regina, 1999.
An anthology of forty works of short fiction designed for "first-year university students," with an Introduction that discusses the genre, and an appendix of related literary terms. Each narrative is accompanied by a brief assessment and a…
Addresses how "manipulations of time" affect the narrative structure of KnT, and "recreate instabilities inherent to fourteenth-century chivalric ideas." Views Theseus, Palamon, and Arcite as the "walking dead," since they only "exist in literature…
Kirkpatrick, Robin.
Chaucer and the Italian Trecento (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 201-29.
Focuses on qualities that distinguish CT from the "Decameron:" the self-deprecating Chaucer persona, Chaucer's concern with human individuality, his willingness to admit the limitations of language and art, and his use of irony.
Grindley, Carl.
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 18.2 (2011): 79-91.
Offers a series of undergraduate classroom exercises to teach differences in kinds of edited texts and to introduce concepts crucial to editorial practice, using samples from Middle English literature: MerT IV.2069–76 most extensively.
Behrman, Mary.
Studies in the Novel 42 (2010): 453-70.
Identifies and assesses allusions to medieval literature in Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement" (2001), emphasizing Chaucer's works (TC and ClT) and Arthurian literature.
