Browse Items (15544 total)

For six essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Uses of Manuscripts in Literary Studies under Alternative Title.

Although courtly love, magic, and supernatural situations make up the framework of FranT, the role played by binding agreements, contracts, and consent in the Tale alters the traditional definition of magic. Claims that fourteenth-century society was…

Reprints the author's 1986 University of Sheffield M.A. thesis on second-person pronouns, forms of address, and use of the imperative in CT. Includes eight additional articles: four on Chaucer, three on Nicholas Love, and one on linguistic…

John Speir's claim that both poets use similes to promote "distinct visualization" in the service of allegory and realism is borne out by "The Divine Comedy" but not CT. Dante's similes produce visual accent, serving as ancillary devices within a…

Studies "Christian phraseology" in troubadour verse, the poetry of Chrétien, the "Roman de la Rose," and TC, focusing on uses by the narrator, Pandarus, and Troilus in Chaucer's poem.

Surveys representative examples of northern English dialect ("Alliterative Morte Arthure," RvT), Scottish Chaucerians (Henryson, Dunbar), and non-Chaucerian Scottish works (Barbour's "Bruce," "The Wallace") to identify common and distinctive…

Examines scribal uses of ye versus thou in manuscripts of WBP, excluding the so-called "additional" passages. Variants indicate that second-person pronouns were subject to individual manipulation for "interpersonal goals or creative effects."

Discusses the role of the narrator in BD, HF, PF, and TC.

Discusses the role of the narrator in Chaucer's early works.

Surveys instances in which portions of manuscripts of CT were copied from Caxton's first edition of the poem and identifies instances where watermarks show that the paper stock in CT manuscripts is the same as that in Caxton. Such evidence has…

Shows that the bob-lines in Tho are characterized by "Bathos and vapidity," and focuses on their placement in manuscripts and the unique qualities of the first bob-line (7.793) to show that these characteristics are intentional and artful. Includes a…

In relation to the 1380 Cecily Chaumpaigne text, critics have generally suspected Cecily instead of Chaucer. This interpretation may fulfill a scholar's agenda but does not assist biographical accuracy. Attempting to "hear Cecily's voice" among the…

Describes seventy-five Chaucerian examples of the verb "bid" from semantic and syntactic points of view, and examines the extent to which it is a causative or an auxiliary.

Fourteen essays by various authors, with an introduction by the editors and an index. For two essays pertaining to Chaucer, search for The Use and Development of Middle English under Alternative Title.

Proofs of George Vertue's prints held in the University of Southern California's Doheny Memorial Library provide firm evidence that Vertue executed all but one of the engravings in the 1721 edition of John Urry's The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and…

Explains errors in the biography of Chaucer that is included in John Urry's edition of 1721, particularly those associated with the poet's spurious flight to the Continent in 1384 in the face of an accusation of treason. Attributes these errors to…

Although the principles of order are not treated in medieval rhetoric books, they govern the structures of representative texts, including TC.

Examines marital rape across CT, acknowledging that, while marital rape was impossible in medieval English law, it was a topic discussed and handled throughout CT. Gives particular attention to MerT, SNT, MkT, WBPT, and ShpT.

Chaucer uses dramatic conventions rather than literary ones. To save her life, Criseyde plays various roles: ideal lady, virtuous woman, and lusty lover. TC does not answer the life-question of WBT: "what thyng is it that wommen moost desiren?"

Explores "varieties of the medieval unspeakable," from ineffability and mysticism to same-sex eroticism, in Old and Middle English literary tradition, employing an analytical method adapted from Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, and Giorgio Agamben,…

The Yeoman is an unreliable narrator who seems to confess only his own sins, holds contempt for the Canon; in his pride he is a "caricature of repentance."

Argues that female bodies in CT represent texts that are unreadable by husbands, and suggests that ultimately, this is symptomatic of an impossibility of "cognitive seeking."

Inconsistencies are found in the poems, in the tone of the narrator, and in the discrepancy between the comic mode of TC and the seriousness of the conclusion. The design of the poem either "employs inconsistency and incongruity, or conversely is…

Surveys anti-chivalric sentiment in literature, including polemics and sermons as well as satires and "anti-romances." Includes discussion of Th, among other works.

Fire imagery and the theme of order in Dryden's adaptations of Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio, and Chaucer (KnT, WBT, NPT, and Parson) evince that his "Fables" centers thematically on "natural order characterized by the paradox of constant change."