Browse Items (16012 total)

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."

The portraits in GP cannot be at once individual and typical. The details cannot be taken as individual because they have been determined by the general conception. Recognition of the reality of the universal is necessary for an understanding of the…

Explores parallels of character and structure (councils, marriage agreement, feast, tests, restoration) used to establish the architectonic unity of the fragment. Clothing imagery in the tales strengthens these connections.

Investigates what makes TC "so alive for us today," assessing the poem's psychologically rich depictions of the characters' (including the narrator's) engagements with their own experiences and their detachments from them. Tinged with…

Examination of the twelve manuscripts of Anel suggests that the work is not incomplete but rather two separate poems. Only the Complaint (lines 211-350 in modern texts) is Chaucerian; the narrative (which follows the Complaint in some manuscripts)…

Five essays, and introduction, and a commentary on accompanying musical selections survey the interdependence of music and poetry in Provencal and medieval French and English: in the troubadour tradition, Old English poetry, French "formes fixes,"…

Grossi compares details of SNT with Jacob of Voragine's version in the "Golden Legend" and the Franciscan "abridgement" of the life of Saint Cecilia, arguing that Chaucer "sought to widen the intellectual divide between Roman paganism and primitive…

The Monk's bald head and gleaming eyes recall medieval representations of Fortuna and her victims.

Argues that the satire in NPT is "better interpreted as general satire of Chaucer's age" than attributed to the character of the Nun's Priest. So-called "dramatic" readings of the tale falter because, for example, its "gentle satire of courtliness is…

In HF, Chaucer poses "epistemological instability" as a condition of the sublunar realm, which he characterizes as hellish through associations with Proserpina in her triple manifestation, references to Claudian, and allusions to Virgil and Dante.