Browse Items (15544 total)

Compares and contrasts Chaucer's and Langland's views of the "lower clergy" (monks, friars, and parish priests) in light of the "religious backgrounds" of their age, arguing that despite their stylistic differences their views are very similar in…

Includes introductions to seven authors and works of western literature, keyed to texts in translation or modernization available in the "Great Books of the Western World" series. The "Sixth Reading" here (pp. 139-66) pertains to Chaucer and CT,…

Historical novel set in late-medieval England. Includes a character modeled on the Wife of Bath: Alyson, who owns a bathhouse/brothel in Southwark. Originally published as "The Brewer's Tale," North Sydney: Harlequin, 2014; 584 pp.

Frame-tale science fiction novel with echoes of CT, e.g., quotation of GP 1.12 on the opening page, recurrent references to travelers as "pilgrims," a galactic ship named "Geoffrey," interpolated tales (although purportedly autobiographical), etc.…

Focuses on three extant Tudor song-books to chart the relations between lyric and song in early English tradition, including discussion of popular and courtly works, late-medieval and early modern music, and the impact of the Reformation. Two issues…

Chapter 15, "Le Roman de Renart en Angleterre" (pp. 672-88), summarizes NPT and treats Pierre de Saint-Cloud's "Roman de Renart" (branch 2) as its major source, focusing on tone and spirit, and attributing differences to Chaucer's art, originality,…

An annotated bibliography, listing materials that pertain to the "Consolation of Philosophy" in French, German, Old English and Middle English, with sections on Chaucer's translation and to its influence, with seventy-six and forty-three items…

Introduces the manuscript of the Luttrell Psalter and the Oxford copy of William Caxton’s second edition of CT (with hand-colored woodcuts), with extensive visual representation of the codices (panning many details) and their library settings,…

Treats PardPT as parts of a structured sermon against gluttony, gambling, swearing, and "'superbia', pride in its most Satanic form." The revelers and the Pardoner himself are guilty of the latter.

Describes several layers of allegorical meaning in NPT, explaining them in an ascending scheme of specific to general, content to form; suggests that Chaucer artfully combines the incommensurable to maintain both jest and earnest.

Explores the "[p]ossible influence" of ShT "on the Don Juan theme" in England and in Spain, observing that the former "is likely enough but difficult to prove," while the latter is "very unlikely and virtually unprovable."

Argues that Chaucer's use of conventional hunter and prey images in FrT "serves an organic function within the aesthetic whole of the work.” Rather than "functioning as mere decoration" it reinforces and deepens "the comic irony both inherent and…

Assesses Criseyde's character in light of Carl Jung's theory of the nature of love as a "result of the incomplete human soul seeking its complement"—the "anima" seeking its "animus." Troilus's failure to act disappoints Criseyde's courtly…

Maintains that Chaucer corrected Boccaccio arbitrarily when he claims at MkT 7.2248 that Persians wrote about Zenobia.

Examines references to times and dates in Book II of TC, arguing that Chaucer creates a double sense of time in order to convey a "rapid sequence of events" among the three main characters while also conveying through a "longer time scheme" the…

Explores Chaucer's stylistic virtuosity in his references to horses and riding, commenting on appropriateness, suggestive naming and coloring, metaphoric and imagistic implications, and comic effects. Includes comments on horses in TC, LGW, and CT.

Comments on Chaucer's status as a member of the middle class, and explores his depiction of middle-class society in CT, with attention to how it reflects his contemporary world. Includes four b&w illustrations.

Surveys English literature and critical responses to this literature; designed for classroom use. Summarizes historical backgrounds and provides annotated bibliographies, linked with the discussions of individual works, authors, and topics, including…

Suggests that the number of participants in Chaucer's CT pilgrimage--"Wel nyne and twenty" (GP 1.24) plus the narrator--can be seen to signify the "active life," consisting "essentially of penitence and good works." Offers evidence that thirty…

Explores the mythological tradition which "linked Jupiter with the sands of Libya" as well as "Venus' association with the wilderness of Libya," helping to clarify Chaucer's reference to the "desert of Libye" in HF and his use of Virgil's "Aeneid" as…

Comments on the "real and alleged obscenity of the farting scene in MilT, focusing on its, narrative technique, humor, and the use of "thonder-dent."

Characterizes the Wife of Bath through a sustained, appreciative summary of and commentary on WBP and, more extensively, WBT, showing that "Comic exaggeration is her forte, but tempered by delicate play and a fatal aim, the more precise for being…

An anthology of seventeen twentieth-century essays or excerpts by various authors on TC (twelve examples), BD, HF, PF, courtly love, and dream vision poetry--sixteen reprinted and one original: R. E. Kaske, "The Aube in Chaucer's 'Troilus'."

Responds to critiques of two books previously published by the author--"Some Types of Narrative in Chaucer's Poetry" (1954) and "The Golden Mirror: Studies on Chaucer's Descriptive Technique and Its Literary Background" (1955)--seeking to clarify…

Offers information about "medieval papal denunciations of anti-semitism" and how they can be seen to indict the Prioress, especially PrT 7.684-87, particularly because "Chaucer's references to the Hebrew people," outside PrT, "are not at all…