Schmidt, A. V. C.
Essays in Criticism 19 (1969): 107-17.
Argues that KnT is "mainly about" the tragedy of Arcite rather than the success of Palamon. The latter mistakes both the nature of Emelye and the rivalry of Arcite, who is a "worthier" man. Like Troilus, Arcite falls in fortune, and ultimately fails…
Ross, Valerie Ann.
Dissertation Abstracts International 56 (1996): 3950A.
Chaucer and Marie de France simultaneously contribute to the development of vernacular literature and subvert its conventions through parody, pastiche, and resistance to existing gender models.
Colwell, C. Carter.
New York: Putnam's Sons, 1971.
Surveys English literature in Britain from Chaucer to ca. 1970, with the opening section (pp. 13-72) covering Chaucer's life, works, audience and reception, and his cultural environment--both historical and literary. Pays particular attention to CT,…
Late fourteenth-century traders' time of profit-making synchronizes with narrative time in Chaucer's tales, enabling the poet to articulate the relationship between time as physically experienced and Christian time, both linear and cyclical.
Revard, Carter.
English Language Notes 17 (1980): 168-70.
MilT's reference to Absalom's "having moore tow on his distaf" (I, 3774) adds another significance to its long recognized proverbial one when we realize that carrying a distaff with tow on it to the pillory was statutory punishment in Chaucer's…
Bukowska, Joanna.
Wojciech Drąg and Ewa Kębłowska-Ławniczak, eds. Spectrum of Emotions: From Grief to Love (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2016), pp. 13-25.
Assesses the literary conventions and intellectual context of "The Court of Love," a sixteenth-century poem thought to be by Chaucer until the twentieth century. Emphasizes early modern modifications of medieval amatory verse, and includes comments…
Duino, Richard.
English Journal 46 (1957): 320-25, 365.
Provides "some scholarly background information" about the Pardoner intended for teachers of high school senior English classes, summarizing studies by Tupper, Kittredge, Curry, and Patch, and focusing on why Chaucer may have invested this Canterbury…
Argues that KnT is a heightened, courtly "particularization" of a fundamental aspect of the human condition: "the disorderly promptings of carnal love and their disastrous effects." Considers the imagery of the poem (Christian, Boethian, fire, and…
When Chaucer notes in GP that the Pardoner could "wel affile his tongue," he is referring to the tongue as a weapon, a source of "slander and destruction," as noted in Psalms 56 and 63. Critics who have translated "affile" as "polish" have misread…
Turgon [David E. Smith].
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Cold Spring Press, 2004
An anthology of selections from medieval literatures that influenced J. R. R. Tolkien: Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, Celtic (Welsh and Irish), and Finnish. Includes RvT, NPT, and FranT (pp. 127-53), translated by John S. P. Tatlock and…
Burrow, J. A.
Essays on Medieval Literature (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984), pp. 69-78.
Documents that the honorific "sir" plus a "knight’s name" occurs twelve times in Th and "not once elsewhere" in Chaucer's works, suggesting that, confined to a "burlesque context" and similar to historical French practice, this usage should be…
Item not seen. The WorldCat record indicates that this filmstrip "Uses contemporary prints and paintings to illustrate fourteenth century England as reflected in the works of Chaucer" and that the "Recording includes The tale of the wyf of Bathe read…
Popular social history, presented as a travel guide for the "historical traveler," i.e., the modern traveler in medieval England; includes sections on "Where to Stay," "What to Eat and Drink," etc. The index cites numerous references to Chaucer as a…
Examines Pasolini's inclusion of Italian and English dialects in "I racconti di Canterbury" / "The Canterbury Tales." Reveals how Pasolini's use of dialects reflects his own theories about the importance of "language as an instrument of . . .…
Lundberg, Patricia Lorimer.
Essays in Medieval Studies 3: 34-59, 1986.
Argues that Chaucer depicts an idealized earthly love in books 1-3 of TC, an expedient pseudolove in Criseyde's relationship with Diomede, and a transcendent love in Troilus's continuing love for Criseyde.
Howard, Donald R.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966.
Explores the medieval psychology of temptation and sin, anchored in Scripture and patristic writing—the three-fold lures of gluttony (flesh), avarice (world), and vainglory (devil), resisted, ideally, by "contemptus mundi." Treats TC (pp, 79-160) as…
Fisher, John H.
Chaucer Review 8.2 (1973): 119-27.
Shows how the first three tales in CT can be seen to align with the discussion of three rhetorical styles in John of Garland's "Poetria"--courtly, civic, and rustic. Particularly applicable is Garland's commentary on his rectangular chart of…
Lynch, Kathryn L.
Yvonne Bruce, ed. Images of Matter: Essays on British Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Proceedings of the Eighth Citadel Conference on Literature, Charleston, South Carolina, 2002. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005, pp. 72-91
Lynch posits that Shakespeare had an "anxious" relationship with Chaucer as a model, a source, and a father figure. She reads "Two Noble Kinsman" against KnT for evidence of this "nervous" relationship and similarly assesses Fletcher's "revisionary…
Dogan, Sadenur.
Tarih kultur ve sanat aras¸tırmaları dergisi/Journal of History, Culture, and Art Research 2.2 (2013): 49-56.
Describes how in GP the descriptions of the Knight, the Parson, and the Plowman reflect the ideals of their respective social estates, and how the descriptions of the Monk, the Reeve, and the Wife of Bath exemplify Chaucer's uses of estates satire…
Burrow, John.
J. A. Burrow and Ian P. Wei, eds. Medieval Futures: Attitudes to the Future in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell, 2000), pp. 37-48.
The image of Prudence's third eye signifies looking to the future and implies that such prudential anticipation of implications and outcomes had "moral and even spiritual significance." Discusses the image and its implications in TC and Mel, as well…
DiLorenzo, Raymond Douglas.
Dissertation Abstracts International 36 (1975): 1521A-22A.
BD displays the process of consolation as emotional change effected through the medium of epideictic discourse. In the act of speaking, the grieved knight apprehends the cause of his grief in a new way, and is consoled.
