Browse Items (15544 total)

Offers surmises and suggestions about the number of GP pilgrims, professional groupings of them, and a two-stage "development" of GP--an early set of fourteen descriptions written ca. 1387-88 and a later revision, ca. 1396, that reflects plans for…

An anthology of criticism, with a brief introduction (pp. vii-ix) that characterizes CT as "unique" because "no other work so fragmentary creates such an illusion of completeness." The volume reprints essays and excerpts by twenty-one writers,…

Explores the Merchant's "animus toward Italians or, at least, toward Lombards from Pavia" in his characterization of January. Responding to the Clerk's view of Lombards, the Merchant reflects late-medieval English malice against Italian commercial…

Argues that in MerT "January's love of May reflects, in heightened colors," the Merchant's own "commercial love of the world's goods." Explores the possessive nature of January's love of May, focusing on the Merchant's metaphors and references to…

Rejects the "drunkenness hypothesis" as a way of explaining the Pardoner's character, arguing that pride and "counterfeit humility" underlie the characterization and that the "[s]uspicion, aversion, and contempt" of the pilgrim audience toward him…

Argues that Chaucer's references to May third, assigned in Ovidian tradition to "the goddess Flora and her celebrations," is a day on which the "force of love is especially and powerfully felt," and therefore "a suitable day for Pandare [TC 2.56],…

Explores the Boethian themes, imagery, and conventions of the "Kingis Quair," and comments on similarities and differences between its uses of these devices and those in BD, PF, TC, and KnT.

Anatomizes and analyzes "some eighty-three scenes" in TC that "reveal" in the poem "the role of dialogue, the role of visual scene and image, the role of structural contrast, and the role of tempo and movement" and create "skillful ordering" and…

Proposes several "distinct stages" in Chaucer's development of the "magnificent individuality" of the Wife of Bath, focusing on his uses in WBP of source material drawn from Jerome, Theophrastus, Deschamps, and others. Assumes that the Man of Law…

Gauges the extent and depth of Chaucer's philosophical and theological skepticism in comparison with the views of some of his contemporaries--Wycliff, Langland, Gower, Julian of Norwich, and more. Identifies skeptical attitudes on free will,…

Includes seventeen essays on various aspects of medieval literature: five on Chaucer, eight on other medieval literary studies, two on linguistics, and two on editing medieval texts. Includes a professional biography of Baugh and a partial list of…

Explores difficulties of translating Virgil's "Aeneid," opening with commentary on HF 143-44 as "Chaucer's witty little critical essay on the problem."

Introduces pronunciation of Chaucer's English, offering a series of general rules, explained in relationship to Modern English, both "British and American" and designed for "teachers and students." Also includes transcriptions of nine passages in…

Describes the Continental lyric genre of the "aube," linking it with the German "tagelied," assessing Chaucer's use of the form in Book 3 of TC, and addressing his use of source material derived from Boccaccio's "Filostrato." Concludes that Chaucer…

Explains complications in defining "furlong wey" when it refers to time rather than distance, and examines Chaucer's several uses of the term to argue that it means "a short time, sometimes very short, sometimes only fairly short.

Challenges previous arguments that the name "Malyne" is appropriate to the character in RvT because it means "dish cloth," arguing instead that "Malyne," "Aleyn," and their roles in RvT can better be understood in light of the denotations and…

Adaptations of selections and abbreviations of CT in modern prose: GP, KnT, WBPT, FrPT, ClPT, FranPT, ThPT (in stanzaic poetry), NPPT, PardPT, CYPT, ManPT, and MLPT. Includes numerous color illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren and an Introduction (pp.…

Claims that CYT "depends on the metaphor of alchemy for both characterization and structure," discussing the Canon's Yeoman as a "fearful, naive, but by no means static" character and exploring the use of vocabulary of literary romance in his…

Surveys critics' attempts to correlate Ret with Chaucer's poetic accomplishments, commenting on biographical surmises, textual issues, and thematic concerns such as the putative waning of Chaucer's acuity, clerical influence, the firm linking of Ret…

Offers evidence from Rom that "tidings" in HF means "tales" rather than "news."

Describes how "the part Pandarus attempts to play" in TC "is intended by Chaucer, though not by Pandarus, as a parody of the philosophical counsel offered to Boethius" in the Consolation of Philosophy. Focuses on the comedy of the "first scene"…

Supports the reading of "hors" as plural in GP 1.74 on the grounds that "goode" in the same line is a plural form that "determines the number of the entire construction."

Offers evidence from Thomas Dekker's "The Bel-man of London" (1608) that supports reading "to pull a finch" as "having to do with extortion based upon a trumped-up charge of fornication," hence an accusation against the Summoner (GP 1.652) for…

Comments on thematic similarities between Plato's "Gorgias," Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," and several of Chaucer's works, observing in TC a particular concern shared by Plato and Boethius: the "futility of earthly existence."

Explores parallels between several medieval analogues to Chaucer's use of the phrase "Latyn corrupt" in his description of Constance's language in MLT 2.519--the alliterative "Morte Arthure," the "Etymologiae" of Isidore of Seville (possibly, the…