Browse Items (16012 total)

Argues that two of Chaucer's emphases in SqT modify source material from Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and thereby undo the "binary divide between humankind and animal kinds." The "falcon's species vacillation" and Canace's "cross-species…

In his prologue to his edition (1484) of CT, Caxton apparently borrows some of Chaucer's phrases to describe Chaucer's poems.

Statistical evidence--including stress patterns, line divisions, pauses, missing and extrametrical syllables, and syntactical inversion--from Chaucer's octosyllabic lines corroborates a proposed prototype of iambic tetrameter and encourages us to…

Chaucer shows keen awareness of children--they are not merely miniature adults--and their relationship to their parents, as is clear in GP, FranT, ManT, PrT, SumT, MkT, WBT, PhyT, ClT, and especially Astr.

As a compilatio, CT is an experiment with a variety of popular narrative genres in which the limitations and possibilities of each genre are illuminated.

Argues that until the temple-prayer scene of KnT, Palamon is more the warrior than Arcite, and Arcite more the lover than Palamon.

Identifies a reference to the Wife of Bath's equation of friars and incubi (WBT 3.865-80) in Richard Crakanthorp(e)'s "Introductio in Metaphysicam" (1619).

Quotes and translates an analogue to the window scene of bottom kissing in MilT, recorded by folklorist Juan B. Rael as "La mujer y los tres amantes," collected by oral transmission from Félix Pino in New Mexico in the 1930s.

Lists a variety of items (some annotated) that pertain to the study of Chaucer. Eighteen topical sub-headings address social and literary contexts, as well as critical studies of Chaucer's works.

Middle English version of GP [Skeat edition], accompanied by numerous b&w reproductions of woodcuts from editions of CT by William Caxton (1484), Wynkyn de Worde (1494), and Richard Pynson (1526). Includes a seven-inch phonograph recording (33 1/3…

An alphabetical dictionary that lists people, personifications, and allusions (direct and indirect) in Chaucer's works, providing brief identifications and exhaustive citations of occurrences. Entries for sources, such as the Bible, Boccaccio, Dante,…

Identifies and describes geographical names and places used by Chaucer or evidently known to him. Arranged alphabetically, the dictionary lists names, describes the places, and their occurrences in Chaucer's works, offering etymologies for British…

A glossary based largely on the Tatlock and Kennedy "Concordance." It does not go beyond A of Rom, nor does it cover the "Equatorie." Different meanings are cited by line references; etymologies are provided; there is a useful introductory note on…

Presenting evidence set forth by Pamela Robinson, J. D. North, and D. J. Price, Fisher argues that Peterhouse MS 75.1 of "Equat" is a Chaucer holograph and suggests tantalizing biographical implications.

LGWP is Chaucer's validation of a literary practice that is grounded less in experience than in accumulated written tradition.

In TC, 5.804, Diomede is said to be "of tonge large," a phrase that perhaps owes a debt to the "Aeneid" (9.338), where Drances is described as "largus opum et lingua melior." Koch's view in "Chaucers Belesenheit in den romischen Klassikern" that…

Howard's "Complaint of a diyng louer refused vpon his ladies iniust mistaking of his writyng," a poem of eighty-two lines first published in "Tottel's Miscellany" (1557) and here reprinted, is a "refreshingly renewed" late example of a courtly love…

Justifies dating the "Destruction of Troy" after TC (i.e., "about 1400") by exploring echoes of the former in the latter.

In TC 5.543, the use of the participle "queynt" (quenched) may have been meant by Chaucer as a pun on the noun "queynt" (pudendum). Although the pun may have been intentional, it is irrelevant to the passage in which it appears, syntactically…

Explores the meanings and implications of the phrase "spiced conscience" in Middle English and later English language history, arguing that in both the GP description of the Parson (1.526) and the Wife of Bath's admonition to her husband (WBP 3.435)…

Computer-assisted analysis of "storie" and "tale" in context indicates that Chaucer uses them differently. "Storie" typically appears in relation to the historical, courtly, and clerical, associated with public memory and authority. "Tale" refers to…

Describes visits by American students to London and Canterbury Cathedral as part of a study-abroad program.

Challenges the theory that ShT was originally intended to be narrated by the Wife of Bath, and suggests a major emendation: moving lines 7.5-19 (which include first-person feminine pronouns) later in the tale and having them spoken by the merchant's…

Suggests that two annotations in St. John's College Cambridge MS 204 of Trevisa's "Polychronicon" were inspired by a reading of Chaucer.

Month-by-month (April to March) commentary on the significance of dates and months in Chaucer's life and works, with occasional quotations. Initial version posted April 2001. An addendum includes the transcript of a "Question and Answer Session" with…