Browse Items (16479 total)

This study of madness in Middle English literature generally mentions Chaucer only in passing, but includes a brief discussion of a "pedestrian and highly traditional account of Nebuchadnezzer" in MkT. Clearly based on the Book of Daniel, the account…

Comments on the limitations of Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes" and the Prologue to the "Tale of Beryn" as imitations of Chaucer, and discusses at greater length how his fabliaux are superior to "Dame Sirith" and to later English comic tales such as "The…

Opens a discussion of hare-hunting as parody in the Middle High German fabliau "Das Häslein" with comments on Chaucer's Monk (GP 191-92 and MkP 7.1945-48) and, with reference to medieval hunting practice, shows that the German work is farcical.

Argues that the seven clerical pilgrims described in GP (Prioress, Monk, Friar, Clerk, Parson, Summoner, and Pardoner) are "partially or wholly defined by their sexual propensities," constituting a thematic pattern of "caritas" in tension with "amor"…

Argues that PF is "much more critical of human life than has been thought [and] that it finally adopts and orthodox Christian Position." Explores how the structure, details, and style of the poem undermine the narrator's views and work "to suggest,…

Resists impulses to denigrate the artistry of MLT and argues that the rhetorical passages--including several of the narrator's apostrophes--achieve "genuinely intense emotion" rather than mere sentimentality.

Characterizes the Canon's Yeoman as "a clever young man, almost too clever for his own good," a comic figure whose renunciation of the Canon and of alchemy is marked by shifting identities and ambiguities which indicate ironically the Yeoman's own…

Includes comments on "wanhope" and "accidia" in ParsT as examples of the "straight homiletic approach" to condemning religious despair.

Comments on the vocabulary of NPT and on Chaucer's "virtuosity" in exploiting Anglo-Saxon, French, and Latinate variety to create tone and effective characterization.

Surveys medieval and early modern literary references to Julius Caesar, including description and assessment of Chaucer's allusions and references to Caesar in Astr, KnT, MLT, and, at greatest length, MkT, commenting on sources and analogues,…

Identifies similarities and differences between marginal illustrations in the Smithfield Decretals (British Museum Royal MS. 10 E.iv) and narrative motifs in versions of the "Roman de Renart," commenting briefly on the presence of the distaff in the…

Interprets the GP description of the Prioress as a satire of an institution rather than a critique of an individual, offering the reading as a prolegomenon to a comparative discussion of the challenges of teaching English and teaching foreign…

Identifies and assesses various motifs in medieval literary and visual renderings of the barnyard chase of the fox, including those found in NPT. Argues that in several instances Chaucer's story may have influenced later depictions or mediated…

Argues that it "seems altogether likely" that when creating his GP description of the Physician Chaucer "at least had in mind" the doctor of the Brunellus the ass episode in Nigellus Wireker's "Speculum Stultorum"; both doctors are avaricious.

In two parts: 1) Elliott admires the unity and aesthetic qualities of PardT and addresses PardP as Chaucer's successful means to insert commentary on Church corruption; 2) Thomas argues that the Pardoner's effrontery and the moral failings of the…

Describes the medieval tradition of representing the scorpion as a figure of female sexuality and explains how this underlies the depiction of Fortune as a harlot and a treacherous "woman-visaged scorpion" in MerT 4.2057-62.

Summarizes the transmission of the "Liber Scalae" (ultimately Arabic), and identifies similarities between its eschatological and cosmological details and those found in late-medieval English works, including "Pearl," "The Land of Cockayne," and HF,…

Suggests that the "greyn" placed on the clergeon's tongue by the Virgin in PrT 7.662 may represent that his "disembodied spirit [was] restored for a time," offering contextualizing background from biblical, classical, and medieval scientific sources…

Traces the legacy of Lollard and Wycliffite writings in early modern print, including works incorrectly attributed to Chaucer (such as "The Plowman's Tale," "Jack Upland," and "The Testament of Love") and led to him being regarded as a…

Adduces ParsT 10.445 and "Purity" 1407-8 to argue that the paper castle in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (800-02) has moral implications of luxury and excess.

Identifies four medieval instances (three from Mel) of collocation of forms of "passen" and "gon" that predate the OED's two quotations for "past and gone," from 1598 and 1897.

Comments on English and Continental versions of medieval fox-and-cock narratives, including the claim that the "real value" of NPT "lies in [Chauntecleer's] windy philosophical monologue"; "Russell's subsequent appearance and his making off with…

Demonstrates the plain prose style of John Wyclif's sermons by comparing and contrasting five sample sermons with passages of similar length from ParsT and the "Cloud of Unknowing," considering sentence length, complexity, and clausal construction;…

Explores differences between the narrator's depictions of the passing of time in TC. Books 1-4 record events consecutively, with little or no inference of simultaneity of action, and Book 5 shifts abruptly to an "outside-narrator time sequence"…

Looks at multiple examples of reference and allusion to Greek and Roman literature in works by Chaucer and Milton to contemplate ways in which these poets parallel modern classical scholars in their approach to the ancient world.