Patch, Howard R.
Modern Language Notes 70 (1955): 8-12.
Suggests sources in Boccaccio's "Filostrato" for the "corounes tweyne" of TC 2.1735 (noting parallels with SNT 8.221) and for the Invocation to light in the Proem to TC 3, reinforced by several other echoes of "Filostrato."
Pratt, Robert A.
Modern Language Notes 70 (1955): 324-25.
Clarifies the appropriateness of Symkin's wife swearing by the "croys of Bromeholm" (RvT 1. 4286), adducing Roger of Wendover's "Flores Historiarum" and, possibly, the clerical status of the wife's father.
Rosenthal, M. L., and A. J. M. Smith.
New York: Macmillan, 1955.
Introduces "the study of poetry," suitable for classroom use. A section on "Implied Argument: Irony and Ambiguity" includes a reading of PardT 6.728-33 that suggests a "profound idea wells up in this passage--the idea that we cannot conceive of…
Schaar, Claes.
Lund: Gleerup, 1955. Rpt. 1967, with an Index.
Introduces the conventions of "impersonal" style based in classical rhetoric and developed in medieval rhetorical handbooks Then anatomizes the characteristics of Chaucer's descriptive techniques in relation to his "predecessors and contemporaries,"…
Schoeck, R[ichard]. J.
Notes and Queries 200 (1955): 140.
Lends authority to Gerard Legh's claims about Chaucer's status at the Inner Temple (and writing HF for a ceremony there) by adducing Legh's "standing as a heraldist."
Schoeck, Richard J.
The Bridge: A Yearbook of Judaeo-Christian Studies 2 (1955): 239-55.
Argues that Chaucer's characterization of the Prioress in GP "leaves shadows of doubt" about the Prioress, along with "several kinds of uncertainty" and some "strong implications" for the audience. Further, in PrT, her "own words . . . convict her of…
Sells, A. Lytton.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955.
Assesses the influence--direct and mediated--of Italian literature on English poetry from Chaucer to Robert Southwell (excluding verse drama), considering issues of meter and style as well as plot, atmosphere, and theme. Opens with appreciative…
Shain, Charles E.
Modern Language Notes 70 (1955): 235-45.
Considers the "pulpit rhetoric" of PardPT, the friar in SumT, and MerT, arguing that they all share general techniques, imagery, and symbols of medieval sermons, without following strictly the structural formality of "artes praedicandi." Observes…
Speaight, George.
New York: John de Graff, [1955].
A sweeping survey of puppets, puppeteering, puppet shows, and their cultural legacy in England. Surmises briefly (p. 52) that "popet" (Th 7.701) and "popelote" (MilT 1.3254) may evince knowledge of puppet performance in Chaucerian England, but also…
Stillwell, Gardiner.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 54 (1955): 693-99. Rpt. in Studies by Members of the English Department, University of Illinois, in Memory of John Jay Parry. Essay Index Reprint Series. [Urbana]: University of Illinois Press, 1968, pp. 212-18.
Identifies predecessors in Old French fabliaux for courtly details, diction, locutions, and situations in MilT and RvT, helping to create comic irony by contrast between "elegance and 'harlotrye.'"
Stroud, Theodore A.
College English 17 (1955): 109-10.
Identifies modern analogues to ShT and Boccaccio's "Decameron" 8.1 in Thomas Menkel's 1946 short story, "Secret Debt," and Menkel's reported source in a "Scotch joke," surmising general transmission of the tale.
Assesses parallels between PrT and the "liturgy of the Feat of the Holy Innocents" (mass, vespers, etc.), a source likely to have been known to Chaucer. Also labels PrT a "devotional" tale, sharing distinctive similarities of imagery and symbolism…
Introduces Chaucer and his world, with sections on his life, English history, and culture; the lyrics and short poems; translations and "minor" poems (including TC and the dream visions), and CT, with discussion of manuscripts, the order of the…
Knowles, Dom David.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955.
Part of a three-volume study, this volume addresses the "history of the religious orders [monastic and mendicant] in England from the Pontificate of Benedict XII to the end of the strife between the houses of York and Lancaster," considering a…
Warren, Robert Penn, ed.
Erskine, Albert, ed.
New York: Dell, 1955.
Anthologizes selections from the poetry of English writers, arranged chronologically from Chaucer to Wilfred Owen, with an Introduction by the editors that justifies the selections. Includes an alphabetical index of titles and first lines. The…
Provides evidence for the "strongest possibility" that WBT "did not differ from other Arthurian tales but came to Chaucer from Ireland through Wales, Brittany, and France."
Reconstructs the layout and functions of the rooms and gardens of the households in TC, drawing on details in the poem and evidence from fourteenth-century English architecture, with connections to correlative structures and scenes elsewhere in…
Focuses on TC as an example of Chaucer's outlook during his "Italian period," charting his borrowings and "digressions" from Boccaccio's "Il Filostrato." the influence of Boethius, and courtly love. Describes the attitudes toward Fortune of the major…
Schlauch, Margaret.
New York: Cooper Square, 1971. Originally published in Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1956.
Surveys the literatures of medieval England, with emphasis on origins, multilingualism, feudalism, developmental transitions, dominant themes, and social, political, and religious contexts. Includes chapters on the contemporaries of Chaucer,…
