Allen, Judson Boyce,and Theresa Anne Moritz.
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1981.
Medieval literary theory in general, and commentary on Ovid's "Metamorphoses," the tales-in-a-frame book most certainly important to Chaucer, suggest that CT can best be understood when grouped in four kinds: natural, magical, moral, and spiritual. …
Reconstructs the narrative progress of TC in a sequence of some 200 seven-line poems, approximating rhyme royal, keyed by line numbers to Chaucer's work, and arranged in five books; running footers link the verse with the plot. Individual poems give…
Maček, Dora.
Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia 33-36 (1972-1973): 695-708.
Analyzes a sample of periphrastic verbal phrases drawn from GP, describing practices and problems in pursuing computer analysis of Middle English. Focuses on frequency of verbal periphrases, uses of auxiliaries, ordering of elements, and grammatical…
Darjes, Bradley, and Thomas Rendall.
Medieval Studies 47 (1985): 416-31.
Parallels in diction, phrasing, portrayal, and plot suggest that the episode of the Pardoner and the tapster is shaped according to the model of the Chaucerian fabliau.
Links BD with Freudian method, arguing that the poem "foreshadows" psychoanalysis through its depiction of how certain uses of language can heal trauma from painful memories
Analyzes a flyleaf from a ca.1548 printing by Robert Toye of William Thynne's edition of Chaucer's Workes as evidence that Toye was part of a group of "active radical Protestant" printers. The flyleaf includes Ulrich Zwingli's The Rekenynge and…
Saul, Nigel.
Fourteenth Century England 2: 131-45, 2002.
Criticism of warfare at the end of the fourteenth century focused on greed and pride as "evils of the times," rather than on burdens of taxation, an earlier preoccupation. In Sted, Form Age, Mel, and Th, Chaucer's dislike of war is evident, and his…
Filax, Elaine.
Muriel Whitaker, ed. Sovereign Lady: Essays on Women in Middle English Literature (New York and London: Garland, 1995), pp. 133-56.
SNT reflects a Marian-driven ideal of virginal power, mayde and martyr," while SNP stresses Mary as mediatrix, "Mayde and Mooder." The absent female-gendered body of the Second Nun, undescribed in GP, bears witness to the bodies of female spiritual…
Observes parallels between a confessional sermon and the following: the Wit section of "Piers Plowman," the "Somme le Roi," "Mankind," and both SumT and PardT. Includesa text of the Middle English sermon.
Includes selections from GP (pp. 16-33) in Middle English with Nevill Coghill's modern translation on facing pages and brief comments and notes (pp. 296-97).
Steel, Karl.
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 185-99.
Form Age shares thematic elements with Alexander legends, including vegetarianism and prohibitions against agriculture. In these poems humans live as, and eat as, animals do, a contrast to the mastery described in Genesis. The life described in these…
Olson, Glending.
Donka Minkova and Theresa Tinkle, eds. Chaucer and the Challenges of Medievalism: Studies in Honor of H. A. Kelly (Frankfurt and New York : Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 143-55.
Olson examines Gerard of Odo's "Facetus, multa documenta," a commentary on Aristotle's "Nichomachean Ethics," as background to the Prioress's description in GP. The Franciscan commentary may indicate that the courtliness of the description is more…
Sembler, Elizabeth Mauer.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 135-44.
The ambiguous social and legal status of franklins in fourteenth-century England makes it difficult to know whether Chaucer's Franklin was a member of the gentry or an aspirant to the gentle class. Sembler surveys critical opinions about the…
Hagen, Karl T.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 80-92.
Summarizes the history and organization of the four fraternal orders, focusing on the Franciscans and Dominicans. Chaucer's Friar and the friar of SumT are fictional renderings of the antifraternal outlooks of William of St. Amour and Richard…
Rodrigues, Leandro Dias Carneiro.
REVELL: Revista de Estudos Literários da UEMS, special issue (2019): 147-58.
Analyzes the aesthetic features--the linguistic, prosodic, and structural form and the aesthetic tradition of MilT--and the vulgar and humorous content of the Tale to emphasize its importance in the canon of popular poetry.
Martin, Daniel, and Margaret Wright.
Chaucer Review 24 (1990): 271-73.
The "hostes man" who follows the begging friars of SumT can be identified as the servant of their innkeeper, who follows after them to carry their ill-gotten gains.
Klassen, Norman.
New Chaucer Society Newsletter 36.01 (2014): 4-5.
Notes that Liddell's 1901 and Pollard's 1903 editions of GP end line 13 with a full stop. This "aligns with the conclusions of Bernhard ten Brink and Otto Jespersen and solves a difficulty with the syntax that Julius Zupitza noted after 'serve' was…
Fisher, John H.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales" (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 281-87.
The GP sketch of the Manciple is interesting insofar as it reflects Chaucer's possible associations with the Inns of Court. The profession was a rare one in Chaucer's day, although there are similarities between reeves and manciples. The antagonism…
Dialectical and textual evidence suggests that the simile in RvT 1.3964 means "'she is as worthy as ditch-water is stinking' that is to say 'very worthy,' with no pejorative implication."
Robb, Candace [M.]
New York: St. Martin's; London: Heinemann, 1998.
Historical detective novel in which Geoffrey Chaucer, while recruiting Welsh archers for defense against the French, assists Owen Archer's investigations of a murder in Wales.
Benson, Larry D.
Hamden, Conn.: Garland Press, 1993.
A complete concordance to Benson's "Riverside Chaucer," excluding only titles, glosses, implicits, and explicits. Includes brief definitions of words and references to definitions in the OED and MED.
Holt, John Douglas Gordon.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1988): 257A-258A.
Lists references both to the Vulgate and to the mass, prayers,holy office, and hymns, as noted in the Baugh, Benson, Fisher, Pratt, and Robinson editions. The Latin passage, modern English translation, and Chaucer's treatment follow.
Chapter 1 (pp. 15-31) describes Chaucer's 1373 visit to Florence, a great industrial and financial center declining into political factionalism. Italian meters influenced Chaucer's rhyme royal. Boccaccio taught him the potential of romance; Dante…
