The legend of Moses' magic, alluded to in SqT 247-51, first occurs in Peter Comestor's "Historia scholastica." Nicholas Trevet and Gower also mention this motif, but probably Chaucer's source for the allusion is Roger Bacon's "Opus maius."
Supports James Wimsatt's contention that the story of Ceyx and Alcyone in BD owes certain details to "Ovide moralise" rather than to the "Metamorphoses" by offering one piece of evidence, namely, that the narrator says that, to drive away the…
Since Chaucer uses the same passage in the Roman de la Rose as a source for the Prioress and the Wife of Bath, these two characters "are bonded in ironic literary sisterhood."
Offers evidence (rhymes and phonetic patterns in English and French) to indicate "Chaucer having pronounced 'iu' in French loanwords, with the stress on the first element of the diphthong." Further this "'iu' coalesced with earlier 'ew', 'iw', and,…
Renoir, Alain.
Notes and Queries 203 (1958): 283-84.
Explores similarities of Chaucer's description of women's hair (KnT 1.1048-50, PF 267-68, and TC 5.808-12) and Apuleius's "Metamorphoses" II.10, suggesting a similar aesthetic rather than a source relationship, and noting that all resonate with…
Snell, William.
Hiyoshi Review of English Studies 44 (2004): 157-72
Explores why Samuel Johnson did not carry out his publicized intention to produce an annotated edition of Chaucer's works. If he had relied on Urry's edition, the annotated edition would have proved a sorry rival to Tyrwhitt's.
Sudo, Jun.
Hiroe Futamura, Kenichi Akishino, and Hisato Ebi, eds. A Pilgrimage Through Medieval Literature (Tokyo: Nan' Un-Do Press, 1993), pp. 81-93.
In Chaucer's TC and in Boccaccio's "Filostrato," love is irresistible. Sudo considers Pandarus's role in effecting love's irresistibility and assesses the function of nautical imagery in conveying it.
Kanno, Masahiko.
Yoshinobu Niwa, ed. Theoretical and Descriptive Studies of the English Language (Tokyo: Seibido, 1992), pp. 89-102.
Examines the important role of rhetorical figures--particularly repetition and contrast--in the meaning, the structure, and the description of characters in NPT, BD, and TC.
Kanno, Masahiko.
Bulletin of Aichi University of Education 46: 1-8, 1997.
Words and phrases discussed include "lust," "blynde," "a fewe wordes white," "glosynge," "ambages," "amphibologie," "double," "sophyme," "swete wordes," "plesante wordes," and "peinten."
Suggests that the "cluster of ideas" that conclude Shakespeare's Sonnet 38 are a version of the "topos of supplication" that Bawcutt traces back to Boccaccio's "Filostrato," citing mediating examples in TC (1.15-21), KnT (2405-6), and Gavin Douglas's…
Nakao, Yoshiyuki.
Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic Literary Studies 41 (1994): 19-43.
Charts use of "pite" in Chaucer's works and argues that, as applied to and by Criseyde in TC, it signals transitions in her affections and enables the audience to view her both critically and empathetically.
Parsigian, Elise K.
Rackham Literary Studies 6 (1975): 51-54.
Though the Pardoner is consummately evil, the Host must be reconciled with him because the former is still a representative of the church. The Host's outburst, though justified, is destructive because to the company the Pardoner is an embodiment of…
Barlow, Richard G.
Theatre Southwest 14 (1987): 9-12.
The love ballad "Rosemounde" is a "sophisticated dramatic monologue" in which Chaucer unconventionally develops the theme of carnal versus spiritual love "through the 'persona' of a boastful knight." Through the comic irony of the ballad and the use…
Kehler, Joel R.
English Language Notes 12 (1975): 184-87.
Joseph's Conrad's epigraph to "The Rescue" quotes FranT 5.1342-44, and the two works share concern with "chivalric idealism" and 'amour courtois'." The heroines of the two works are "captives of illusion," and they abandon courtly suitors when…
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Chaucer Newsletter 2:2 (1980): 14.
Variations in the ink color of MSS. Ellesmere and Hengwrt have yet to be accurately described and may provide information concerning the order in which the parts of the mss were written.
Scott, P. G.
Notes and Queries 211 (1966): 125-26.
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.
Besserman, Lawrence [L.]
Chaucer Review 24 (1990): 306-308.
Not only does Troilus's address to the "paleys desolat" of Criseyde echo the lament over the deserted Jerusalem in the first two chapters of Lamentations, but also Troilus's fixation upon that house is designed to evoke the self-punishing behavior…
Contrary to Stephen R. Reimer's crediting them to George Vertue (in Chaucer Review 41 [2006]), the drawings for the Urry portraits were executed by J. Chalmer and printed thereafter from engravings by Vertue.
