Russell, J. Stephen.
J. Stephen Russell, ed. Allegoresis: The Craft of Allegory in Medieval Literature (New York and London: Garland, 1988, for 1987), pp. 171-85.
Examines the crux in lines 1907-15 as a "seam" in Chaucer's fabrication that reveals his understanding of allegory and its appropriateness for his vision. The "disconversant dialogue" represented in these lines is "a convention of personification…
Johnson, Ian.
Sabrina Corbellini, Giovanna Murano, and Giacomo Signore, eds. Collecting, Organizing and Transmitting Knowledge: Miscellanies in Late Medieval Europe (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), pp. 23-38.
Considers late medieval miscellanea and the "sensibility of the miscellaneous," using the concept of "heterarchy," and assessing Nicholas of Lyre’s discussion of the Psalter, the :Biblically licensed diversity" of CT (evident in ParsT, Ret, and…
Brown, William H.,Jr.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 83 (1984): 492-508.
In TC, Chaucer used the tradition of Joseph of Exeter and Benoit (who had drawn on Dares) to emphasize Troilus's public career rather than his private affairs.
Hornsby, Joseph.
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. 116-34.
Surveys the development of the legal profession in medieval England as background to understanding how the GP sketch of the Man of Law is a "thumbnail sketch of a common lawyer," focusing on his status as a "sergeant." MLT capitalizes on the myth…
Kruger, Steven F.
Gail Ashton and Louise Sylvester, eds. Teaching Chaucer (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 30-45.
Pedagogical approach to CT combining traditional "high-stakes" formal writing and "low-stakes" informal writing, incorporated in a broader portfolio of student responses and projects.
Rogers, Cynthia A.
Notes and Queries 265 (2020): 195-98.
Reviews how, in ten manuscript witnesses, the sixty-eight stanzas of "Letter" are misordered, in four distinct ways, three of which stem from collation errors. Though "unfortunate" for the poem, the errors "provide another few data points" regarding…
Edits Jonathan Sidnam's rhyme-royal "paraphrase" of Books 1-3 of TC found in London, British Library, Additional MS 29494, with occasional bottom-of-the-page textual notes and an extensive Introduction (pp. 5-88) that is indexed, although the text is…
Moore, Stephen Gerard.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1998): 2014A.
Readers of medieval allegory look for meaning but find themselves obliged by many factors to revise their interpretations. Even the literal sense proves highly complex, seeming to shift as it develops, so that readers must reconsider. Moore analyzes…
King, Sigrid.
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. 210-19
The GP description of the Shipman depicts him as a typical privateer, one modeled, perhaps, on the historical John Hawley and Piers Risselden. ShT reflects a cynical attitude, aimed especially at the merchant of the "Tale."
Summarizes the historical and formal stumbling blocks involved in describing a tradition of Middle English secular lyrics, with comments on Chaucer's innovations and on the evidence in his works for courtly and popular legacies.
Addresses the history of medieval Christianity from the fall of Rome to the ideas of the Reformation. Focuses less on secular and ecclesiastical religious elites and more on how the general public viewed issues of damnation and salvation in the…
Berkhout, Carl T.
American Notes and Queries 23 (1984): 33-34.
A reference in Matthew Parker's "De antiquitate britannicae ecclesiae" (1572) to Clare Hall, Cambridge, as "vocatum in Chaucero in fabula de Reve the soller Halle" (cf. RvT 3990).
Despite repressive laws and the misogyny of clerical writers, it appears that wives, widows, religious women, mystics, townswomen, and peasant women had more control, respect, and influence than has been thought. Labarge presents the whole social…
Farnham, Anthony E.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
Designed as a textbook for study of the history of the English language; includes 24 samples of English prose and poetry, with facing-page translations and brief intoductions. Two selections from Chaucer's works: ABC (pp. 63-75) and Bo 1.prose 6…
Argues that Chaucer spent much of the 1380s and 1390s in Southwark as a recipient of a sort of patronage from William Wykeham, chancellor of England, alongside others such as Gower and John Cobham. Asserts that GP is based on the format of the 1381…
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Modern Philology 64 (1967): 320-21.
Identifies an analogue to the pear-tree episode in MerT, a folktale entitled "Women Always Get Away With It," first published in Puerto Rico in 1915-16 but evidently part of oral tradition.
Translation of TC into modern Spanish, with facing-page copy text reprint of Barry Windeatt's text of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, MS 61. The translation is arranged in stanzas, but without rhyme or regular meter. The introduction…
O'Neill, Ynez Violé.
Medical History 12.2 (1968): 185-90.
Proposes that the "greyn" in the mouth of the clergeon in PrT (7.622) may be related to a common medieval medical prescription for various maladies, including loss of speech: a "castorea."
Tabulates the "frequency and percentage" of the modal auxiliaries shall/will and should/would in CT, presenting in eight tables the statistical data in relation to grammar (types of sentences and clauses, person, etc.), mode (poetry and prose), and…
Curtis, Carl Clifford.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1987): 3753A.
In KnT, the medieval view of the deficiencies of classical ideals is demonstrated through the tacit presence of Christianity. In its light, the ancient order breaks down; thus, KnT fills a significant place in CT as Christian pilgrimage.
