Browse Items (15542 total)

Assesses Bo and its fifteenth-century reception in light of the "well-defined and distinctive" tradition of "academic translation," i.e., as a reflection of the late-medieval interest in semiotics and textual explication. Although Chaucer never…

Surveys scholarly discussion of Chaucer's sources for his extrapolatory glosses in Bo, arguing that he was indebted to "some version of the Remigian glosses," to Jean de Meun's "livres de confort," and to a complete version of Nicholas Trevet's…

Surveys the "history of Gower's reputation," beginning with Chaucer's reference to him as "moral Gower" at the end of TC and his possible allusions to Gower's works in ManT and MLP. The idea of a "quarrel" between the two poets is perhaps…

In an analysis of Gower's combination of confession, "dits amoreux," and concern with old age in the "Confessio Amantis," observes a number of comparisons and contrasts with Chaucer: the individuation of Amans and of the lovers in TC, uses of the…

Compares authorial and scribal versions of passages from Hoccleve's verse, focusing on scribal omission of monosyllabic words, spelling variants, and terminal -e. Assesses what Hoccleve's practice might tell us about Gower's practice, and how the two…

Names written in manuscripts of CT indicate associations between these manuscripts and a number of Austin friars who were scribes; they also indicate that exemplars of some manuscripts were at Clare Priory. Friars may have copied the manuscripts…

Codicological analysis of the two manuscripts, which include works by Chaucer and Lydgate, Chaucerian apocrypha, and related works. Assessment of the booklets in the manuscripts and the habits of the two scribes ("scribe A" and the "Hammond scribe")…

Boffey summarizes the various numbers of legends included in LGW and in references to the work and assesses concern with these numbers. She considers LGW in light of the tradition of nine female Worthies in literature and the visual arts and in light…

Compares punctuation in the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts with that of other manuscripts to argue that Chaucer's punctuation survives in the virgules of Hengwrt and Ellesmere, related to his development of the iambic pentameter line.

Morse comments on how the Canterbury Tales Project may reinvigorate textual questions thought to have been answered by the Manly-Rickert edition and latent in the Variorum project. Explores such issues as tale order, tale revision, and manuscript…

Translation and glossing were two aspects of the single activity of revealing meaning ("expositio sententiae"), a concern of Chaucer in SNT and TC. In Bo, Chaucer consulted Jean de Meun's and Trevet's translations, but these cannot explain certain…

The glosses accompanying the Bo manuscripts vary in number and style, but the abundance of glosses, some shared, reveals that Bo was read with "interest throughout the fifteenth century."

In bk. 3, met. 12, of his popular English translation of Boethius, John Walton behaves like a poet-commentator, striving for a contemporary eloquence while drawing on the authority of commentary tradition. In his preface, assuming the role of a…

Gleason addresses three misunderstandings: disparagement of the literary value of Bo and its sources; inaccurate evaluation of Chaucer's use of sources, especially Trevet; and lack of information about Trevet's commentary, which is significant in…

Explores Jean de Meun's treatment of vulgar talk in "Roman de la Rose" (lines 15,129-272) within the context of late-medieval theories of signification. In various passages of CT, Chaucer also confronts direct language and low subject in literature.…

Variants among pragmatic markers-"items which add to the feel of the line or to the organization of the text rather than directly to the sense of the passage"-in the manuscripts of WBP indicate that scribes changed them freely, even subconsciously.…

Lexicographical information on sely is inconsistent and often based on the assumption that there was no historical overlap between "pious-good" and "foolish-simple." Chaucer's uses of the term capitalize on uncertainty of tone in LGW, making it…

Explores the rational power of prose and the affective power of poetry to effect ethical transformation in Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," linking the work's prosimetric alteration with its theme of providential causation, and arguing that…

Identifies Chaucer’s "cosmological additions" to Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" when translating it as "Boece," identifying the sources of these additions in earlier translations and commentaries, and speculating that Chaucer includes glosses…

Explores words and nuances associated with tragedy in Chaucer's works, describing a pair of emphases in Bo that may indicate direct study of Boethius's original rather than glosses or commentaries. Considers the extent to which the Monk may have…

Part of a larger sociolinguistic project on the status of French in fourteenth-century England, Dor's study examines the uses, distribution, and frequency of words of French origin in the conversational sections of CT.

Explores Chaucer's lexical and stylistic experimentation in Bo, assessing how its 516 different words reflect the philosophical content of the original and a desire for lexical variety.

In TC Chaucer deliberately uses the technique of alienation or aesthetic distancing through devices that render ordinary characters and situations peculiar and unexpected.

Shows by multiple examples from various works that Chaucer "used oaths not only to give poignancy to character but to add irony, to give a touch of local colour, [and] to create atmosphere and background." Oaths in Chaucer's works tend to be…

Explores the "fruyt" and "chaf" of WBT, arguing that it is "eminently suited" to the character established in GP and WBP, that the teller manipulates her narrative material intentionally, and that Chaucer signals her tendentiousness. The female…