The artistic unity of Chaucer's TC seems to fall prey to the contradictory philosophical arguments present, the attractiveness of earthly love, and then the repudiation thereof.
Dane, Joseph A.
Text: Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship 4 (1988): 217-36.
Examining past editions of Chaucer--Urry's 1721 edition (commonly considered the "worst" edition), Tyrwhitt's 1775 five-volume edition (the first "modern" edition), and Thomas Morell's 1727 "open" edition--illuminates current editorial practices. …
Hieatt, Constance B.
The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1967.
Explores the nature and function of dream vision in late-medieval English literature, focusing on BD, HF, PF, LGWP, "Pearl" and "Piers Plowman," and commenting on other works. Considers this poetry in light of post-Freudian psychology as well as…
Rodax, Yvonne
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
Includes (pp. 8-28) impressionistic appreciation of CT for its fusions of realism and idealism in poetic narrative, discussing it as a prelude to assessment of the Boccaccian tradition of novella writing. Treats PrT and NPT as the two best of the…
Reiman, Donald H.
Texas Studies in Literature and Language 5 (1963): 356-73.
Presents ClT as an "elaborate academic joke," concerned primarily with proper submission to "God's law," reading Griselda as "pathetic rather than virtuous," satirized by the Clerk for submitting herself and (as she thinks) her children to Walter,…
Baker, Peter S.
Vincent P. McCarren and Douglas Moffat, eds. A Guide to Editing Middle English (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998), pp. 263-83.
Suggests that "hypertextuality" is the only major advantage of electronic texts over books and indicates an ideal system for a critical edition in electronic format by examining a "working model" of such editions of "Beowulf" and "Battle of…
Sanyal, Jharna.
Indian Journal of American Studies 23.1 (1993): 65-74.
Discusses TC, Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid," Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," and Dryden's "Troilus and Cressida or Truth Found Too Late," arguing that each treatment of Criseyde reflects how its author responds to literary tradition. In…
Matsuda, Takami.
Spicilegium 1 (2017): n.p. Web publication.
Examines FrT and SumT in the "context of the late medieval vision of the afterlife," and argues that the "two tales tell how one is constantly in the dangerous liminal situation between damnation and salvation, between being physically ravished to…
Rogers, William E.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 260-77.
A theoretical objection to patristic criticism is that it is guilty of question-begging because it assumes that a work is intended to promote "caritas." It is not the assumption of coherence that produces the fallacy but the assumption of a…
Quinn, William A.
Chaucer Yearbook 5 (1998): 1-18.
Briefly discusses some of the critical responses to Chaucer's alleged raptus of Cecilia Champaigne (Cecily Champain) and how this incident may have influenced certain works, particularly TC, PF, and HF.
Facing-page adaptations of KnT (abridged), MilT, PardT, and WBT, with Middle English and lyrics designed for rap performance. The Middle English text is glossed, and each Tale is accompanied by a brief introduction to the plot. Brinkman's…
Brinkman, Baba.
Canada : Spin Digital Media, 2004.
Audio recording of hip-hop performance of adaptations of GP (cast as a bus trip), KnT, MilPT, PardPT, WBPT, and Ret (with additional tracks: "Rhyme Renaissance Prologue," "Rhyme Renaissance," and "Dead Poets"). Affiliated website at .
Reviews critical opinion about the date on which the pilgrims started for Canterbury and concludes that it was Easter Saturday, 18 April 1394. The term "Ram" refers both to the constellation Aries (thus confirming the date) and to the sign Aries,…
Da Rold, Orietta.
Library, 7th ser., 4: 107-28, 2003.
The arrangement of quires in this early fifteenth-century manuscript indicates that the scribe was working from an unrubricated text, the order of CT was not yet stable, and the scribe may have helped create the Ellesmere ordering.
Jordan, Robert M.
English Studies in Canada 3 (1977): 373-85.
The organic model of unity does not fit discontinuous, dilated, expository, encyclopedic medieval works such as PF. A model more "multiple" deserves hegemony.
Jordan, Robert M.
Rossell Hope Robbins, ed. Chaucer at Albany (New York: Franklin, 1975), pp. 77-104.
The differences between the narratives classified as "Chaucerian romance" indicate that either all of his narratives are romances, or else that none are."
Lee, Brian S.
Yearbook of English Studies 22 (1992): 190-200.
FranT is a rhetorical . . . completion" of SqT, which should itself be read with "rhetorical and lyrical" rather than narrative models in mind. The literate mode of Dorigen's complaint and Aurelius's two speeches to her contrasts with the oral mode…
Eberle, Patricia J.
Robert Taylor, James F. Burke, Patricia J. Eberle, Ian Lancashire, and Brian S. Merrilees, eds. The Centre and Its Compass: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Professor John Leyerle (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1993), pp. 111-49.
Growing out of the Parliament of 1386 and subsequent confrontations between Richard II and his subjects, arguments over the nature of royal and representative authority shape the portrayal in MLT of pagan savagery, Northumbrian custom, Providential…
Emerson, Katherine T.
Notes and Queries 202 (1957): 277-78.
Argues that Aleyn's "easy conquest" of Malyne in RvT can be attributed to their prior familiarity and to her promiscuity, the latter evident in the "ease" with which she uses the term "lemman."
Offers a psychotherapeutic approach to literature, including discussion of Chaucer's "Marriage Group" (pp. 91-120). Praises WBP for its feminine acceptance of the realities of love and the simultaneous pursuit of the desire to transcend them. The…
Levy, Bernard S.
Studies in Short Fiction 4.2 (1967): 112-18.
Describes the "ironic reversal" of the roles of the husband and the monk in ShT, exploring the equation of sex and commerce in the Tale, and the wife's use of them both. The Tale presents commercialization of sex and a sexualization of commerce.
Dane, Joseph A.
Joseph A. Dane. Mythodologies: Methods in Medieval Studies, Chaucer, and Book History ([Santa Barbara, Calif.]: Punctum, 2018), pp. 243-56.
Questions whether Richard Pynson's edition(s) of Chaucer's works (1526) is "one or three items," examining the bibliographical evidence and traditions available to answer the question, exploring the limitations and assumptions underlying this…
Bessent, Benjamin R.
Studia Neophilologica 41 (1969): 99-111.
Considers Chaucer's "references to time" in TC in light of parallel passages in Boccaccio's "Filostrato," considering variants in TC manuscripts and arguing that Chaucer's concern with time in the poem results from his "desire to portray Criseyde as…
Identifies and assesses various motifs in medieval literary and visual renderings of the barnyard chase of the fox, including those found in NPT. Argues that in several instances Chaucer's story may have influenced later depictions or mediated…
