Blake, N. F.
Norman Blake and Peter Robinson, eds. The Canterbury Tales Project Occasional Papers, Volume II (London: King's College, Office of Humanities Communications, 1997), pp. 5-14.
Describes a system of lineation for consistent citation of all materials relating to the textual history of CT, not only lines generally accepted as genuine but also all spurious and contested lines, including spurious tales. Explains the need for…
Paige, Linda Rohrer.
Tennessee Philological Bulletin 23 (1986): 22 (abstract).
The progress of the Wife in the battle of the sexes illustrates progressive development of selfhood. Older and wiser, she sees that sovereignty mishandled has negative results. WBT shows that a woman must make concessions to make a marriage…
Singh, Devani.
Digital Philology 9.2 (2020): 172–98; 4 color illus.
Explains the important place in the tradition of Chaucer portraiture of John Speed's engraving made for Thomas Speght's 1598 edition of Chaucer's "Workes". Comments on relations with the manuscript portrait of Chaucer that accompanies Thomas…
Horobin, Simon.
Elaine Treharne and Greg Walker, with the assistance of William Green, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 57-67.
Horobin surveys "complex and contradictory" evidence for the professionalization of writing in England in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with comments on Chaucer's scribes (including Adam Pinkhurst), Thomas Hoccleve, and others.
Assesses Hoccleve's use of an "enfeebled persona" as a means to compete seriously with the "tasteful silences" of Chaucer and the "guilty fulminations" of Langland on the topic of vernacular poetic identity. Compares Hoccleve's "Male Regle" with…
Blake, Norman F.
Antonio R. Celada, Daniel Pastor García, and Pedro Javier Pardo García, eds. Actas del XXVII Congreso Internacional de AEDEAN = Proceedings of the 27th International AEDEAN Conference (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 2004), n.p. CD-Rom.
Proposes that Chaucer probably started with a provisional notion of the overall order of CT, which he experimented with, adjusted, and had not completely sorted out before he died. The scribes copied the text in stints as the best way to adapt…
Doyle, A. I.,and M. B. Parkes.
M. B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson, eds. Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries: Essays Presented to N. R. Ker (London: Scolar, 1978), pp. 163-210.
The various works of the five scribes of Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. R.3.2, a Gower collection, suggest that the London book trade before the advent of printing relied on special orders rather than mass production. Scribes B and D produced the…
Gillespie, Alexandra, and Daniel Wakelin, eds.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
A collection of essays addressing the history of the book, manuscript studies, culture, and history of late medieval England. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Production of Books in England under Alternative Title.
Murphy, Ann B.
The Centennial Review 28:3 (1984): 204-22.
The Wife's personality develops through five marriages from a materialistic, mercantile desire for power and wealth to "an earthly form of spiritual transformation through marital love." WBP traces how Allison learns to love and to stop equating…
Kang, Du-Hyoung.
Journal of English Language and Literature (Korea) 37 (1991): 825-41.
NPT subverts the idea of tragedy reflected in MkT, and KnT counterpoints its tragic view of fate. Diverse and comprehensive in his outlook, Chaucer is not content with a simple formula.
Crocker, Holly A.
Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 16, no. 1 (2016): 146-52.
Reconsiders the periodizations that separate medieval and early modern studies, focusing on "'premodern humanism' as a critical problem" and the "anthropocentric fantasy" of the "nonhuman–human divide." Includes comments on the privileging of…
Whereas the GP portrait of the Prioress raises questions about the operation of performances in general, we see in PrPT the efficacy of performative utterances in particular. Details of the boy's murder and postmortem singing demonstrate that the…
Bloomfield Morton W.
Burns, Norman T., and Christopher J. Reagan, eds. Concepts of the Hero in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Papers of the Fourth and Fifth Annual Conferences of the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, 2-3 May 1970, 1-2 May 1971 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975), pp. 27-48.
Documents the "absence of a true charismatic hero who is valiant and noble" in the literature of medieval western Europe, commenting on a wide variety of works, including those by Chaucer, and attributing the late-medieval "retreat from heroism" to a…
Martin, June Hall.
Dissertation Abstracts International 28.10 (1968): 4136-37A.
Argues that the "innate absurdities" of the courtly love tradition invite parody and includes discussion of TC as a "sympathetic parody" in which "tone" is "governed by Boethian and Christian doctrines along with Chaucer's personal experience."
Myklebust, Nicholas.
Ad Putter and Judith A. Jefferson, eds. The Transmission of Medieval Romance: Metres, Manuscripts and Early Prints (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2018), pp. 149-69.
Attributes the lack of critical attention to John Metham's "Amoryus and Cleopes" to its "prosodic eccentricity," demonstrating that it "does not descend from, and does not participate in, the transmission or reception of Chaucer's Anglicized…
Owen, Charles A., Jr.
Philological Quarterly 46 (1967): 433-56.
Explores free will in Mars, KnT, TC, and CT, focusing on the relative balance of astrological determinism and character complexity. The "compulsions of astrology" in Mars are lessened in KnT, replaced by the "searching" for examples of providence in…
A textbook for religious studies that anthologizes theological, philosophical, and literary essays and excerpts. all concerned with the nature of evil. Includes excerpts from Chaucer's "Patient Griselda" (ClT in David Wright translation, pp.…
While the knight of WBT returns from his quest with the word that saves his life - "sovereynetee" - he never understands its meaning: "independence and self-government." The wedding-night conversation between the knight and the "wyf" demonstrates her…
Bechtel, Robert B.
Susquehanna University Studies 7.2 (1963): 109-18.
Reviews studies of Criseyde's character by G. L. Kittredge, George Mizener, and C. S. Lewis, and argues that she is "the finger pointing in accusation against the code of courtly love." She shows us that "we mortals are fools to think that by our…
Solopova, Elizabeth.
Norman Blake and Peter Robinson, eds. The Canterbury Tales Project Occasional Papers, Volume II (London: King's College, Office for Humanities Communications, 1997), pp. 133-42.
Analyzes the manuscript variants of the so-called added passages of WBP, concluding that the passages were composed by Chaucer and that they extend from a single exemplar, probably an unfinished authorial draft.
Robertson, D. W. (Jr.)
Medievalia et Humanistica 13 (1985): 143-71.
Treats the "relevant historical events, some basic attitudes (of the era), literary stragtagems," and TC itself, which is a "vivid example of the degrading and disastrous consequences" when a noble, valorous man places his seduced private will above…
