Browse Items (16038 total)

Surveys the transformations of the Wife of Bath in "The Wanton Wife of Bath" (1600), Johnson's "A New Sonnet of a Knight and a Faire Virgin" (1612), Fletcher's "Women Pleased" (1620), "Pilgrim's Progress" (1678), "The New Wife of Bath" (1700), Gay's…

A selection of poems by various authors from Virgil to the twentieth century. Includes a selection from SNP (8.36-56) and its source, i.e., a facing-page selection from Dante's "Paradiso." Illustrated by José Erasto. Selection slightly revised from…

A collection of twenty-six essays, fourteen of which address Chaucer and his works. Includes papers presented at a 1990 conference at the University of Liege marking the retirement of Paule Mertens-Fonck. Each essay addresses women's issues in…

With the Knight and the Squire, Chaucer's Yeoman comprises the "basic English fighting unit--a unit sometimes referred to as a 'lance.'" Details of the Yeoman's GP sketch capitalize on the various connotations of "yeoman," and depict the Yeoman as a…

Explores the lexical and cultural meaning of "squire" as background to the GP sketch of the Squire. Chaucer's portrait is an idealized one, counterpointed by the lack of rhetorical skill in SqT.

Dor explores Chaucer's punning from the vantage point of a translator of CT into French. Puns known as "traductio" and "adnominatio" during the Middle Ages are less easily translatable than are "significatio," perhaps because of the cultural and…

Provides historical background to the characterization of the Squire in GP 1.85-88, focusing on the economics, politics, and tactics of the so-called "Crusade of 1383" (or "Despenser's Crusade"), the implications of the word "chivachie," and ways…

Documents how editors' presentation of CT as a sequence of fragments is misguided and encourages that the description be abandoned. The term misrepresents the evidence of the manuscripts, and is misleading because Chaucer's discontinuities are…

Hagedorn emphasizes the variety of versions of classical stories of abandoned women (Statius, Virgil, and Ovid) and the ways they were adapted in medieval tradition (e.g., Dante's "Inferno"; Boccaccio's "Teseida," "Fiammetta," and "Amorosa Visione";…

Ovid undercuts epic male heroism, treating the emotional cost to the women deserted by Achilles, Theseus, Ulysses, and Aeneas and casting a shadow on these heroes in the works of Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer (KnT, LGW, TC). Bakhtin's views…

Item not seen. WorldCat records indicate that this is a textbook for college composition, with samples from literature, rhetoric, and theory for discussion; includes Chaucer's "The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe" in a section on English language history.

Considers the lack of extensive glosses and commentaries on late Middle English literature, including Chaucer, arguing that in England, unlike on the Continent, the concern with "translatio studii" (transferring the authority of the ancients to the…

Scala studies absence as a structural feature of late-medieval English narratives, arguing that absence reflects the manuscript culture in which the narratives are preserved and that it is reflected in the critical and theoretical responses to these…

Later medieval literature (as represented by Chaucer and others) demonstrates "cultural anxiety," manifested through marginal glosses, commentary, and illumination that make each manuscript unique, unlike modern printings.

Explores the background and implications of the reference to "seinte Note" (St. Neot) and the possibility of punning in "viritoot" in MilT 1.3770-71.

Absolon's profession is reflected in his elaborate hairstyle (rather than tonsure); in his red, white, and blue clothing; and in his choice of the cultour as a tool for revenge. With cutting blade in hand, Absolon takes his "patient" by surprise,…

Summarizes the Scriptural tradition in which spiritual fame is associated with sweet tastes and good odors, and suggests that Absolon's association with their opposites in MilT reinforces his humiliation and his concern with "fame among men."

Explains how the scene that involves Gerveys the smith (1.3772-89) is "structurally crucial" to MilT by creating an effective lull between "two bits of explosive comedy," helping to characterize Absolon, and gathering the threads of several important…

Medieval convention and iconography support the view that the rebec is associated with the female voice (and thus suited to Absolon's effeminate character). It is implied that Absolon neither sings nor plays very well.

Contemplates the possible range of meanings of tragedy for Chaucer, observing how consistently he associates it with misunderstanding and how he alludes to or invokes Boethius to defer explanation or certainty. Christian notions of grace disallow…

Assesses the relations between universality and particularity as epistemological modes in MLT, exploring allegory and individuality, realism and nominalism, and generalization and specification in the characterization of Custance and how she is…

Includes a study that details the bibliographical and physical instability of two variants of the 1542 Chaucer edition--the Reynes imprint and the Bonham imprint--as they exist in the Hoe, the Chew, and the Hagen-Clark copies, paying particular…

Theoretical "auctoritee" and "auctoritee" as misunderstood by characters in Chaucer are worlds apart. Chaucer was more interested in the violability than in the inviolability of "auctoritee." Many of the Canterbury Tales depend on cases which…

Argues that writers or works or periods can offer alternatives to modern critical theory. O'Brien's view that Chaucer presents union (in particular, love and marriage) as an overarching theme of CT encourages us to see that views other than…

Argues that RvT reworks its fabliau sources alongside then-contemporary texts about manorial control and operation such as "Walter of Henley," and traces this depiction of an "affective economy." Analysis helps to foreground how the Reeve's manorial…