Georgianna, Linda.
C. David Benson and Elizabeth Robertson, eds. Chaucer's Religious Tales (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), pp. 55-69.
Focusing on such critics as Thomas Lounsbury, E. Talbot Donaldson, D. W. Robertson, John Fleming, and Derek Pearsall, Georgianna suggests that twentieth-century scholars, like their sixteenth-century predecessor John Foxe, have constructed a…
Depres, Denise L.
Sheila Delany, ed. Chaucer and the Jews: Sources, Contexts, Meanings (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 145-64.
Unlike the isolated narrative of Jews in CT (PrT), various narratives in the Vernon manuscript investigate the Jew in markedly different ways, going beyond demonization of Jews to debate their essential nature.
Crampton, Georgia Ronan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 28.06 (1967): 2205A.
Traces the topos of the sufferer as protagonist in classical, Christian, and late Latin sources and explores it "as an element" in KnT, TC, and Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queene," arguing that Chaucer tends to emphasize "the value of acceptant…
Abelson-Hoek, Michelle Christine.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60: 4418A, 1999.
Studies the medieval whore figure as rebel, outlaw, and heretic through historical and sociological analysis of the Norman Latin poem "Jezebel." Chaucer and Langland consider the whore evil but also emblematic of this world's carnal pleasures.…
Flood, Victoria.
Helen Fulton, ed. Chaucer and Italian Culture (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2021), pp. 169-92.
Examines the significance of the eagle as a "common symbol of empire in medieval political prophecy." Discusses how the "Dantean figure of the Eagle" in the "Inferno" is transformed by Chaucer into a "humorous--and human--personality" in HF.
Scholars continue to reflect on whether particular readings of CT are authorial revisions or scribal editing and on what Chaucer's plans for the work might have been. Understanding manuscript relationships for any particular tale can help set the…
Caon, Luisella.
C. C. Barfoot, ed. "And Never Know the Joy": Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2006), pp. 33-47.
Chaucer's uses of thou and ye pronouns "systematically" indicate the "degree of closeness or distance" between lovers in CT, indicating not only formality and informality but also intensity of emotion and shifts in attitudes. Caon surveys previous…
Johnston, Everett C.
Language Quarterly 1 (1962): 17-20.
Discusses the uses of "familiar 'thou' and polite 'ye'" by the major characters in TC, demonstrating that, in general, Chaucer "observed the mode of his day in the use of the pronoun of address," and offering hypotheses about instances where the…
Argues that FranT is one of Chaucer "satiric masterpieces" and that it reveals "how ludicrously and inadequately the Franklin grasps the essence of gentle behavior." The Franklin is well intended, but the morality and reasoning of his Tale are…
Parodies GP, featuring twenty-nine character sketches of people who intend to travel together to Pokerbury, a site for gambling, planning to tell tales along the way. Modern professions include the Broker, the Dentist, the Scientist, etc.
Alexander, Michael, and Mary Alexander.
Harlow: Longman; London: York, 2005.
Study guide to GP that includes a synopsis, commentary, and glosses (text not included, except for three passages in Middle English for closer analysis--lines 1-18, 118-62 [Prioress], and 331-60 [Franklin]). Also includes descriptions of Chaucer's…
Cunningham, John E., ed.
Middlesex: Penguin, 1985.
Classroom text of GP in Middle English with facing-page notes, study-guide Introduction, a brief glossary, and brief bibliography. The Introduction includes commentary on Chaucer's life, the "Framework" of CT, "how to read" Chaucer, and "Further…
Limited edition (210 copies), photo-litho facsimile of GP from British Library copy of William Caxton's 1476 first edition, with facing-page modern translation by Nevill Coghill, two original wood engravings (a portrait of Chaucer and the Knight…
Spraycar, Rudy S.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 81 (1980): 142-49.
The spring opening of GP may reflect Alain de Lille's concepts in "De Planctu Naturae," indicating the connection between nature's amorous regeneration and man's need for spiritual renewal.
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): 177–98; 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…
