Ackroyd discusses Chaucer within the larger context of describing and defining the distinctive qualities of English imagination, focusing on Chaucer's themes of remembrance, science, and truth as part of the process of becoming English. Considers HF,…
Carlson, Paula J.
Mediaevalia 11 (1989, for 1985): 139-50.
In LGWP, Alceste is a more complicated character than is suggested by references to her in TC: "Alceste's truth, goodness, and faithfulness are offset in the Prologue by her obstinance, petulance, and fickleness." Critical readings ignore the…
Higgins, Anne.
Teresa Tavormina and R. F. Yeager, eds. The Endless Knot: Essays on Old and Middle English in Honor of Marie Borroff (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995), pp. 113-27.
One key to recognizing the parody of hagiography in LGW is the identification of Alceste as Alice de Cestre in LGWP.
Hitchcox, Kathryn Langford.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 3033A.
Most scholarly treatments of Chaucer and alchemy deal with whether Chaucer believed in alchemy or whether he condemned it, but Chaucer's primary concern with alchemy was to use it as "symbolic language," especially in SNT and CYT. This salvific…
Hadbawnik, David.
Katherine W. Jager, ed. Vernacular Aesthetics in the Later Middle Ages: Politics, Performativity, and Reception from Literature to Music (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), pp. 201-31.
Focuses on Norton and Gower, but closes with a comparison of Gower's "linking of alchemy and language" with Chaucer's in CYT and suggests that Gower combines Latin and English to "produce poetic truths" while Chaucer emphasizes "combinations of…
Linden, Stanton J.
Wayne H. Finke and Barry J. Luby, eds. A Confluence of Words: Studies in Honor of Robert Lima (Newark, Del.: Juan de la Cuesta, 2011), pp. 227-62.
Traces the influence of CYPT on the "writings of late medieval alchemical works," focusing on George Ripley's "Compound of Alchemy" and discussing a variety of motifs, from alchemists' attire and associations, to the jargon and dangers of alchemy,…
Analyzes the literary treatment of alchemy from Chaucer's CYT through works by John Donne and Ben Jonson; presents CYT as the foundational text in the "long tradition of alchemical satire."
St. John, Michael.
Carla Dente, George Ferzoco, Miriam Gill, and Marina Spunta, eds. Proteus: The Language of Metamorphosis. Studies in European Cultural Transition, no. 26. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2005, pp. 83-92.
Argues that an "individual's knowledge of history" is presented in HF in a way that is metaphorically linked to alchemical transformation--with "tydynges" either substantially transformed or flying into uncontrollable energy. CYT shows Chaucer's…
Bentick, Eoin.
Dissertation Abstracts International DAI C81.04 (2019): n.p.
Studies the portrayals of alchemy and alchemists in fourteenth-and fifteenth-century English verse, including discussion of Chaucer's negative depiction of alchemy and its practitioners in CYPT, and John Gower's positive view in "Confessio Amantis."
Schiff, Randy.
John A. Geck, Rosemary O’Neill, and Noelle Phillips, eds. Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 341-62
Assesses references to ale and wine in PardPT as they reflect the Pardoner's "submerged desire" to bond with the Host and his simultaneous attempt to compete with Harry as leader of the pilgrimage. Argues that "the metaphorical ale-stake associated…
Espie, Jeff.
In Jamie C. Fumo, ed. Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess": Contexts and Interpretations (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2018), pp. 97-117.
Highlights the thematic centrality of memorialization, tombs, and inscription in the Ceyx and Alcyone story from Ovid to Chaucer to Spenser. The intertextual relations among these versions is predicated not on the principle of genealogical succession…
Item not seen; the WorldCat records indicate that this is an interview of Huxley with John Chandos, recorded July 7, 1961, and includes discussion of Chaucer and psychology. First published in 1964.
Hunter, Michael.
The Warden's Meeting: A Tribute to John Sparrow. (Oxford: Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles, 1977), 9-32.
Hunter describes a copy of the 1602 edition of Chaucer in his possession signed "A. Pope." The volume is defective, lacking the first gathering. The signature comes at the beginning of gathering B. There are no marginalia. Presumably this was a…
Hodapp, Marion F.
M. Criado de Val, ed. El Arcipreste de Hita: El Libro, El Autor, La Tierra, La Epoca (Barclona: S.E.R.E.S.A., 1973), pp. 285-308.
Tallies various similarities between Chaucer's works and that of Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, comparing techniques and concerns of Ruiz's "Libro de Buen Amor" with CT, TC, and other Chaucerian works.
Hernández Pérez, M. Beatriz.
Atlantis 24: 117-32, 2002.
Feminist narratological analysis of WBPT reveals that the Wife's arguments, based in traditional misogyny, overwhelm this misogyny through dynamic engagement of it.
Taylor, Paul Beekman.
Journal of Popular Culture 24:2 (1990): 75-80.
Examines the imagery of beautiful feet in Deschamps, Homer, the Old Irish tale of Derdriu, and Nordic myth. Using the motif of Jankin's attractive legs and feet, Taylor draws correspondences between the Wife of Bath's choice of the fifth husband and…
Accepts that the first eighty-eight lines of WBP are a late addition, and argues that they reflect comic awareness of the unorthodox movement, the Brotherhood of the Free Spirit, echoing its valorization of sexual activity and multiple marriages,…
Mruk, Karen.
Kathleen A. Bishop, ed. Standing in the Shadow of the Master? Chaucerian Influences and Interpretations (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2010), pp. 244-56.
Mruk mines details and perspectives in the Wife of Bath materials to imagine the Wife as a real patient undergoing therapy.
Andrew, Malcolm.
Archiv fur das studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 224 (1987): 355-57.
The comparison of Alison to a swallow in MilT 3257-58 may refer to the story of Procne. The tale (from Ovid) is mentioned both in Gower's "Confessio Amantis" and in Chaucer's TC; it suggests the very sort of material woe found in MiltT.
Rowland, Beryl.
American Notes and Queries 03 (1964)
Explores anatomical and associative parallels between Alison of MilT and the weasel, an animal to which she is likened via simile (1.3234); maintains that the connections lend symbolic depth to the characterization.
Crane, Susan.
English Language Notes 25:3 (1988): 10-15.
No case can be made that the Wife of Bath murdered her fourth husband. Such claims are made only by readers who invent for her an extratextual history and psychology or who believe that she "merely fulfills antifeminist expectations rather than…
Arboleda Guirao, Immaculada de Jesús, and M. Esther Mediero Durán.
Cartaphilus: Revista de Investigación y Crítica Estética 11 (2013): 8-15.
Spanish version of Arboleda Guirao's essay "Chaucer's 'Wife of Bath's Prologue' in 'The Canterbury Tales.' The Wife's Personality, Language and Life: Revisiting Feminism," published in 2011.
Galled by clerical antifeminism (woman is weak and hence evil), the power-obsessed Alison turns for her tale to courtly romance (woman is weak and hence good). Thus, ultimately she subverts the conventions of estates, gender, and genre, proving…
