Browse Items (15542 total)

Considers the appearance of the "mysterious inscription 'Ch'" beside several poems in MS Codex 902 in the University of Pennsylvania Libraries collection. Scholars have assumed that the "Ch" stands for Chaucer, but Strakhov argues that the poems are…

An anthology of English poetry, arranged chronologically, with a brief introduction on "The Experience of a Poem" and a glossary of poetic terminology. The selections from Old and Middle English poetry are generally given in modern verse translation,…

Prints two versions of "The Plowman's Tale" (ca. 1400)--the 1533 edition originally intended for publication in Francis Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer's "Works" but suppressed and the 1606 edition by additional explanatory notes, a glossary and…

Argues that Mel and Langland's "Piers Plowman" share common features that derive from medieval school texts: axioms and proverbs, recurrent attention to the "Distiches of Cato," and citational and translational practices grounded in school exercises.…

Reviews the history of rural society in late fourteenth-century England, as well as stereotypes of medieval ploughmen. Reinforces how the plagues affected labor issues and "social relations within the third estate." Argues that Chaucer's Ploughman…

Refers to Elizabeth Gaskell's footnotes to "Mary Barton" that explain unfamiliar phrasing in terms of Chaucer and Langland, identifying them as evidence for the synchronic nature of the bigamous return plot in sensation novels.

An anthology of poetry for beginners, with an introduction to understanding and explicating poetry, selections from "Ten Great Poets," and an additional "One Hundred Poems" which includes the GP description of the Wife of Bath

The major interpretations of Dunbar's poem fall into two groups: those arguing the poem is representational and those arguing it is reflexive. Comparing "Golden Targe" to Chaucer's dream poetry and to other dream poetry by Dunbar reveals that both…

Contains essays on Chaucer's use of language, speech, and tone. For essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for The Pleasure of English Language and Literature under Alternative Title.

Reads Chaucer's reference to "game" in MilT 1.3186 as a reference to mystery drama and discusses allusions to cycle plays in the details and correspondences of the Tale, including aspects of the Fall, the Flood, the Annunciation, the Slaughter of the…

Unpacks the meanings and implications of sample puns from Chaucer, Langland's "Piers Plowman," and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," suggesting that they evince a medieval respect for the transcendent potency of language. Chaucerian examples include…

BD offers a sampler of medieval literary genres including lyric and several varieties of narrative. Consolation comes from the recognition of Blaunche's virtue and her comparison with the Virgin Mary. The answer to the question "Where is she now?"…

Treats the connections between "mind, body and affect" in BD, KnT, TC, MLT, LGW, and elsewhere, describing classical and medieval theories of breathing, sighing, and swooning as physiological movements of vital spirits. Playing a key role in…

Codicologically, Ellesmere was constructed by methods commonly used for fifteenth-century English books, including techniques by which "the scribe and the artists accommodated their work so precisely to the format predetermined by the size and number…

In giving the planetary gods a role in the narrative dynamics of "The Testament of Cresseid," Henryson is following in the steps of Chaucer in KnT, Mars, and TC. Mann examines "both the resemblances and the differences between the two poets in their…

Only Chaucer places the story of the rioters' search for gold in plague time. The article examines the implications of the plague setting and the plague in literature to explain Chaucer's choice of plague setting.

Argues that the "ability of the poet to secure a just and enduring fame" is an important and unifying theme in HF, focusing on the poem's concerns with poetic authority and patronage, and suggesting that its "missing conclusion" was to entail the…

A revised, shortened version of Patterson's "Perpetual Motion: Alchemy and the Technology of the Self."

Contextualizes the bedchamber of BD, exploring its adaptations of French source material, the otherness of France, the social and psychological implications of beds and textiles, and the imagery of black and white. Emphatically English in its…

Review controversies regarding the editing of medieval texts, faults the new "Riverside Chaucer," which represents no "textual advance over Robinson 2," and judges that "what Bowers offers is the best of two worlds--fidelity to auctorial usage…

Fresco draws attention to the imitation of Chaucer's enchâssement (encasement, enshirement) in Christine's Enseignemens moraulx BnF fr. 1551.

Federico explores how "Ricardian court culture haunts the chivalric spaces inhabited and visited by" Chaucer's TC and by Gawain in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Parallels between the "moral lapses" of Richard II and those of the two protagonists…

Defines oral performance art as an artistic genre, with written representations of it also manifesting distinctive generic qualities. Ugoretz examines these matters on the basis of contemporary oral performance and analyzes them in relation to five…

Introduces the historical context of pilgrimage in both the West and Japan in order to interpret the opening lines of GP. Argues that "kejime" as represented in pilgrims in "Tokaidochu Hizakurige," written by Jippensha Ikku, can also be read in the…

Examines the "artistic and ideological purposes" of the notion of a pilgrimage road in the "imaginary of the Middle Ages," focusing on late medieval England and commenting on the attention (or lack of attention) to the road in CT and the Ellesmere…