Sims, David
Cambridge Quarterly 4.2 (1969): 125-49.
Uses TC to show why Boethius "so compelled Chaucer's imagination" and demonstrates that the outcome of Chaucer's plot is "fitting" to the characters as established earlier in the poem. Focuses on Troilus's Boethian soliloquy and on Criseyde's…
Hume, Jeannette, S.
Dissertation Abstracts International A26.04 (1965): n.p.
Examines the characters of Griselda and Walter in ClT, with particular attention to the diction associated with them: "bountee" and "sadnesse" for Griselda and "shapen" for Walter. Also examines the words the characters do and do not use.
Barney, Stephen A.
Dewey R. Faulkner, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Pardoner's Tale: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973), pp. 83-95.
Commends the "harmony" of PardT and "its capacities to elicit responses," discussing it as a tale that is "eloquent," intelligent, significantly expressive, unified, and instructive." Includes contrasts with PhyT.
Newman, Andrea.
Garden City, N. Y. : Doubleday, 1977.
A novel with recurrent allusions to TC, including a five-book structure, epigraphs derived from Nevill Coghill's translation of TC, and overt references to the poem.
Baltzell, Jane Lucile.
Dissertation Abstracts International 26.08 (1966): 4622-23A.
Explores the roots of medieval poetic theory in medieval rhetorical handbooks, and examines MilT, PrT, PhyT, MerT, and ClT) for evidence that Chaucer was influenced by the "received medieval poetic," even though his "narrative procedure . . . may be…
Brown, Elaine.
Kathleen A. Bishop, ed. "The Canterbury Tales" Revisited--21st Century Interpretations (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2008), pp. 75-87.
ShT reflects Chaucer's belief that "the dominance of a husband over his wife is too strict" in traditional marriages. Private games threaten to open out into public scandal.
Lambdin, Laura C., and Robert T. Lambdin.
Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin, eds. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the "Canterbury Tales". (Westport, Conn.; and London: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 145-53.
Surveys the development of various fashions in late-medieval England in an attempt to explain the rising importance of haberdashers and why Chaucer may have included one among his GP Guildsmen. Also comments on the history and status of the…
Suggests that details of ShT may reflect historical incidents involving Pedro I ("the Cruel") of Castile, his various marital scandals, and a Spanish-English naval battle near Bruges. Comments on Chaucer's connections with Spain.
Crane, John Kenny.
English Language Notes 4 (1966): 81-85.
Adduces evidence from late-medieval maritime law and practice and from details in the GP description of the Merchant (compared with those of the Friar and the Clerk) to argue that the Merchant "has probably committed every money-crime in the books."
Scott, Kathleen L.
Martin Stevens and Daniel Woodward, eds. The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library; Tokyo: Yushodo, 1995), pp. 87-119.
MS Bodleian Library Hatton 4, a combined hours and psalter, contains borders created by two Ellesmere limners.
Establishes that the suggestion of amorousness is implicit in the basting of (tight-fitting) sleeves in the "Roman de la Rose," Rom, and related illustrations.
David, Alfred.
Jane Chance and R. O. Wells, Jr., eds. Mapping the Cosmos. (Houston, Tex.: Rice University Press, 1985), pp. 76-97.
Examines physiognomical traditions of noses in medieval "descriptio" in rhetoric books, noses of the Miller and Prioress in GP, noses in RvT, and noses in French romances and in later literature.
Reports on the Additional collection of medieval manuscripts from the British Library. Indexed manuscripts include literary works by Gower, Chaucer, Lydgate, and Nicholas Love, as well as historical works, noted for their imagery and illustration.
Stemmler, Theo.
Beryl Rowland, ed. Chaucer and Middle English Studies in honour of Rossell Hope Robbins (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 111-18.
Prosodic analysis of the Middle English lyric "Alysoun" that identiies several commonplace parallels with the description of Alisoun in MilT.
Building on three generally acknowledged biblical motifs in MerT, Fumo suggests "the presence, indeed the dominance, of a fourth": the Crucifixion. Januarie's pain in marriage is associated with "Christ's suffering on the cross"; however, the…
Shaner, Mary Carol Edwards.
DAI 34.02 (1973): 739A.
Surveys medieval attitudes toward the women featured as protagonists in Chaucer's LGW and reads Chaucer's characters in light of these attitudes, observing that they vary as "not-so-good" women and "not-so-bad" ones, a reflection of the limits of…
Calabrese, Michael.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2016.
Presents comprehensive overview of all three iterations of Langland's "Piers Plowman." Provides discussion of differences between Langland's characters and Chaucer's depictions of social characters in GP.
Jimura, Akiyuki.
Loren C. Gruber, ed. Essays on Old, Middle, Modern English and Old Icelandic in Honor of Raymond P. Tripp, Jr. (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 409-46.
Compares each line of TC in Larry Benson's, F. N. Robinson's, R. K. Root's, and B. A. Windeatt's editions in preparation for a larger study that will account for differences of word choice and syntax among these editions.
General, introductory work in fourteen chapters on Chaucer's schooling, courtly life, literary traditions, BD, Chaucer as diplomat, HF and PF, from Boethius to Venus, KnT, TC, LGW, GP and CT, and Chaucer's last years.
Hussey, Maurice, A. C. Spearing, and James Winny.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Designed as a "not too bulky" introduction to Chaucer and his life for the Cambridge University Press series "Selected Tales of Chaucer," providing fundamental information about Chaucer's life, language, social contexts, and intellectual background,…
Pugh, Tison.
Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2013. xviii, 251 pp.
Includes biographical information, historical context, Chaucer's sources, a pronunciation guide, and glossary of common Middle English words. Chapter 2, "Chaucer's Literature," is a comprehensive guide for beginning readers, and covers Chaucer's…
Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle.
New York: Prentice Hall, 1995.
Comments (pp. 6-7) on T. S. Eliot's allusion to GP at the beginning of his "The Waste Land" and discusses (pp. 78-79) the comedy of MilT as "very specifically linguistic," turning on a double meaning of the word "water," as well as depending upon the…
