Archibald, Elizabeth.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991.
Documents and discusses the development, influence, and literary relations of the story of Apollonius to 1609, assessing its formal characteristics and reception. Occasional mention of Chaucer, particularly MLT.
Astell, Ann W.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 13 (1991): 81-97.
Chaucer's additions to Trevet's tale of Constance consist chiefly of rhetorical additions by the narrator and prayers by Custance, converting the tale to a satire of the narrator's long-winded fatalistic views. Apostrophe and prayer, "converse"…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 92 (1991): 469-70.
In one version of the versified Stacions of Rome, the word "prose" clearly designates a change of subject rather than nonmetrical writing. In MLP, "prose" may signal a verse tale of historical and religious significance.
Nicholson, Peter.
R. F. Yeager, ed. Chaucer and Gower: Difference, Mutability, Exchange (Victoria B. C.: University of Victoria, 1991), pp. 85-99.
Chaucer had two sources for MLT: Gower's Confessio Amantis (2.587-1707) and Trevet's Chronicles, which also served as Gower's source. Placing all three versions side by side, one can find evidence that Gower was Chaucer's principal source.
Chaucer's primary source for MLT was not Nicholas Trevet's Chronicles but Gower's Tale of Constance. Chaucer found in Gower's tale a streamlined shape, sharper focus, a greater depth of character, and a heightened moral emphasis. It was Gower who…
Bott, Robin L.
Medieval Perspectives 6 (1991): 154-61.
When describing her fourth husband, the Wife is silent on topics freely discussed with respect to her other husbands (particularly money, age, and temperment); this suggests the equality of the two in these areas. Their marriage fails because the…
WBP, belonging to the genre of the French sermon joyeux, "a parodic homily by a woman that uses biblical exegesis to endorse worldly pleasure," had a "topical resonance" for Lollards, who, "championing female literacy and lay biblical exegesis,…
Ireland, Colin A.
Neophilologus 75 (1991): 150-59.
Chaucer's awareness of analogues to WBT and its theme of sovereignty may be indicated by his use of the word "calle," 'head-dress' (WBT 1018), an early borrowing of the Irish "caille," 'veil,' a derivation of which came to mean "old woman" as well as…
Altough the behavior of Alisoun and the knight of WBT counters the teachings of the medieval church, such behavior exemplifies a Christian attitude toward love and marriage.
Finnegan, Robert Emmett.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 92 (1991): 457-62.
Textual evidence suggests that the friar may be the father of the dead child--rendering the squire Jankyn (little John, the diminutive of the friar) the projection of the central character's sinfully fathered child.
Hertog, Erik.
Erik Kooper, ed. This Noble Craft . . .: Proceedings of the Xth Research Symposium of Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics, Utrecht, 19-20 January, 1989. Costerus New Series, no. 80 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991), pp. 200-21.
Based on Roland Barthes's work on the structural analysis of narrative texts, this essay assesses SumT and two analogues. Hertog describes a model for the recognition of similar events in fiction.
Explores the possibilities for a "woman's language" through Bakhtinian theories of discourse. Through dialogic, double-voiced discourse, Chaucer's Griselda and Shakespeare's Viola each break into and subvert the dominant patriarchal discourse in…
Iconographic associations of Mary and Griselda have proved problematic in attempts to read ClT as allegory; however, if we hear in the "annunciation passage" a larger range of allusion--both secular and patristic--the allegorical force of the Marian…
Pelen, Marc M.
Forum for Modern Language Studies 27 (1991): 1-22.
Just as the themes of liberality and magnificence are treated ironically in Decameron 10, particularly in the tale of Griselda (10.10), so ClT is as "poetically and morally suspect" as are WBT and FranT. Both poets use multiple narrators and…
Brown, Emerson, Jr.
Chaucer Newsletter 13:1 (1991): 5.
The name "Damyan" in MerT alludes to St. Damian, whose healing talents support a pun on "lechour." Explores Chaucer's sources of knowledge of the saint.
Although the Merchant's voice and attitudes are cynical and misogynistic, the "marriage encomium, Justinus's speeches, and the episode of Pluto and Proserpine" counter them. Tensions between the narrator and the material of MerT represent "competing…
Dane, Joseph A.
Studia Neophilologica 63 (1991): 161-67.
Analyzes Chaucer's exploitation of the potentially contradictory meanings of "trouthe," especially (1) personal loyalty, fidelity; (2) linguistic truth; and (3) factuality.
Fischer, Andreas.
Rudiger Ahrens, ed. Anglistentag 1989 Wurzburg. Proceedings of the Conference of the German Association of University Professors of English, no. 9 (Tubingen: Niemeyer, 1990), pp. 310-19.
Observes similarities of form and theme in FranT and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, particularly the focus on trawthe/trouthe in each, arguing that they transcend the romance genre. Contrasts FranT with Menedon's Question in Boccaccio's Filocolo…
Kanno, Masahiko.
Michio Kawai, ed. Language and Style in English Literature: Essays in Honour of Michio Masui. The English Association of Hiroshima (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1991), pp. 306-21.
After examining the original, rhetorical, and, and contextual meanings of "gentil" and its related words, Kanno discusses how Aurelius, who is at first destitute of generosity, is transformed into a gentle squire.
Lucas, Angela M., and Peter J. Lucas.
English Studies 72 (1991): 501-12.
In seeking "blisse" and "prosperitee," Arveragus and Dorigen opt for a limited, worldly purpose for their marriage. The difficulties that arise stem primarily from Arveragus's and Dorigen's words to each other and from the nature of their…
Lucas, Peter J.
Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic Literary Studies 33 (1991): 19-29.
Analyzes ambiguity in the setting of FranT, suggesting that a distinction between the information given and what is revealed by it depends on the response of the audience. Textual clues open an ironic gap between the poet and his narrator.
Seaman, David M.
Medievalia et Humanistica 17 (1991): 41-58.
No single answer to the concluding question of FranT is satisfactory because the tale's real concern is the interpretive process itself. FranT emphasizes different kinds of "trouthe" and poses ambiguous promises and statements.
Bloch, R. Howard.
Qui Parle 2 (1988): 22-45; Representations 28 (1989): 113-34.
Explicates Virginia's death by reference to patristic definitions of virginity as the desired ideal veiled in substance, a state inevitably transgressed by the gaze. By extension, the ideal that virginity implies is destroyed by its articulation. …
