Grennen, Joseph E.
Romance Notes 8 (1966): 109-12.
Argues that aspects of the beginning of MerT (including January's ill health, the names Placebo and Justinus, etc.) may have been inspired by details and sentiments found in "Livre du Chevalier de la Tour-Landry."
Yamamoto, Toshiki.
Hisao Turu, ed. Reading Chaucer's Book of the Duchess. Medieval English Literature Symposium Series, no. 5 (Tokyo: Gaku Shobo Press, 1991), pp. 244-67 (in Japanese).
Relates the dream vision in BD to the tradition of the religious vision and the speeches of the Knight in Black to the resurrection theme.
Clark, Cecily.
English Studies 62 (1981): 504-505.
The use of regional dialects in RvT and the "Second Shepherd's Play" indicates a sporadic literary exploitation of dialect differences in the fourteenth century and implies an ability, at least among the educated, to classify the different dialects…
Wurtele, Douglas (J).
A. E. Christa Canitz and Gernot R. Wieland, eds. From Arabye to Engelond: Medieval Studies in Honour of Mahmoud Manzalaoui on His 75th Birthday (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1999), pp. 93-111.
Surveys Chaucer's uses of physiognomic detail in descriptions of the Canterbury pilgrims, especially in GP. Chaucer uses these details in various, often ironic ways.
Friedman, John Block.
Studies in Philology 78 (1981): 138-52.
As contrasted to W. C. Curry's "humoral physiognomy," another type, "affective physiognomy," involving such details as movement of eyes or eyebrows and color of cheeks, is restricted in use to aristocratic or courtly characters, not those of the…
Kittredge's argument that Chaucer's reference to "Trophee" (MkT 2117) is due to a misreading of Latin "tropaeum" is indirectly supported by difficulties with the Latin word in a Middle English translation of the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle.
Edwards, A. S. G.
Chaucer Review 55 (2020): 113-16.
Presents evidence from a "description of a manuscript of Chaucer's 'Treatise on the Astrolabe' that appeared in a sale catalogue in 1843." This description, because it doesn't correspond to any known, available copies, suggests another manuscript of…
Kuczynski, Michael P
Notes and Queries 257 (2012): 160-3.
Cobbes's dense annotations of Nicholas of Lynn's "Kalendarium" in University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, MS 522 may reflect this seventeenth-century book collector's familiarity with the British Library, MS Additional 23002 text of Astr.
Renoir, Alain.
Notes and Queries 203 (1958): 248-49.
Identifies three "predominant" characteristics shared in the characterizations of Pandarus in TC and of "the slave Spurius, who plays the part of a pander for a young lover in Guillaume de Blois' Latin farce 'Alda,' written somewhat before 1170:…
Appleman, Philip.
College English 18.3 (1956): 168-69.
Identifies and summarizes a close, modern analogue of ShT, written by Shelby Foote and published in "The Nugget" (November, 1955); comments on the oral transmission described by Foote in an interview and points outs several modern emphases.
Stephens, Rebecca.
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. 47-54.
Summarizes the conventions of medieval monastic life and comments on the hagiography of SNT. In all except the fact that she speaks, Chaucer's Second Nun embodies the ideal of the medieval nun.
Blake, N. F.
Notes and Queries 222 (1977): 400-01.
The lines (1.4087 and 4187) in RvT suggest the reading of "god" without the inflectional ending. Tolkien objects on grounds of meter, but we do not know enough about Chaucer's meter to emend on these grounds alone.
Burrow recommends repunctuating TC 2.255 as "Nece, alwey lo to the laste," suggesting that it means "look to the last," a phrase that might have been inspired by Chaucer's experiences as a "diplomat and negotiator."
Grady, Frank, and Andrew Galloway, eds.
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2013.
Essays focus on the medieval idea of the "literary," with particular emphasis on the poetry of Chaucer, Langland, and Gower. For five essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Answerable Style under Alternative Title.
Smith, Sheri.
Dissertation Abstracts International C75.01 (2016): n.p.
Examines answers to prayer in BD, HF, KnT, FranT, "hagiographic tales" (SNT, PrT, MLT, and ClT), and TC, arguing that Chaucer engages significant "theological and philosophical issues."
Surveys "precursors of modern novels" in English tradition between 1400 and 1600, with a "glance" at even earlier stories which "reveal a kinship with the future narrative form," discussing, among others, TC, and treating it (pp. 28-40) as an…
Minnis, Alastair.
REALB: The Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature (Tubingen) 12 (1996): 203-21
Assesses differing opinions of female preaching and teaching in medieval orthodoxy and in the Lollard movement, arguing that Chaucer's depiction of the Wife of Bath and the loathly lady in WBT confronts these opinions. Just as PardT confronts…
