A. J. Minnis, _Chaucer and Pagan Antiquity_

A. J. Minnis presents an interesting argument for paganism in the book _Chaucer and Pagan Antiquity_. Minnis begins by analyzing Chaucer’s approach to paganism and why he might include them. Chaucer was writing from a medieval period concerned with Christianity and the salvation of the soul through a single God. The use of pagan figures and allusions in his writing would seemingly contradict the time period, but readers must realize that we must observe from Chaucer’s context. Just as we are looking back at Chaucer, he was looking back at pagan antiquity. He was only keeping literary tradition as it was at that particular point in time.
The book continues by pointing out the shortcomings of antiquity and how the pagan theology and philosophy falls short. The basic argument for this is that paganism originated out of a worship of the material world. Deities were later created to control the material world, such as the sun, water, and other elements of nature. Still, Christian scholars scoffed at paganism for its main flaw in the value of the material world.
Minnis then examines how Chaucer preserves the value and antiquity of paganism by exploring the noble features of Chaucer’s characters that are pagan. The main example is the transformation of Theseus, Arcite, and Palamoun. Minnis suggests that these characters are given a more fair treatment from that of the source texts. There nobleness and ability for rational thought is raised in Chaucer’s versions, making them the noble pagans that are worthy of admiration for their personal beliefs and convictions.
This book makes easy to follow arguments, but it depends too much on the knowledge of outside sources. It refers to other authors and critics without giving much information on the background of their ideas. Many of the ideas coming from Minnis are wonderful and easily understood, but the book fails when trying to another author’s understanding of how Chaucer’s use of pagan antiquity should be viewed. Avoid if not interested in pagan religious aspects of Troilus and Creseyde or The

--Andrés Boyer

The Hero of The Troilus by Alfred David

David, Alfred. "The Hero of Troilus." Speculum v. 37. n. 4. October 1962. pp. 566-81.

A not too wearying read that seeks to make the Troilus of Troilus and Criseyde interesting to modern readers. The fifteen pages of David's article consists of an argument which examines the narrative of the poem in a linear fashion in order to make relevant as much as possible so that Troilus may become more three-dimensional. A great majority of the article is given to refuting critics over matters such as how strictly Troilus acts in accordance with the courtly love tradition. David argues against the critics who say that Troilus is purely flat in that respect, pointing out that the poem begins with a Troilus who mocks at love and who, ever after, is constantly diminished, physically and psychologically, by the effects of love. David also makes an interesting point about how Criseyde and Troilus are really mismatched due to their divergent views on love: Troilus' being idealist, while Criseyde's are practical; and although Troilus' views mature over time, he still gives himself up to a fatalist notion that he will rise or fall by love. David concludes the article by seeking a compromise between the two arguments of ghosts of critics past over Troilus' equivocal laugh at the end: "Troilus' celestial laughter recognizes at the same time the absurdity and the sublimity of human experience."

Paul T. Thurston, "Artistic Ambivalence in Chaucer's Knight's Tale"

Thurston, Paul T. "Artistic Ambivalence in Chaucer's Knight's Tale." Gainesville: University of Florida Press. 1968.

Thurston in this book takes issue with what he believes is the common interpretation of The Knight's Tale as a great example of medieval romance. He believes this interpretation makes the tale one of courtly love and chivalry on a grand scale. Thurston wants to present a second interpretation for readers to consider, that of the tale being a work of satire. Thurston believes that the tale satires what he calls the "hallowed" traditions of chivalry and its foundations. He believes that this interpretation is for the more literal minded readers of Chaucer.

Thurston supports his point of view by examining passages from the tale and examining them for evidence of satire and humor. In particular, he looks at the errors in logic that occur throughout the text. For example, he looks at the speech of Palamon when Theseus finds Arcite and him fighting each other. Palamon calls his escape from Theseus' prison wicked, which is a quality opposite of that which would be appropriate. Palamon has fought against Theseus and he has called him his mortal enemy so therefore it is an error to describe his escape as wicked. Thurston believes this idealistic error on the part of Palamon hows him to be a fool, and therefore is both humorous and satirical. Throughout the book Thurston examines the tale for evidence of humor and satire such as this.

-Book available in the Knox College Library

Margaret Schlauch, "Chaucer's Doctrine of Kings and Tyrants"

Schlauch, Margaret. "Chaucer's Doctrine of Kings and Tyrants." Speculum. Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr. 1945). pp. 133-156

Despite her title, Schlauch does not actually attribute a fully developed "doctrine" of political thought to Chaucer. Rather, she examines political theorists of the twelfth through fourteenth centuries and demonstrates that Western European thought was beginning to focus more on the importance of the people than on the lords. This led to an alteration in political theory that made the goal of monarchy (and lordship, in general) the common good of the people. Thus, rule was more considered a burden than a position of grandeur.

As for Chaucer, Schlauch posits that the English writer was a subscriber to the theory, in a general sense. He likely witnessed upheavals in Italy brought on by tyranny and his works, particularly the Legend of Good Women, are full of denunciations of those who do not rule by the blessings of the people. Moreover, Chaucer uses tyranny as a metaphor in such subjects as love and pride (such as Troilus and Criseyde). But perhaps most telling is Chaucer's constant revisitation of "commune profit," as seen in The Clerk's Tale and The Parliament of Fowles. To Chaucer, then, the sovereign must do all he can to benefit the community, even if that requires sacrifices of his own.

Schlauch's piece is written in such a manner that it is only fully intelligible if one has a working knowledge of both Latin and Italian. Chaucer's contributions to political thought only occur in the last quarter of the work and they are sketchy at best.

- Available through JSTOR.

John P. McCall, "The Trojan Scene in Chaucer's Troilus"

McCall, John P. "The Trojan Scene in Chaucer's Troilus." ELH. Vol. 29, No. 3 (Sep. 1962). pp.263-275.

McCall defends Kittredge's basic premise that the Trojan background in Troilus and Criseyde creates an overall atmosphere of doom. However, McCall goes further, claiming that the experiences of Troy and those of Troilus are mirrored throughout the tale. After all, Troilus's name means "Little Troy." Both Troy and Troilus are gambling with Fortune, McCall claims. They have foolishly made everything dependent on their success defending a woman attained through underhanded means.

As Troilus and Criseyde advances from a period of good Fortune for Troilus (when the war is hardly spoken of) to one of bad Fortune (when the Greeks take an active part in the story), the city mirrors Troilus's condition. In Books 4 and 5, the sense of impending doom is unmistakable.

McCall's argument logically finds an incorporation for the ever nagging Trojan war and supplies an interpretation suggesting that Chaucer knew exactly what he was doing.

- Available through JSTOR

What Chaucer really did to Il Filostrato

Lewis, C.S. "What Chaucer Really Did to Il Filostrato." Troilus and Criseyde. Ed. Stephen A. Barney. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006.

Lewis here argues that Chaucer’s many amendments, additive and subtractive, to Boccacio’s Il Filostrato are much more than an attempt to put his own stamp on the story. Instead, Chaucer’s process of revision, with its various reductions and expansions, is a process of “medievalization” – the English, Lewis claims, never really had a renaissance, and the Boccacio thus had to be retrofitted to accommodate the societal norms and expectations of Chaucer’s audience. Put simply, Chaucer would have read Il Filostrato and been impressed; he also would have felt that some major changes were necessary if the story was to be appreciated by his English contemporaries. Part of this medievalization, Lewis states, is the conversion of Boccacio’s original to a state much more closely in line with the true tenets of courtly love.

Lewis further argues that modern audiences too readily apply their own sensibilities to Troilus and Criseyde, as they do to most of Chaucer’s work. They label the Troilus as satire, and Pandare as a full-out comic character, for example, when Chaucer’s own audiences would have taken the story more seriously than the modern reader is likely to do. Original readers, he claims, would have been less likely to find humor in the lessons and exemplum themselves, but would instead have found humor in the contrast between those edifying lessons and the stubborn responses of Troilus.

Finally, Lewis claims that the Troilus is more resonant and appealing than Il Filostrato and that, as a result, it can be deduced that the ideal of courtly love is more resonant and appealing to readers – then and now – than are the more jaded beliefs and ideals that appear in the earlier work.

There is more to this article than can easily be summarized. It can be found in the back of the assigned Troilus and Criseyde text.

Robert P. Miller, "The Wife of Bath's Tale and Mediaeval Exempla"

Miller, Robert P. "The Wife of Bath's Tale and Mediaeval Exempla". ELH, Vol. 32, No. 4. (Dec., 1965), pp. 442-456.
Discussion of the Wife of Bath's tale as an example of instructional literature, especially in regard to courtly love-the Tale serves as a dramatization of works like Capellanus, providing clearer understanding of what behaviors are to be engaged in, along with dramatic presentations of the reasons why. Contrasts with Gower's "Florent". Information on sources, connected to the Wife's mentions of her authorities. The Tale as an illustration of the rule of Obedience.

--Carina Saxon (available through JSTOR)

Ananda Coomaraswamy, "On the Loathly Bride"

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. "On the Loathly Bride". Speculum, Vol. 20, No. 4. (Oct.,
1945), pp. 391-404.
Examination of the Loathly Lady tradition, with reference to both Celtic goddesses/mythology and eastern (primarily Hindu) tale-types. Summary of the primary examples of the archetype in mediaeval literature. The Loathly Lady as the embodiment of the kingdom and the divine right of kings.

--Carina Saxon (available through JSTOR)

Arthur W. Hoffman "Chaucer's Prologue to Pilgrimage: The Two Voices"

Arthur W. Hoffman "Chaucer's Prologue to Pilgrimage: The Two Voices"

Hoffman W., Arthur "Chaucer's Prologue to Pilgrimage: The Two Voices" The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue, 2005, pp. 492-503.

In this criticism, Arthur talks about the commonplace of each of the portraits of the pilgrams. When he talks about commonplace, he is saying that all the portraits have an underlying connection to each other that makes all the tales connected in some way. He compares two portraits to each other and views them as opposites on a spectrum. He first compares March and April in making the transition from Winter to Spring and how that sends the energy for everyone to make the pilgrimage and how that is the determining factor for the journey to be made. He compares the Knight and Squire's portraits in their draws to the pilgramage, the Prioress and Monk and Friar's portraits in their draws to the pilgramage, and ends with Summoner and Pardoner's portraits for the same comparison. The point Arthur is making is what the two different voices are that call each pilgram to make the journey to Cantebury. One voice is the wordly voice of materialistic values such as the Summoner. The other is supposed to be the supernature voice that calls for spiritual relief such as being called by the saints by the Knight. The entire criticism focuses on what voice calls each pilgram and comparing two portraits for their respectice callings.

available in the back of The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue

Patrick Cogar

Milo Kearney and Mimosa Schraer "The Flaw in Troilus"

Milo Kearney and Mimosa Schraer "The Flaw in Troilus"

Kearney, Milo and Schraer, Mimosa "The Flaw in Toilus" (handout in class) The Chaucer Review. Vol. 22. No. 3. 1988, pp. 185-190.

In this handout, Milo and Mimosa argue that Troilus is just responsible for what happens at the end of Troilus and Criseyde as Criseyde was. They point to the fact that Troilus says nothing when Criseyde is being offered up as an exchange to the Greeks in Book IV. They argue that Troilus could have helped Hector presuade the Trojans to not send Criseyde over to the Greeks if he had just spoken out. They also go and make comparisons to how Troilus is portrayed in Boccaccio's version of Troilus and Criseyde. They mostly compare on how well of a speaker Troilus is in each version and the differences in what he does in the scene where Criseyde is being handed over to the Greeks by the Trojans. They ultimately say that Troilus is just as responisble for what happens in the end as Criseyde is.

available from the handout in class

Patrick Cogar

Terry Jones, Chaucer's Knight: Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary

Jones, Terry. Chaucer's Knight: A Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.

Jones posits that Chaucer's Knight is not the honorable and noble character everyone thinks he is, but is actually more of a medieval mercenary. The book is divided into three major sections. In the first, she closely examines the battles in which the Knight took part, and argues that these were not noble battles as one might expect, but massacres. The Knight, she continues, was not the crusader of a noble cause, but simply a tyrannical mercenary. In the second section, Jones examines the Knight's tale itself to show that it is not the renown tale of courtly love it is believed to be. She argues that the Knight does not actually have much respect for courtly love at all. She shows the parallels between Theseus' and the Knight' military successes and points out how both seem to see love in a more militant light. In the final section, she examines the Knight's interruption of the Monk's tale. She points out how the host first called on the monk to tell a tale immediately after the Knight's and he is prevented from telling his tale because of the drunken Miller. Though the Miller's tale seems to "qyte" the Knight's, Jones suggests that it is the Monk's tale which really does the "qyting". The Knight interrupts because the Monk's tale is beginning to hit too close to home.

Book available from Seymour Library.

“Criseyde’s Infidelity and the Moral of the Troilus.”

apRoberts, Robert P. “Criseyde’s Infidelity and the Moral of the Troilus.” Speculum, Vol. 44, No. 3 (1969,) pp. 383-402.

apRoberts aims, by analyzing the reasons for Criseyde’s infidelity, to discover what the true moral of Troilus & Criseyde is. He reference C.S. Lewis’ argument that Criseyde’s fatal flaw of fear is what causes her infidelity. However, after referencing and explaining Lewis’ argument, apRoberts debunks it, claiming that Criseyde is not overly fearful. He argues that, rather than one fatal flaw in a perfect heroine causing Criseyde’s infidelity, it is in fact her humanity that leads her to be unfaithful to Troilus. He says that Criseyde’s betrayal is not so much a result of a flaw that she has, as a heroic quality that she lacks. Rather than having a super-human level of courage and strength, like Antigone or Juliet, Criseyde has a normal level of strength that can not hold up to the fear of death and loneliness. And so he argues that, in the face of death if she returns to Troy, and loneliness if she remains with the Greeks, Criseyde decides she will accept the comfort and protection that Diomedes’ offers. In this case, he says, the moral of the story is not that one should not love a woman (or a man) who possesses qualities that will make her (or him) unfaithful, but rather that, because it is Criseyde’s very humanity that causes her to be unfaithful to Troilus, no one should expect true fidelity and immutability in human relationships.

Available on JSTOR

Hannah Rapp

Grady, Frank. "The Boethian Reader of Troilus and Criseyde."

Chaucer Review 33, no. 3 (1999): 230-251.

Grady analyzes the Boethian philosophical undercurrent in Troilus and Criseyde as it relates to narrative structure, readership and Christian/Pagan paradox. The "double sorwe" of Troilus is made clear from the beginning through blatant foreshadowing and hints that a culturally literate medieval audience would understand. There is little doubt that a story set in Troy during the Trojan War will resolve itself unpleasantly. Grady argues that the audience approached the story with premonition-like foreknowledge through historical hindsight and cultural background. Even the characters themselves are prone to divination, notably through Calkas or Cassandra. Grady claims that this emphasis on Troilus' predestined fate is very like the predicament of the hero of the Consolation of Philosophy, although Troilus is not given the aid of Lady Philosophy. According to Grady, the loose timelines of Book V and the repetition of predestined doom throughout weave "a Boethian spell" that culminates strangely in Troilus' posthumous redemption. Grady elucidates the "special treatment" Troilus seems to receive (as a pagan, after all) as he flies into the eighth heavenly sphere. He questions what a medieval Boethian audience would think about his "exceptional salvation." How, also, are the readers to behave considering Troilus' suffering? Is the implied audience that of courtly lovers or, more broadly, Christians? This article brings up more questions than it attempts to answer. As the title suggests, it is (unfortunately) less concerned with Boethius than readers of Boethius. Grady does not conclusively (or clearly) illustrate the connection between the Troilus and the Consolation of Philosophy. When he compares the two works, it is to suggests that portions the Troilus lacks of the Consolation ask "readers to play the part of Lady Philosophy...[and] to play God" by filling in the blanks themselves. Although he makes clear that foreknowledge is an important part of the reading experience and the poem itself, this conclusion isn't convincing.

Taylor, Davis. "The Terms of Love: A Study of Troilus's Style"

Speculum, 51(1) 69-90. 1976.

The author conducts an intensive study of Troilus's language in Troilus and Criseyde, and uses this analysis to explain Troilus's character in terms of the overall moral of the poem. He first demonstrates that Chaucer gives Troilus the voice of a lover from medieval love poetry, which is not found in the voice of the character from the source. Three stylistic traits are recurrent in Troilus's language that characterize him as this type of lover: the "use of superlatives", the frequent use of "qualitative terms", and the "recurrence of long internal monologues". The author argues that by placing such an idealistic lover in a rather realistic setting, his character is occasionally ironic, but redeemable in the end. Troilus's use of language suggest that he thinks about and carefully chooses his words, arguing often in a more roundabout style than, say, Pandarus, who uses common idiomatic phrases. The author suggests that the care Chaucer takes in giving Troilus speeches which reflect the morality in situations simply through the use of language patterns reflects the fact that Chaucer means to present Troilus as a noble and worthy character. He also argues that Troilus uses language as a tool to separate himself from others: his unique language patterns reflect his feeling that he is unique in his sorrow, as well. The article is very well supported with textual evidence, though this is probably the only literature paper that I've read that includes calculations (for the percentage of time a character uses a particular type of phrase or a finite verb, etc.)

Available on JSTOR

Miller, Robert P. "The Wife of Bath's Tale and Mediaeval Exampla"

ELH, 32(4) 442-456. 1965.

This article gives an overview of many traditional medieval stories which would have been well known to Chaucer's audience at the time. The author does not argue that the wife of bath's tale used these tales as a source, rather, he presents these tales suggesting that Chaucer's readers' familiarity with these tales could have had some influence on their interpretation of the Wife of Bath and her tale. The principle of obedience, for example, shows up in many tales. Most of these tales involve a beautiful seductress who tests the knight, who is often bound to chastity for some reason. The knight has to resist the temptations of the woman in order to prove himself worthy, and it is often then revealed that the seductress was, in fact, an ugly old woman. The author then compares these tale with the Wife of Bath's tale, in which the story is somewhat different, but in significant ways. The article is very informative, and would be useful in any sort of source study concerning the wife of bath's tale.

Available on JSTOR

Barney, Stephen A. “Troilus Bound”

Barney, Stephen A. “Troilus Bound”. Speculum. 47.3 (1972): 445-458.

Barney is looking at the theme of imprisonment in the Troilus. In order to do this he examines source material as well as the Canterbury Tales to find common themes of imprisonment. There are two types of bondage: the bondage of Fortune and the bondage of love. The bondage of Fortune, the author notes, is mentioned in “The Knight’s tale” in connection with Theseus’s chain of love speech (which is also Boethian). The bondage of love is then broken up into three kinds: sexual attraction, marriage, and the “harmonious linkages of the universe”. Barney mentions that both the Miller and the Merchant call marriage a trap, which seems to contrast Chaucer’s typically light hearted attitude towards sexual desire. This article was a little hard to get through because the thesis statement was a little hard to find. But as an explanation of the relational dynamics of Chaucer, it works well enough.

On JSTOR. Rachel M

Hatcher, Elizabeth R. “Chaucer and the Psychology of Fear: Troilus in Book V”

Hatcher, Elizabeth R. “Chaucer and the Psychology of Fear: Troilus in Book V”. EHL.40.3 (1973): 307-324.

Hatcher begins by examining anxiety in a historical context using examples from Thomas Aquinus, particularly his metaphor of anxiety as a town under siege. The two types of anxiety mentioned are anxiety of anticipation and the anxiety of loss. Hatcher examines the Troilus beside Il Filostrato, paying particular attention to the main character. Troilus is more anxious because he is actually in love with Criseyde as opposed to Troilo who simply is in lust. Chaucer also examines the effects of immoderate fear, a step that Aquinus does not take. Using the textual differences Hatcher shows how Troilus’s anxiety colors how characters such as Panderus interact with him, and thus change the shape of the book. While the anxiety theories aren’t as current because of when this article was written, it does fit well with Chaucer which can be a pain to use modern psychology to analyze.

On JSTOR. Rachel M

Schibanoff, Susan. “Prudence and Artificial Memory in Chaucer's Troilus.”

Schibanoff, Susan. “Prudence and Artificial Memory in Chaucer's Troilus.” ELH: A Journal of English Literary History 42.4(1975): 507-517.

Schibanoff examines Chaucer’s attention to physical setting Troilus and Criseyde and also his placement of setting before action in Troilus’ recollection of his time together with Criseyde after she has been handed over to the Greeks. She relates this to a technique used by medieval orators for delivering long speeches solely from memory. This technique involved visualizing a series of places, inventing a series of images representing various parts of the speech, and then associating each image with a different place. The speech could then be recalled by essentially moving through one’s imagination to each of the various places. This, Schibanoff argues, is essentially what Troilus is doing in his recollection, and by having Troilus revisit earlier settings, Chaucer forces the audience to do the same. The audience, however, Schibanoff states, has been conditioned to associate a different set of images with these settings. Not only that, but the audience is also given a different perspective from which to view these settings. By the constant reminders that fortune’s wheel must take a downward turn, the audience is given knowledge of the eventual fates of Troilus and Criseyde. She goes on to argue that in Troilus’ recollection, there is a sense that he is coming to the realization that he will never see Criseyde again and this narrows the gap between the audience and Troilus, making him seem more sympathetic throughout Book V. By the end of Book V, however, Troilus has outdistanced even the audience and achieved a sort of divine knowledge that frees him from the human desire to resist unpleasant outcomes. Schibanoff, however, is unclear on which of these views Chaucer seems to sympathize with, but she closes by stating that it could possibly be both.

Available on Jstor.

Farrell, Thomas J. “Privacy and the Boundaries of Fabliau in The Miller's Tale.”

Farrell, Thomas J. “Privacy and the Boundaries of Fabliau in The Miller's Tale.” ELH: A Journal of English Literary History 56.4(1989): 773-795.

Farrell begins by examining the key features of the genre of the fabliau. He focuses on the atmosphere of privacy constructed by both the setting and the characters in fabliau, the trickery and self-servitude generally displayed by the characters, and the common lack of a dispensation of justice at the end. Farrell then goes on to examine whether “The Miller’s Tale fits the description of a fabliau. He argues that while much of the tale offers convincing evidence for classifying it as a fabliau, it moves toward being something more by the end of the tale as the character’s actions are no longer completely private and there is an apparent dispensation of justice. In an effort to make sense of these elements, Farrell places “The Miller’s Tale” alongside “The Knight’s Tale.” “The Knight’s Tale,” he says, is concerned with finding justice and order in the universe but because of the manner in which it ends, it is more indicative of a chaotic universe in which justice cannot be assured. On the other hand, because of its movement away from the fabliau genre at its end, “The Miller’s Tale” finds the justice that is lacking in “The Knight’s Tale.”

Available on Jstor.

Dieter Mehl, "Chaucer's Narrator: Troilus and Criseyde and the Canterbury Tales"

Mehl, Dieter. "Chaucer's narrator: Troilus and Criseyde and the Canterbury Tales." The Cambridge Chaucer Companion. Cambridge University Press, pp 213-225.

In his essay “Chaucer's narrator: Troilus and Criseyde and the Canterbury Tales”, Dieter Mehl examines Chaucer’s use of narrators throughout his various works, from the Book of the Duchess to the Canterbury Tales. Examining the kinds of unreliable narrators – that is, narrators who should not necessarily be identified with their author – that Chaucer employs and to what ends, he posits that “the point is not so much whether Chaucer really was that kind of man” but rather that such a narrator is a construct of the fiction and works to fulfill its aims. He introduces the idea of the narrator as a craftsman or guide, who both manipulates and attempts to instruct his audience in the workings of his manipulation in order to aid our understanding of the text. Mehl suggests that Chaucer’s narrators encourage dialogue, an active interaction between author, audience and text, by preventing any clear moral judgment from being drawn and by appealing to that of the reader instead. This experimentation with unreliable narration finds its ultimate form in the Canterbury Tales, where the myriad narrators, their sincerity and our judgments of them become as much the subject of the work as any other theme explored.

--Liz Soehngen (article distributed in class)

Rosemarie McGerr - Chaucer’s Open Books: Resistance to Closure in Medieval Discourse

McGerr, Rosemarie. Chaucer’s Open Books: Resistance to Closure in Medieval Discourse. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998.
(Available in the Knox Library)

Also used a book review to further understand the text:
Scala, Elizabeth. “Book Review: Chaucer’s Open Books: Resistance to Closure in Medieval Discourse.” Notes and Queries. 46, no. 3 (1999): 379-82.
(Available on LION)

McGerr’s book plays around with ideas about the Medieval uses of closure and whether or not Chaucer rejects those concepts in his major works. I focused on the sections on the Canterbury Tales and Chaucer’s Retraction primarily. McGerr tries to avoid the major contributions by other Chaucerian scholars and hopes to remove any theorizing from her own discussion. The book focuses more on a historical background about the time period rather than being a strict and conventional literary theory. In this view, religious justification or “Augustinian moralism” is placed as the central basis for Chaucer’s motives and his rejection of the commonplace conclusions of other works of the time period. At times, it seems that McGerr is supporting Chaucer’s unique style of poetry and form, with his own set of meanings and interpretations of storytelling, but also falling prey to traditionalist reading of Chaucer that rejects him on subject matter and intent. McGerr’s discussion of The Canterbury Tales and its ending focuses on the juxtaposition of “the Parson’s Tale” and “Chaucer’s Retraction.” The view of the retraction is that it was written for the reader’s curiosity and search for closure and/or meaning in the ending of a work. McGerr states that Chaucer is actually showing that the reader solely provides any meaning. The discussion of the use of language also goes into the reader’s interpretation, as opposed to any of Chaucer’s intentions for the work. She feels that Chaucer may have put the whole of the responsibility on how all the poetry and prose rests on his original language and then how it is interpreted and defined. For some of the discussions on the works we had not read as well as other topics (especially on the topic of dream sequences) were hard for me to follow. I found the book review by Scala to try to understand some of the unclear portions of the text. Scala explains that there are many articles and books about Medieval culture and Chaucer that McGerr rejects or omits which might have made her arguments clearer. Some of these include: Sturges’s Medieval Interpretations, which gives a greater depiction of the background of the works in the secular and religious divide. Also she mentions John Burrows “Poems without Endings” is mentioned which focuses on the unfinished and fragmented works of the time, like The Canterbury Tales, and when the genre became popular in the post-Romantic era. Apparently, according to Scala who knows the sources available, feels that many of the contradictions to the book are not mentioned in the text. Chaucer’s Open Books is an interesting read, but it proves that without a basis in literary or rhetorical theory, an author overly challenges his or herself by making it that much harder to write, read, and interpret.

Marshall W. Stearns, "Chaucer's Attitude Toward Love"

Chaucer's Attitude Toward Love

Marshall W. Stearns

Speculum, Vol. 17, No. 4. (Oct., 1942), pp. 570-574.

Found on JSTOR

Stearns uses passages from The Book of the Duchess and Troilus and Criseyde to develop a personal understanding of the poet behind these works. The focus is on an allusion within the poetry to Chaucer's eight year long love-sickness, and its historical relevance in relation to his published work. This article only goes into surface detail on Chaucer as a failed lover, but the information would be useful for continued research. It also catalogues the multiple avenues for understanding what Chaucer thinks about courtly love, and perhaps more importantly, Chaucer's self-image as an authority on loving. Stearns believes Chaucer may have thought: "Can a 'clerc' of love really teach anything, if he believes himself to be unfeeling-blind and unable to judge hues in this manner?"

Priapus and the Parlement of Foulys

Emerson Brown, Jr. "Priapus and the Parlement of Foulys." Studies in Philology. V. 72. 1975. pp. 258-74.

Brown begins by addressing criticism of Chaucer's borrowings from Ovid, Boccaccio, and other source texts in an attempt to validate Chaucer's adaptation and treatment of the material to his dream vision the Parliament of Fowls. Brown proposes that, although the stanzas in Boccaccio and in Chaucer allude to the story from Ovid (the phallic god Priapus is near to penetrating a Naiad when an ass intrudes), Chaucer's incorporation of the event into Parliament presents "a more bawdy possibility, created by the syntactical unity of the last phrase," which is more suited to the theme of Love. Brown objects that these three lines, which, as he reads them, depict men trying to crown Priapus's phallus with garland of flowers, are padding; and suggests that they symoblize a lack of sexual gratification. Brown goes on to engage other criticisms which purport that the presence of Priapus shuts down any theories that Chaucer is "subordinationg" sensuality. Brown illustrates his claim by conflating the intrusion of the ass witht the lack of success in the men's attempt to crown the phallus: "the voluptuousness of Priapus is inhibited," and therefore comical (Brown's italics). Brown also seems determined to address another extreme of criticism of Priapus, which reads the phallic god "as representing everything the interpreter finds opposed to the moral center of the poem," by reading the actual parliament of birds as adhering to the code of courtly love. Brown, however, finds the scene of the parliament as another instance of delayed sexual gratification, claiming the act of choosing is in anticipation of the sex act. He concludes the article by stating that readers are not asking the right questions when trying to see Priapus in a good or bad light: they should consider that Chaucer "may have seen some aspects of life and art in a less morally absolute way," and that Priapus might be just an object of folly "softened by the recognition that what is so amusing and ridiculous in others may be within our own hearts."

This was a frustrating read because Brown has a very vague thesis, in which he basically states that he will examine Priapus' role in the poem. He does not slant it in any way, which was confusing when reading what at first seemed generalizations throughout the article. However, it does maintain a consistent discussion on whether Priapus should be viewed as a positive representation of sexuality or a negative one. In the end, Brown opts for a compromised reading, as can be seen from the quotes above. On the other hand, there are next to no articles devoted to the subject of Priapus, so Brown's essay is valuable in that respect.

Interesting if one is focusing on the the topic of sexuality in the Parliament.

Seductive Violence and Three Chaucerian Women

O’Brien, Timothy D. Seductive violence and three Chaucerian Women. College Literature (West Chester University, PA) (Spring 2001) p 178-196

O’Brien takes a look at the Wife of Bath, the wife in the Shipman’s tale, and the Prioress, with the argument that all three of them portray themselves as objects of violence in order to provoke sexual desire in men. By far, the most interesting argument he puts forth is that each woman in the tales, tailors how she portrays herself as on object of violence to the man she’s trying to seduce. Alison, in the Wife of Bath’s Tale, uses a dream to seduce Jenkyn, which O’Brien argues is working within how education worked in the time- beatings were given to beat out the feminine qualities and instill a sense of masculinity when lessons weren’t learned- lessons which were often tied to violence around women, and where rape was often treated as a way for men to become one with their masculinity. The wife in the Shipman’s Tale is trying to seduce a monk, and with the language of how she refers to herself, is reminiscent of the bodily violence and torture perpetrated onto female saints of the time. Where O’Brien’s argument becomes confusing and difficult to follow is when he’s attempting to explain the medieval mindset about how women are inherently violent and unclean to explain Alison’s dream. He also argues that the Prioress romanticizes violence, and by doing so creates herself as a romance object, her need to be desired more general than the other two women he talks about. This argument is vague and glossed over. The points about how the women in the stories are constructing the men as the powerful party by placing themselves in violent seductive positions, is interesting and worth reading. The most interesting part of the article however was the discussion of how violence, and specifically violence towards women, was an integral part of the education of males in the medieval ages.

Available on LION

"Why the Devil Wears Green" by W.D. Robertson Jr.

Robertson Jr., W.D. “Why the Devil Wears Green.” Modern Language Notes, Vol. 69, No. 7. (Nov., 1954), pp. 470-472.

This article gives two explanations as to why the fact that the fiend in the Friar’s Tale is dressed in green should be a warning as to his true identity. Firstly, the color green is highly associated with the Celtic underworld, although this explanation presumes that Chaucer and his audience was aware of the connection. A second argument for the devil being dressed in green is based off of the work of a mid-fourteenth century humanist Pierre Bersuire, who wrote an entire chapter on the color green in his encyclopedia. This work suggests that the devil, a master hunter, dresses in green because beasts like the color and are attracted to it and he wishes to make himself appear pleasant and not forewarn those he wishes to trap. The fiend in the Friar’s tale wishes to attract his fellow worker, the summoner. Unlike the first explanation, where the color green is a direct warning to all characters involved, the second is only a warning to the reader rather than to those within the tale.

This article can be found on JSTOR.

Haldeen Braddy, "Chaucer's Comic Valentine"

Chaucer's Comic Valentine
Haldeen Braddy
Modern Language Notes

Braddy uses evidence from Chaucer’s historical background to support his argument that Parliament of Fowles is meant to be read as comedy. He argues (rather weakly) that because animals are portrayed as talking personalities, the poem is humorous in basic framework. His are claims originate from Gardiner Stillwell’s critical work “Unity and Comedy in Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules.” Braddy doesn’t sufficiently resolve the question of irony in the poem, yet considers his argument true. Aside from the general argument, this short article has plenty of useful bibliographical data, and a short paragraph on Chaucer’s participation in the negotiations of betrothing Prince Richard and Princess Marie.

Available on JSTOR

Tony Hahn

Pilgrimage by Johnation Sumption

Pilgrimage

By Jonathan Sumption

Ich thinke it bothe mete and righte that thou shalt rede this grete boke. I loved this book. If you are interested in how the medieval cult of saints arose, how relics were venerated and dispersed, the laws surrounding pilgrimage, and the sexual and class politics of pilgrimage, this book is the place to turn. You will learn under what circumstances a pilgrimage would be required (criminals from Liege were sent to Rome and were required to climb the steps of the Lateran Basilica their knees and remain kneeling for the duration of five masses; in 1186, arson could be punished by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; at Maastricht, murderers were allowed to buy their way out of the pilgrimages they were ordered to make), the documentation one could receive to prove one had completed one’s penance, and the laws governing pilgrims on the road. Chapters you shouldn’t miss include: The Cult of Relics,” “The Saints and Their Relics,” “The Pursuit of the Miraculous,” “The Growth of a Cult,” and a chapter entitled “Light-Minded and Inquisitive Persons.” Many Chaucer references throughout.

Available at Seymour Library (BR 252 .S92)

John Bowers, "Dronkenesse is Ful of Stryvyng": Alcoholism and Ritual Violence in Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale"

Bowers, John M. “Dronkenesse is Ful of Stryvyng”: Alcoholism and Ritual Violence in Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale. ELH, Vol. 57, No. 4. (Winter, 1990), pp.757-784

John M. Bowers explains Chaucer’s Pardoner by suggesting that some – if not all – of the Pardoner’s behavior and characteristics (including his emasculation) may be understood by his apparent alcoholism. The article is divided neatly in sections, each beginning with a line from the text, followed by a number of paragraphs of explication. The article is perhaps at its best when Bowers notes the prevalent attitudes of Chaucer’s time period, and Bowers cites many period texts which may be of research value. Where it seems less strong to me are at the instances in which the article relies heavily on modern theories of psychology and alcoholism, including numerous citations from texts produced by Alcoholics Anonymous. Ultimately, if a reader is able to suspend disbelief at what may seem like anachronistic moments in the argument, I think he or she will be rewarded with an illuminating and novel explanation of the Pardoner.

– Available on JSTOR
Lisa Goetz

Charles Watkins, "Chaucer's Sweete Preest."

Watkins, Charles A. “Chaucer’s Sweete Preest.” ELH, Vol. 36, No. 3. (Sep., 1969), pp. 455-469

Charles A. Watkins is concerned with addressing various critics’ characterizations of the Nun’s Priest. Watkins recognizes that the rooster is “a conventional symbol of a priest,” yet the theory he puts forth – which relies upon the external characteristics and physiognomic notions of Chaucer’s day – aligns the humble widow with the Priest, and antithetically, the rooster with the host. Watkins also describes the Priest as a morally “aloof” narrator, who tells a tale with non-human characters in an attempt to address the Pilgrim’s behaviors without explicitly criticizing individuals. Perhaps the most compelling argument put forth by Watkins is that the Priest’s occasional departures from his position of aloofness reveal the Priest’s suppressed misogynistic views as well as his true opinions regarding free will. Ultimately, Watkins’ various descriptions help to explain the Priest and his tale, but his article may be more enlightening if one were to have been familiar with the critics and criticisms that he sought to address.

– Available on JSTOR
Lisa Goetz

Paul Strohm, "A Mixed Commonwealth of Style"

"A Mixed Commonwealth of Style"
Strohm, Paul. "A Mixed Commonwealth of Style." Social Chaucer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press (1989), pp.168-9, 171-78, 197-82, 225-27.

In this article Strohm pulls from Bakhtin and argues that the Canterbury Tales posesses polyvocality, wherein "its voices are never subject to dialectical resolution", and that it has this trait not because it is meant as a true reflection of a diverse and disrupted society, but because its polyvocality is a tool to meditate on the view of society as diverse and disrupted. By shattering the meditation into diverse and contradictory voices, the piece manages to address multiple issues and views without threat or danger. Strohm goes on to demonstrate that the Tales are not realistic depictions of medival England; the peasantry, which made up nine tenths of the populace, is entirely represented by the single plowman, who tells no tale. Furthermore, Chaucer also expresses doubt as to the use of fabulation to convey truth, implying that the Tales, being fabulations, should not be interpreted as taken from reality. Strohm concludes that the Parson's tale at the end of the work and Chaucer's Retraction posit the utopian idea that while the world is full of competing views of reality, the proper response to this is to seek "beyond the temporal sphere and beyond works that imitate that sphere -- ... in 'omina secula'", that all might come together by transcending their factions and rivalries. He also suggests, in the same breath, that the utopian value of the CT is its ability to accomodate a world where such mixed discourse may take place.

--Liz Soehngen (see also the excerpt in the back of our class text, the Norton edition of Canterbury Tales, p. 556ff.)

Queer Pandarus? Silence and Sexual Ambiguity in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde

Pugh, Tison. “Queer Pandarus? Silence and Sexual Ambiguity in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.” Philological Quarterly. Winter 2001 p. 17-35

Pugh uses queer theory to take a look at the relationship between Pandarus and Troilus in Troilus and Criseyde, finding queer undertones to the text. He states that in medieval contexts, there were no clear definitions of sexuality drawn by being either heterosexual or homosexual, and so we shouldn’t try to understand the relationships in the text as such. However, he does say that the relationship between two men, and specifically where the line should be drawn as acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior, was a concern in Chaucer’s day, and that it makes sense for Chaucer to have addressed it. Pugh cites many ambiguous moments in the text, and the things that Pandarus doesn’t say, the things he alludes to or will never give a clear answer about, as clues to the idea that the text can be read queerly. He argues that the driving force behind the action of the story is what Pandarus actually wants, and everything that happens is because of Pandarus’ desire--that the relationship between Pandarus and Troilus is about the power Pandarus has over Troilus, and that part of this power fulfills a sort of erotic need in Pandarus. Pugh stresses throughout that Chaucer is deliberately leaving many questions open and ambiguous, inviting the reader to form their own opinion about the characters of the main players, and that it’s precisely this ambiguity that allows for a queer reading.

Available on LION

"Griselda Translated"

Dinshaw, Carolyn. “Griselda Translated.” Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press 1989. pp 132-155.

In "Griselda Translated," Dinshaw draws parallels between men telling a story about women and men translating works from another language. She compares both Boccaccio, Petrarch, the Clerk, and Chaucer's translation of the Griselda story as well as their relationships to each other in their roles as translators. Dinshaw also suggests that the Clerk can be identified more as a Griselda character than a traditional male translator, which puts the tale and it's role in the greater work in an interesting light. I found this article extremely helpful in making sense of the various problems with the story that had been brought up in class discussion.

“Courtly Love in the Merchant’s and Franklin’s Tales.”

Holman, C. Hugh. “Courtly Love in the Merchant’s and Franklin’s Tales.” ELH, Vol. 18, No. 4 (1951,) pp 241-252.

Holman addresses how courtly love appears in the Merchant’s and Franklin’s tale. He starts his article by discussing the similarities and differences between the tales, outside of the courtly love issue. After establishing the similarities, he takes on the courtly love issue. He sees the Merchant’s Tale and the Franklin’s Tale as two very different ways of critiquing courtly love. He argues that the Merchant’s Tale shows “ideal” courtly love, and the sorrow and ridiculousness of it. He claims that the Franklin’s Tale shows the happy result of not following the precepts of courtly love. He brings up Troilus & Criseyde, and argues that the Merchant’s and the Franklin’s tale reflect a maturation on Chaucer’s part, by displaying a much more cynical view of courtly love than that expressed in Troilus & Criseyde. This article makes a good point, but it takes a lot longer than necessary to make the point. The author has a tendency to repeat himself, and overdo certain points.

Available on JSTOR.

Hannah Rapp

"Chaucer's Sense of Illusion: Roadside Drama Reconsidered"

"Chaucer's Sense of Illusion: Roadside Drama Recosidered." Jordan, Robert M. ELH, Vol. 29, No. 1 (March, 1962), pp. 18-33.

In this article Jordan is mostly arguing against the theory of the Canterbury Tales as a sort of roadside drama. He claims that because Chaucer inserts himself regularily into the text as it's author, he disrupts the reader's sense of illusion, pulling us out of the world of the fiction. Jordan says that the critics who support roadside drama have gone too far, citing some who claim to be able to read so far into the interactions of the Pilgrims as to figure out their pasts, and others who claim that Chaucer must have known each of the Pilgrims personally. He also makes the interesting claim that Chaucer's many apologies for the stories he 'has' to report does not show that Chaucer had any problem writing or telling any 'inappropriate' stories, but are actually used to pull the reader out of the illusion, reminding them that they are the ones who are taking the game in earnest, not the Pilgrims themselves. He also argues that too many critics try to find an 'organic' wholeness to the tales, when in fact the unity is 'mechanic', contrived by Chaucer to fit his purposes.

--avaliable on JSTOR

Malissa Kent

‘‘Wel bet is roten appul out of hoord": Chaucer's Cook,Commerce and Civic Order

‘'‘Wel bet is roten appul out of hoord': Chaucer's Cook, Commerce and Civic Order," by Craig E. Bertolet. Studies in Philology, summer 2002, Vol. 9, Issue 3, pg 229.

This article answers the question of how the Cook's tale "quytes" the Host, as he warns in his prologue. It explains a great deal about Londonian guilds and becoming a 'Citizen' in the merchant society. It ties the Cook's Tale back in with the previous two tales to warn that one must be careful as to who one accepts into one's home (which the host, being an innkeeper, cannot do). Bertolet argues that the Cook is included in the Tales at all to show the economic status of the Guildsmen (who never speak), and that he is constantly advertising himself in order to convince the others that he's a good cook despite his leg wound. The Host makes fun of the Cook's cooking and in return the Cook tells a tale which shows exactly how allowing one unruly person into the house can ruin one's own reputation for good. The revelling apprentice in the Tale ruins his master's reputation and scares customers away from his shop, Bertolet ties this back into the Host with reference to laws in London which make the innkeeper responsible for all his boarder's acts. Though Bertolet does not actually come right out and say it, he seems to be implying that the Cook is threatening to create a disturbance at the Host's inn and thus ruin his reputation, since the Host ruined his by insulting his food.

-Avaliable on EBSCOhost

Malissa Kent

Speaking of Chaucer

Donaldson, E. Talbot. Speaking of Chaucer. North Carolina: The Labyrinth Press, 1983.

Speaking of Chaucer is a collection of papers from E. Talbot Donaldson on many different topics that plague Chaucer scholars and readers, most of which are well-known amongst the discipline. Many of the articles are direct answers to and critiques of common ways of reading Chaucer, such as "The Effect of the Merchant's Tale," in which Donaldson addresses the question of whether or not "The Merchant's Tale" is too dark to be funny. This book contains several excellent articles on the women in Chaucer's works. Donaldson seems to be particularly interested in the character of Criseide, and his writings on her are a must read for anyone interested in further study of Criseide, Chaucerian love, and the portrayal of women in his tales.

Several of the articles included deal with the sources for and editing of The Canterbury Tales, and I must admit they were a little difficult to follow.

This book can be found at the Main Stacks on the third floor of Seymour Library.

Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine

Siraisi, Nancy. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine provides a historical overview of Western European medical practice, theory, and social reception. Due to the breadth of subject matter, encompassing several aspects of medicine in a wide spatial and temporal frame, Siraisi's book is best suited as a topical introduction. She begins by outlining the foundations of medieval and renaissance medicine, stressing its Greek intellectual roots. Medieval and renaissance medical practitioners are analyzed generally according to social standing, wealth, experience and practice without marginalizing exceptions. Time is devoted to a smaller number of female physicians and surgeons, Jewish practitioners and saintly miracle healers. University medical education is discussed in terms of its curricula, interdisciplinarity, practical application and social reception. The study includes an introduction to anatomical methodology from its Hellenistic roots to the sixteenth-century new anatomy dependent on human dissection. The book explores the definitions of health and disease, typical treatments (diet, medication and surgery) and complexion theory. While other historical interpretations are limited to either medieval or renaissance medicine, an editorial choice that enforces periodization, Siraisi widens her scope to include some of both. One strength of her study is its inclusiveness despite necessary generalities. It would be most useful to those interested in medieval and renaissance body rhetoric, the medical profession, its founding principles or early anatomy/surgery.

This book is available on the open reserves shelf at the library.

Kimpel, Ben. “The Narrator of the Canterbury Tales.”

Kimpel, Ben. “The Narrator of the Canterbury Tales.” ELH: A Journal of English Literary History 20.2(1953):77-86.

Kimpel examines the personality and role of the narrator of the Canterbury Tales as well as whether he should be viewed as Chaucer inserting himself into the story. Kimpel argues that the role that the narrator plays within the prologue is one of necessity and that we can glean little information about his personality from his remarks. He goes on to argue that very little evidence of the narrator’s personality exists throughout the rest of the tales, with the possible exception of the prologue. He notes that many critics are troubled by an apparent tension between the personality they believe is apparent in the general prologue and that shown in prologue to the tale of “Sir Thopas.” He concludes by saying that the narrator does not exhibit a strong enough personality to be seen as playing an important role in the Canterbury Tales and that there is certainly not enough evidence to present a link between Chaucer and the narrator.

Available on JSTOR.

Kathleen Hewitt, ' "Ther It Was First": Dream Poetics in the Parliament of Fowls.'

Hewitt, Kathleen. "Ther It Was First": Dream Poetics in the Parliament of Fowls. The Chaucer Review, Vol. 24. No. 1, 1989. pp. 20-28.

Hewitt elaborates on Chaucer's literary sources in the Parliament of Fowls, focusing on Cicero's Dream of Scipio, Dante's Inferno, Boccaccio's Teseida, and Alain de Lille's Plaint of Nature. Hewitt also examines how the dream sequence of Chaucer's Parliament is fashioned like the segment of Cicero's Dream, in which Africanus explains the movement of the concentric spheres (from unity to disunity) to the younger Scipio. The article purports that the narrator's dream in Parliament illuminates the whole of the structure of this explanation. The article is also enlightening in that it compares particular segments of the dream, such as the gateway with two stanzas of verse on either side and the juxtaposition of the temple of Venus with Priapus and the inexplicable plethora of birds, as a clustering of source materials that has been deviated from, allowing the reader to account for the lack of resolution at the end of the poem.

Chaucer and Courtly Love Once More--"The Wife of Bath's Tale" by George R. Coffman

Coffman, George R. Chaucer and Courtly Love Once More—“The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Speculum, Vol. 20, NO. 1. (Jan., 1945), pp. 43-50.

In this article Coffman argues what when the Wife of Bath’s Tale is interpreted with reference to the tradition of courtly love, presented by Capellanus’s De Amore and the Courts of Love of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Tale shows how the traditions of courtly love are applied to life rather than to literary convention. Apart from summarizing the Tale and introducing his sources, Coffman’s article is devoted to displaying the incongruities of the courtly love tradition as they appear in the Wife of Bath’s Tale. Three examples he states include: the fact that the very Court of Love that by its own codes should have condemned the knight gives him salvation instead, the idea of nobleness of character shown by the epitome of gentilesse in the Loathly Lady and not the nobleness of position does not fit with the reality of feudal society, the Tale’s resolution presents a bond of love between husband and wife.

P. B. Taylor, Chaucer's Cosyn to the Dede

Taylor, P. B. "Chaucer's Cosyn to the Dede." Speculum, Vol. 57, No. 2. (Apr. 1982), pp. 315-327.

Taylor explores the problematic relationships between words, intentions, and action found in Chaucer by focusing on the narrator's apology in the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales. He first rejects the conventional understandings of the apology, and proposes a more complex, multi-layered reading. By tracing and analyzing Chaucer's sources (Boethius, Jean de Meun, and Chalcidius) back to Plato, Isocrates and Sallust, Taylor shows how Chaucer's "cosyn to the dede" actually encompasses two separate and different conceptions of the nature and use of words - that of Isocrates and that of Plato. Thus, Chaucer's apology, in its rejection of Isocrates/Sallust for Plato and when placed beside the appeal to Christ, simultaneously suggests and rejects that "words both clothe morality and reflect in their particular references a world of universals." Taylor follows up with other elements in the Tales that support his claim such as puns on the words "cosyn" and "dede" and different meanings for particular phrases and words. Lastly, Taylor argues, through examining the realism vs. nominalism debate found between the Parson's and Pardoner's Tales, that Chaucer is a "Christian Platonist" who aspires for intent to inform action through words. However, this ideal aspiration is always "sullied" in reality.

This is an excellent article, but it does assume a working knowledge of Latin and familiarity with the works of ancient and medieval philosophers.

Available on JSTOR.

-Chor

George Lyman Kittredge, "The Marriage Group"

George Lyman Kittredge, "The Marriage Group"

George Lyman Kittredge. "The Marriage Group." The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prolouge, 2005, p. 539-546.

In this criticism, Kittredge discusses the topic of marriage that is brought up between the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Summoner, the Clerk, the Merchant, and the Franklin Prolouges and Tales. The essay starts off with the examination of the Wife of Bath character. The main focus that Kittredge focuses on her is the claim she makes at the end of her Tale about how men should subject themselves to their wives and that they shouldn't be lording over them. The rest of the essay examins how the Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Merchant, and Franklin tackle her statement through their own Tales. Kittredge writes most of the remainder of his essay on the Clerk's Tale and how much of an impact it had in retaliation to the Wife of Bath's statement of male subjectivity. Kittredge ends his essay on criticing the Franklin's Tale. Kittredge states that this was used by Chaucer to end the argument started by the Wife of Bath in which the Franklin states that married couples should be subject to love and not each other. The criticism is a study on what Chaucer is saying about marriage during the time in which he lived. Chaucer is writing this as a view on how marriage was seen in his time but not as a lesson according to Kittredge. Kittredge ends his critic with stating how this group is a study not a lesson on marriage.

-Patrick Cogar

Clifford J. Rogers, "The Military Revolutions of the Hundred Years' War"

Rogers, Clifford J. "The Military Revolutions of the Hundred Years' War." The Journal of Military History. Vol. 57, No. 2 (Apr. 1993). pp. 241-278.

After analyzing the prevailing historical theory that Western Europe became the dominant military power in the world due to the so-called "Military Revolution" between 1500 and 1800, Rogers posits that the Revolution was not a single event, but rather a series of smaller revolutions that culminated in Europe's military superiority. In addition, he places the first of these movements during the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), a much earlier date than that set in the popular theory. Rogers dubs this event the "Infantry Revolution," which saw the replacement of aristocratic cavalry with commoner infantry as the decisive force on the battlefield.

In Chaucer's England, this change manifested itself in the development of the longbow, a weapon that for the first time allowed archers to easily pierce the armor of feudal knights. Whereas the medieval battlefield before this time focused on capturing and ransoming rival knights with amazingly few casualties, the innovations set forth by the longbow and similar weapons created vast killing grounds that were indiscriminate of class and rank. Such military might in the hands of commoners was problematic for the old social order. Greater political and social power was given to English commoners in order to placate them, all the while moving the nation (and all of Europe) towards a point when knights would become almost completely obsolete.

Available on JSTOR.

- John Campbell

Female Religous Experience

Female Religious Experience and Society in Thirteenth-Century Italy

Luigi Pellegrini

Though this essay focuses on the changes in female religious life in Italy, the implication of those changes in Rome would have wide-spread effects and impact the lives of nuns in the entire Christian world. The prioress and nuns of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales lead lives very different from those of modern day religious and this article explores some of the historical and political context of the establishment of female religious orders. According to Pellegrini, prior to the thirteenth century, “there is very little evidence of autonomous female communities that were capable of making their own religious choices, independent of male monastic communities.” Autonomous female monasteries arose at a time in which the cults of female saints were gaining wide-spread popularity. Also at this time, many female orders began the practice of radical poverty, which allowed women to enter monasteries without a substantial dowry or other counter-gift of economic value. This extended the choice of taking holy orders to women of lower classes. This change led to outrage on the parts of some older, prestigious families and often led to social stratification within the monasteries themselves, with lower-class women in the role of little more than servants. Still, they were able to make the choice to avoid marriage and make a religious commitment.

From:

Farmer, Sharon, and Barbara H. Rosenwein, ed. Monks and Nuns, Outcasts and Saints. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.

Robert W. Ackerman, "Chaucer, the Church, and Religion"

Ackerman gives a broad overview of some of the research that has been done regarding the structure of the church, what Chaucer expected his audience to be familiar with, and to what extent references to the Church show up in his writings. He explains that most of the references to any kind of religious official have to do with the lower offices (such as monks, friars, and nuns), which would have been very common across England, even after the Black Death, and thus would have been very familiar to Chaucer's audience. There was also a general awareness of conflict between secular priests and friars. Ackerman touches on a number of different aspects of religious life that Chaucer assumed his audience was familiar with. References to the bible are numerous, however, there are relatively few references to actual theologians or philosophers, and the only work of this kind which seems to make a significant influence on his works is Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Ackerman concludes that regardless of how critics interpret the various religious references in Chaucer, it is at least apparent that they were meant to be references well known to the audience at the time.

Available in Companion to Chaucer Studies. ed Beryl Rowland. 1979.

William Urban, "The Teutonic Knights: A Military History"

Urban, William. "The Teutonic Knights: A Military History". London: Greenhill Books. 2003.

This book is a narrative account of the history of the Teutonic Knights and their military campaigns. It is relevant to the Canterbury Tales because it discusses one of the most prominent campaigns that the Knight is said to have participated in. In particular, the book discusses the Order's Table of Honour that the Knight is said to have headed. "Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne Aboven alle naciouns in Pruce." (Canterbury Tales, 4). Urban discusses how this Table of Honor was well known and that the place of honor was given for the greatest courage shown on the battlefield. If one looks at this example of the Knight's prowess and chivalry it seems to support the image that Chaucer creates of the Knight being the perfect example of what a chivalrous knight should be. Urban continues to discuss what the Teutonic Knights were like in the period that the Knight would have served, which Carleton Brown in his article puts to be from 1343-1367. Urban discusses this period in Teutonic Knight history as being one in which the chivalric ideals began to take over. He discusses how the participants in the crusade of the Teutonic Order became the epitome of Chivalry. This could perhaps be looked on in contrast to the campaigns that the Squire participated in, which were purely secular campaigns. It would be interesting to research into these differences and see if Chaucer is trying to make a distinction between these two different examples of Chivalry.

-Tyler Hill
-This book is available from me if anyone is interested.

H. Marshall Leicester, "Newer Currents in Psychoanalytic Critisim and the Diffrence It Makes: Gender and Desire in 'The Miller's Tale'"

Leicester, Marshall H. Newer Currents in Psychoanalytic Criticism and the Diffrence "It" makes: Gender and desire in "The Miller's Tale". EHL: A Journal of English Literary History. 1994. Vol. 61 Issue 3 pp. 473-499.

Leicester begins by citing an interpretation of the myth of Medusa that Freud analyzed in which he pointed out the realization of the "little boy" that he will be castrated for stealing what is the "older man's". Using this Leicester mentions that one could read this into Absolon and to an extent Nicolas. Leicester goes on to explain Lacanian theory and symbolism, particularly of doiors. He draws attention to the fact that the Miller is one who likes to "break down doors" and how the Miller breaks both class "doors" and sexual "doors". He then begins to discuss the Oedipal nature of the tale as well as the implications of virility. Alison is set up as an object of desire, something in the story that ultimately doesn't matter so long as she is there for the men to compete over.
The article got very obtuse very quickly. It could be confusing to those unfamiliar with psychoanalytic theory.

James Kreuzer, "The Swallow in Chaucer's "Miller's Tale"

Kreuzer, James. R. "The Swallow in Chaucer's 'Miller's Tale'". Modern Language Notes. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1958 pg. 81.

Gives an interesting bit of background on the significance of the image of Alison as a swallow--unconventional in romantic imagery, but relevant to the plot.

Available on JSTOR.

--Carina Saxon

Carleton Brown, "The Squire and the Number of Canterbury Pilgrims"

Brown, Carleton. "The Squire and the Number of the Canterbury Pilgrims". Modern Language Notes. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1934 p. 216 of 216-222


Brown notes a discrepancy between the number of pilgrims Chaucer states are traveling together and the actual number named in the General Prologue. He suggests that this discrepancy, which has never been satisfactorily solved, points to a change of plan in the composition of the general prologue.

He references scholars who have found reason to think the squire was written later and inserted in to the narrative--the military exploits of the knight and the squire do not match in time, the squire comes with a single servant while the Knight is alone.

Without the squire, the number is right, and all three of the nun's priests can be counted. Chaucer does not count himself.

Also, contains an interesting discussion of the various military expeditions the Knight and the Squire could have been involved in, and their dates.

Available on JSTOR.

--Carina Saxon

Catherine Rock, "Forsworn and Fordone: Arcite as Oath-Breaker"

Rock, Catherine A. "Forsworn and Fordone: Arcite as Oath-Breaker in the Knight's Tale." Chaucer Review, Vol. 40 Issue 4 (2006,) pp 416-432.

Catherine A. Rock focuses on Arcite's identity as an oath-breaker, and how this identity affects his death. She posits that the oath of brotherhood, which did not appear in Bocaccio's Teseida, is the key to Arcite's grim fate. She argues that Arcite broke the oath, not Palamon. She places the oath, an example of earthly law and justice, next to the "natural law" of love. Arcite places the "natural law" before his earthly oath, and betrays Palamon. She shows other examples of Arcite breaking oaths, or betraying loyalties. She points out that Arcite breaks his oath to Theseus as well, returning to Athens although he swore not to, and also betrays his allegiance to Mars after his release, by playing the part of a pining lover, rather than acting as the military leader of his state. Rock argues that Arcite's betrayals lead him to his grisly, unromantic death. But she also says that he experiences a deathbed redemption by renewing the bonds of brotherhood between himself and Palamon.

--Hannah Rapp

Carol Heffernan, "Praying Before the Image of Mary"

Hefferman, Carol F. “Praying Before the Image of Mary: Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale, VII 502-12”. Chaucer Review. 2004. Vol. 39 Issue 1 pg 103-116.

Carol Hefferman of Rutgers University explores the idea behind praying before an image, specifically images of the Virgin Mary. The article takes two focuses. The first focus is of the image becoming a symbol of piety for the lewd. Hefferman suggests that the luneducated needed symbols and images because of their lack of education, especially in terms of their lack of Latin. The second focus zeroes in on the historical relevance of the image of Mary, especially in context to the location of the tale. As the tale is suggested to be near a great eastern city, it is likely that the controversy of iconoclasm is still strongly influencing the idea of the veneration of images. Hefferman briefly attempts to discuss miracles and the intervention of saints, but winds up reflecting back on piety and martyrdom. In this case, the focus is on the martyred child in the tale and the allusion to Christian sacrifice.

-- Andrés Boyer

Wayne Shumaker "Alisoun in Wander-land: A Study in Chaucer's Mind and Literary Method"

Shumaker, Wayne. “Alisoun in Wander-land: A Study in Chaucer’s Mind and Literary Method.” ELH: A Journal of English Literary History 18.2 (1951): 77-89.

Shumaker makes a claim about the Wife of Bath, Alys, and her portrayal by Chaucer. In his opinion, the well-traveled Wife of Bath would give much credit to her sex. Going into the difficulties and immodesties of belonging to a journey, let alone three, would give Alys a greater understanding of the world and give her an experiential education most women would not have the opportunity to have. Alys’s modern sensibility and individuality are underscored, in his opinion, by Chaucer giving her feminine traits of sinful faults in character and modesty. Still, Shumaker does not blame Chaucer exclusively, considering his audience and time period. Instead, he compares Alys to a real life example of a well-traveled women of the time period, Margery Kemp, whose writing: The Book of Margery Kempe was written approximately between 1413 and 1415. The examples of Kempe’s knowledge and reflection written about her journey to Palestine connect to the Wife of Bath in the struggle of being part of a journey few would undertake with such inconveniences of travel. The comparison of two women taking on a role that was not expected in the 15th century shows the strength of women at the time and the fact that they could endure such hardships as men. Shumaker’s respect for Alys, the Wife of Bath, is evident. The strength of her character is shown and even respected by both Chaucer and the narrator for the time period. Nevertheless, only from a modern standpoint, using the documents recently found of Margery Kempe could the reader fully grasp the nature of women during the medieval period.

Jeffrey Helterman, “The Dehumanizing Metamorphoses of The Knight’s Tale”

Helterman, Jeffrey. “The Dehumanizing Metamorphoses of The Knight's Tale.” ELH

Halterman explains in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale the main characters who try to be elevated in status by the ideals of chivalry and love instead fall to the position of less than a beast. He accomplishes this conclusion in part by realizing Artice’s renunciation of his blood oath to Palamoun, which leads to his forfeit of human nature as a social and moral being. Using Chaucer’s sources, such as Boethius, Boccaccio and Gower, Halterman also discusses the Knight himself, briefly as a historical figure, but focused most on how the Knight character is unable to elevate himself through bloody conquest. Halterman argues that destruction and perversion of nature is a theme in The Knight’s Tale by using a bountiful amount of citations from both the tale and the sources of Chaucer.

E. Talbot Donaldson, "Chaucer the Pilgrim"

E. Talbot Donaldson, "Chaucer the Pilgrim"

Donaldson, E. Talbot. "Chaucer the Pilgrim." The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue, 2005, pp 503-551.

Donaldson examines the distinction between Chaucer the civil servant, poet, and "pilgrim" or narrator of the tale, arguing that while they cohabitate the same body, they are not necessarily the same man. He also dismisses previous criticisms claiming that Chaucer was as earnest or as reporter-like as a face-value reading of the text might lead one to believe. Using examples from both the general and individual prologues, he argues that Chaucer's persona as the fortune-affectionate, glamour-bedazzled "Fat Geoff" character is a device used to simultaneously entertain, criticize and please his upper-class audience, serving the needs of Chaucer the man and the aims of Chaucer the poet; for this reason, it might not always to be possible to determine whether we are to view the world as it ought to be or, like "his fictional representative... to go on affirming affectionately what is."

Liz Soehngen

Eyler and Sexton, "Once More to the Grove: a Note on Symbolic Space in the 'Knight's Tale' "

Eyler, Joshua R. and Sexton, John P. "Once More to the Grove: a Note on Symbolic Space in the 'Knight's Tale' ." The Chaucer Review, Vol. 40, No. 4 (2006), pp 433-9.

In this article Eyler and Sexton explore the contradiction found in the "Knight's Tale" in regards to the grove where Theseus finds Palamon and Arcite fighting. They point out that Theseus destroys the grove in order to build the lists where the tournament between the cousins is later held; and then, when Arcite dies Theseus declares that he will be buried in the same grove which was supposedly destroyed, making no mention of the lists which had been built in its place. Eyler and Sexton suggest this is no simple oversight on Chaucer's part, and that rather this contradiction served to highlight the role which chaos plays in this story. Theseus tries hard to impose order upon this chaos, but in the end his well-mannered and regulated tournament is overthrown by the will of the gods, yeilding the same result that the original, 'savage' duel could have created. Eyler and Sexton argue that in the end the only real victor is the chaos which overthrows every attempt for order.

--avaliable on WilsonSelectPlus search
Malissa Kent

D.S. Brewer, "Class Distinction in Chaucer"

Brewer, D. S. “Class Distinction in Chaucer.” Speculum, Vol. 43, No. 2. (Apr., 1968), pp. 290-305

Brewer examines the social structures present in The Canterbury Tales, contending that there are in fact three distinctive class systems based on; “rank,” which is apparently divinely ordained, requires wealth, and classifies a social standing that ranges from high (king) to low (peasant); a binary system of the titled versus the untitled (and a conceptual “gentilesse” which allows a person to surpass his or her rank through qualities of character); and finally a three-fold categorization that distinguishes between knight, clergy and plowman. Brewer provides clarifying insights into the social mindset of the time period in which social status was almost – but not completely – fixed: through personal choices and behaviors a person could both fall from and climb the social “ladder.” Brewer concludes that social structure plays a critical role in The Canterbury Tales, and for that reason it ought to be explored more thoroughly. It is regrettable that the article itself does not do this more thorough exploration.

– Available on JSTOR
Lisa Goetz

Examples of annotated bibliographic entries

Kelly, Kathleen Ann. "An Inspiration for Chaucer's Description of Chauntecleer." English Language Notes. Vol. 30, no 3, March 1993.1-6.

Kelly first gives a brief overview of the sources critics have attributed for Chaucer's description of Chantecleer. She then suggests that Chaucer did not simply create "a hyperbolic description of Everyrooster" but that he was influenced by the description of the phoenix in Mandeville's Travels. She contends that for those in Chaucer's audience who would have made the connection, it would have served to heighten the mock-heroic elements of the tale.


Shallers, A. Paul. "The 'Nun's Priest's Tale': An Ironic Exemplum." ELH 42, 1975. 319-337.

Shallers studies the Medieval exemplum and the ironic voice in this article. He goes over trends in criticism to assign a meaning to the tale. He also explores some of the sources and analogues for the tale, as well as looks at the tale in light of the Knight's Tale. He concludes that: "[The NPT] is instead Chaucer's comic vision of mankind which counterbalances in the Canterbury Tales the ideal image he presents in the Knight's Tale."

—taken from The Nun’s Priest’s Tale: An Annotated Bibliography, by Anniina Jokinen, http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/nunsbib.htm

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please begin adding entries below (see syllabus for other details). After adding an entry, please put your name at the very end so that we know whom to ask about how best to locate the particular book or article that you overviewed. If you have immediate information, though, such as "available as reserve for class" or "available online through JSTOR," etc., please indicated that at the end of your entry as well. LH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the Knox College Chaucer blog

If you are a student in the winter 2007 Chaucer class, you've come to the right place. This is the online space we will use to construct our class annotated bibliography. Stay tuned for more instructions.

Lori