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The following is the first of a series of articles to be published at intervals

on contemporary criticism of major English writers.

Contemporary Chaucer Criticism


By BERYL ROWLAND
{Professor of English, York University, Toronto)

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i HE heroic industry of Chaucerians is medieval poetic, philosophical, and religious
J . beyond dispute. In the last two decades traditions, and to a new interest in the relation-
new critical methods have led to a wholesale ship between literature and art.
reassessment of the aesthetic bases of Chaucer's As early as 1938, Wolfgang Clemen in Der
art, to a different view of literary conventions, junge Chaucer employed a close reading of the
and to the sweeping aside of what had become, text and stressed the relationship between
following the achievement of Kittredge and theme and style. The revision, in translation,
others, an almost conclusive mode of apprecia- Chaucer's Early Poetry (1963), which retains its
tion. Today's critics have adapted themselves prominence as an introduction to the subject,
to the change: they bring to the study of restated more extensively his reaction to the
Chaucer's works scholarly techniques, more over-emphasis on French and Italian in-
comprehensive, objective, and scientific than fluences, and showed the effect of a juxta-
they ever were in the past; with a new aware- position of discrete styles and genres in creating
ness of medieval culture, they examine the irony and ambiguity. That Clemen was in
poetry in the perspective of Chaucer's period, advance of his time was noted by Charles
yet they recognize that the preoccupations of Muscatine in Chaucer and the French Tradition
their own age influence their appreciation of (1957), a work which by 1969 had reached its
his art. Whether we view these critics as 'God's sixth printing, and it is Muscatine's work
plenty'—a phrase now applied to the text which has become 'un des classiques de la
more literally than ever Dryden intended—or critique chauc^rienne', exerting an extra-
simply as 'bees out swarmen from an hyve', we ordinary seminal influence on Chaucer studies
must admit that their critical endeavours have in North America. Muscatine's general thesis
been prodigious and exceptionally stimulating. is that Chaucer used the two dominant
The search to define Chaucer's poetic which stylistic traditions in French literature, the
now engrosses the modern critic arose when the
widespread notion of Chaucer as the great courdy and the bourgeois, and from their
social and psychological realist, emancipating juxtaposition ultimately created a Protean
himself from the artifices of medieval literary late-medieval style. In an illuminating analysis
traditions, seemed to lose its validity. While it of individual poems Muscatine emphasizes the
is no accident that the willingness to challenge role of poetic method in die generation of
received interpretations occurred at a time meaning. The poetry emerges as more con-
when traditional moral and social values, as servative than traditional criticism hitherto
well as literary ones, were being questioned, allowed and it is also more complex, reflecting
the main impetus derived from the fact that typical Gothic qualities: the sequential order-
the analytical methods of the New Criticism ing of experience, simultaneously concrete and
had at last penetrated the strongholds of symbolic; die tension between the secular and
medieval studies. But if the text became the divine, between the actual and the ideal, which
final authority, various aesthetic systems informs the art and thought of the period.
applied to later literature seemed largely Clemen and Muscatine show a shift of interest
irrelevant, and the conviction that the poetry from source study and vocabulary to modes of
had been misunderstood led to a concern with composition and of verbal expression; histori-
cal and analytic emphases are balanced, and
Contemporary Chaucer Criticism
the complexities of style are examined not so pawn of cruel Fortune, others as a woman who
much for their own sake but for the purpose of sensibly adjusts to the inevitable. And as a
discovering the total meaning of a given poem. matter of fact, they are all correct, depending
This shift was already evident in Muscatine's upon what elements in her are chosen for
essay on the Knight's Tale in 1950, which emphasis' (pp. 31-2).
focused on the relationship between the The shift in the main area of critical con-
subject of the poem (the noble life), the philo- cern is reflected in Ralph Baldwin's The Unity
sophic content, and the poetic texture, and in of the Canterbury Tales (1955), in which the
the papers presented at the English Institute moral persuasions of rhetoric and their effect
in the same year by Sanford B. Meech and on theme are studied. Baldwin is primarily
E. Talbot Donaldson. Meech's work was sub- interested, however, in a symbolic direction

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sequently expanded in Design in Chaucer's for the total narrative, in which he sees the
Troilus (1963), a penetrating and exhaustive search for salvation as the unifying principle.
examination of text and sources. Donaldson's The most detailed study of rhetoric, now- un-
essay, 'Idiom of Popular Poetry in the Miller's fortunately out of print, is Robert O. Payne's
Tale', was reprinted in Explication as CriticismThe Key of Remembrance: A Study of Chaucer's
(1963). It also appears in Speaking of ChaucerPoetics (1963). Payne is also concerned with
(1970), an astringent volume consisting of relating rhetoric not only to medieval rhetori-
eight reprinted essays and four new ones. cal tradition but to truth itself. In terms of
While his writings are indubitably contempor- neo-Augustinian orthodoxy, rhetorical ampli-
ary in tone, style, and attitude, Donaldson fication is the central process whereby the poet
brings to the study of Chaucer a learning makes clear 'the particular truth which he
firmly rooted in historical and philological wishes to extract from his subject matter by
traditions. If he must be given his due for elaborating and strengthening the portions
demolishing the charming myth of 'courtly upon which he wishes the emphasis to fall'-.
love' as developed by C. S. Lewis in The Chaucer's own references to the art of poetry
Allegory of Love,1 even more important are his reflect his struggle to solve the problems posed
considerations of the 'I' of the poem as a by authority and experience and, in other
fictional creation belonging to the tradition terms, of 'the persuasive adjustment of lan-
of 'the fallible first person singular', as seen, guage to truth'; he was aware that, while the
for example, in Gulliver's Travels. Donaldson's rhetorical poetic might be the ideal, mortal
essay 'Chaucer the Pilgrim' (1954) put an end men could not really do what was required of
to a simple response to the characters as real them. Given the inadequacies of language,
people, and gave rise to fruitful discussions on emotion, and reason, the poet might find
the nature and function of the Chaucerian T. himself in the position of the dreamer-poet in
Also important is Donaldson's insistence that The Prologue to the Legend of Good Women: o n
the stylistic clarity once attributed to Chaucer trial for having produced effects which he did
is often more apparent than real, that palpable not intend. Payne's book was further con-
contradictions may be deliberate and irre- firmation of the necessity to place Chaucer in
concilable. In a recent essay, 'Chaucer and the a sound medieval perspective. Referring to his
Elusion of Clarity', in Essays and Studies in work five years later in the Companion to
Honour of Beatrice White (1972), he shows that Chaucer Studies, ed. Beryl Rowland (1968), he
Chaucer had a predilection for 'diaphanously said that he was asking the reader to see
clear statements utterly destructive of one Chaucer 'as he is limited by his own time,
another's meaning'. For this reason evaluations place, and person, precisely in order to see how
of Criseyde, for example, can be 'wildly he engages in his own time, place, and person
divergent: some scholars see her as the helpless most of the poetic issues we are still concerned

1
Oxford University Press, 1936. For an excellent with poet, time, and country, and in Chaucer's poetry it
summation of the characteristics of fine amour or 'fyn is never adulterous'. One might object that in the
lovynge', see the Introduction to D. S. Brewer's edition Franklin's Tale, the fine amour of Aurelius includes adultery
of The Parlement of Fovlys (London: Nelson, i960), pp. in its intent.
7—8. Brewer notes that 'the concept of fine amour varies
Contemporary Chaucer Criticism
with, however differently we may express the Robertsonian approach, often in an ex-
them . . .' (pp. 53-4). treme form. The erudition, complexity of
The study of the traditions which shaped suggestion, even the 'tendency towards polar-
Chaucer's aesthetic language coincided with ized judgements' of which his critics complain,
an examination of the concepts governing the make his works extraordinarily stimulating.
moral and spiritual attitudes reflected in his Undoubtedly, Robertson has restored to
poetry. Again the terminus a quo is 1950, when modern consciousness the important tradition
D. W. Robertson, Jr., gave his paper on of medieval li terary exegesis and has shown its
historical criticism at the English Institute. relationship to much of the visual art of the
Reviewers complain with some justice that period. He must be credited with awakening
occasionally a critic's style seems designed not an interest not only in patristic literature but

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to make the meaning clear, but to prevent it in the medieval world picture to a degree that
from being understood too easily. Both Payne conventional scholarship could never have
and R. M. Jordan have evoked such censure, achieved. To my mind the most obvious and
although their lapses are rare enough. Robert- insurmountable obstacle to a Chaucer moralise
son, on the other hand, for all his eloquence, lies in the Retraction. Irrespective of whether
seems almost too open, too perversely honest the 'litel tretys' refers to the Parson's Tale or the
as well as lacking in the kind of hubris that may Canterbury Tales as a whole, the revoking of 'the
affect even the wisest and wittiest of Chaucer- tales of Caunterbury, thilke" that sownen into
ians. The result is that his central tenets are synne', as well as Troilus, The House of Fame,
relatively easy to grasp and have been ex- and other works, set in explicit opposition to
plained many times, though not usually in his 'Boece de Consolacione, and othere bookes of
own cogent, persuasive manner. Put briefly, legendes of seintes, and omelies, and moralitee,
Robertson's view is that medieval literature and devocioun' appears to offer Chaucer's
follows the Augustinian tradition, recommend- own perspective of his works.
ing caritas and reproving cupiditas; where it Robert M. Jordan, Chaucer and the Shape of
does not appear to do so directly, it must be Creation (1967) replaces patristic exegesis by
seen as doing so covertly in allegory. The
significance of a work lies in the sententia, medieval ideas of inorganic structure, stem-
whereas modern criticism has concentrated on ming ultimately from the Platonic tradition of
the littera and sensus. The critic must act as an aesthetics. Whereas Robertson's Miller is an
exegete, find the consistent sententia in the abstraction, a manifestation of an attitude,
figures which the poet uses, and then demon- Jordan's is 'an externally shaped composite',
strate how the poet has applied his surface built on Gothic principles. Maintaining that
materials to point the way to abstract truth. organic unity was not to be expected in
I have been taken to task for stating in medieval literature and art because the under-
'Chaucer's Dame Alys: Critics in Blunder- lying concept was quantitative and inorganic,
land?' in Studies Presented to Tauno F. Mustanoja Jordan demolishes the concept of the 'road-
side drama' which had evolved from Kittredge,
on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday (1972) that
Robertson's A Preface to Chaucer (1962) is the consistent character portrayal, the significance
most influential book of the last two decades. of the narrator, the existence of any but the
I think it is. The controversy which his views most nominal relationship between tale and
caused received formal recognition by 1958 teller. The writing is often eloquent, the
when patristic exegesis became the main topic literary criticism frequently perceptive and
at the meetings of the English Institute, and it devastating to accepted views. The practical
has continued in papers and review articles by application of his theories is seen at its most
Morton W. Bloomfield, E. T. Donaldson, R. E. baffling in the discussion on Troilus—'a
Kaske, A. Leigh DeNeef, F. Parmisano, gathering of inert materials deliberately put
William Matthews, Robert Payne, F. L. together according to preconceived plans'; at
Utley, as well as in later reviews by A. C. its most effective in the chapter on the Wife of
Cawley, A. C. Spearing, Charles Owen, and Bath's Prologue, and the general chapter on the
others on recent books and articles now using Canterbury Tales.
Dealing exclusively with one work, Paul G.
A2
Contemporary Chaucer Criticism
Ruggiers in The Art of the Canterbury Tales (1965) work is suggested in his introduction: ' . . . if an
accepts Baldwin's symbolic explication of the exegesis of the work as it stands compels us to
framework of the pilgrimage but rejects the reshape our notions of the limits of "gothick"
idea of the 'roadside drama' which Baldwin learning and imagination, then . . . this study
had appropriated without substantial modi- will have been amply justified.' That Chaucer
fication. Ruggiers's learned but unpretentious could avail himself so readily of an encyclo-
book was important eight years ago and still is. paedic learning as Bennett shows conclusively
The development of his thesis is penetrating that he did, is difficult for us now to compre-
and judicious, and his considerations of indi- hend. But, as Frances Yates reveals in The Art
vidual tales include lively and perceptive of Memory (1966), memory itself was different
sequential narration, comprehensible to the from what it is today. An artificial or trained

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student as well as the scholar. Addressing him- memory, according to treatises such as Ad
self to the frame of the Tales and to the 'great Herennium, worked on principles of order and
middle' in particular, Ruggiers finds that while association. The memory was a visual store-
the stories may give the surface impression of house, established from places and images. The
discontinuity, they explore reality in both loci (not too brightly lit that they became con-
spiritual and secular content, and look forward fusing) were arches, columns, alcoves, and the
to the resolution, to the sacramental view of like; images were forms, marks, or simulacra of
life which the Parson superimposes on the what was to be remembered. Chaucer, both
pilgrimage. Like Jordan, to whose article in as a public servant and as a scholar, in all
English Literary History, 29 (1962), 19-33, he probability cultivated an artificial memory.
refers, Ruggiers sees the Retraction connected Donald R. Howard in 'The Canterbury Tales:
to the work as a whole as a judgement on the Memory and Form', English Literary History, 38
relation between the moral and artistic life and (1971), 319-28, finds that the General Prologue
on the limits of poetical experience.
is structured on such principles of memory and
Critical analyses of individual works are a that the process affects the form of the entire
fundamental literary activity, and those of work. It seems to me that certain features in the
J. A. W. Bennett are the most distinguished of House of Fame, such as the reiterated 'I saugh'
their kind. In The Parlement of Foules: Anand the pillars 'of metel that shoon not ful cler'
Interpretation (1957), he interprets the poem which serve the function of loci, point specific-
almost line by line, showing how Chaucer ally to a medieval mnemonic system and suggest
transmuted images, thoughts, and phrases the method whereby Chaucer retained and
from his 'auctours'. The commentary is per- made use of his immense learning. The kind
ceptive as well as erudite and offers incontro- of studies in which Bennett has engaged in-
vertible evidence that Chaucer drew upon a dicates the continuing importance of the in-
scholasticism far broader and more complex vestigation of Chaucer's reading.
than some modern exegetes allow. Similarly, Considerations of manuscripts and source
his Chaucer's Book of Fame: An Exposition of 'The material have had varying attention. It was
House of Fame' (1968) is both a work of critical not until 1968 that the Coventry Manuscript,
interpretation and an analysis of the profusion containing the fourth largest anthology of
of materials which went into the creation of the Chaucer's shorter poems known from medieval
poem. Bennett regards the House of Fame in one times, was fully described by A. I. Doyle and
sense as a vindication of poetry, a work in which George Pace in 'A New Chaucer Manuscript',
the poet considers the nature and rewards of Publications of the Modern Language Association, 83
poetic achievement, and he rightly observes (1968), 23-34; Daniel Silvia in the forth-
that 'nowhere should we be content with a coming Chaucer and Middle English Studies in
literal reading'. The poem that emerges is found Honor of Rossell Hope Robbins again examines
to have more traditional aspects and more thefifteenth-centurymanuscripts of the Canter-
formality than had previously been allowed,
and he convinces us that Lydgate's description, bury Tales and finds that the number of manu-
'Dante in Inglissh', was not unreasonable. scripts originally complete is less than was
assumed. The question of order of the Tales
The most significant implication of Bennett's continues to be argued, despite Manly's
Contemporary Chaucer Criticism
conclusion that 'none of the extant manuscripts considers three Old French sources for the
exhibits an arrangement which with any prob- Nun's Priest's Tale in Speculum, 47 (1972), 422-
ability can be ascribed to Chaucer'. With a 44, 646-68, and Francis Lee Utley, with
slight modification based on the most important William Edwin Bettridge, throws new light on
and complete statement of the case, Robert A. the origin of the Griselda Story in Texas Studies
Pratt's 'The Order of the Canterbury Tales', in Literature and Language, 13 (1971), 153-208.
Publications of the Modern Language Association, 66In a further paper on the Clerk's Tale in The
(1951), 1141-67, A. C. Baugh's edition (1963) Chaucer Review, 6 (1972), 198-228, Utley dis-
follows Furnivall's final order whereas Robin- cusses its five genres and effectively demon-
son's edition published in 1933 and revised strates that one way to counter exclusively
in 1957, and Donaldson's published in 1958 modernistic or 'historical interpretations' of the

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adopt the order of the best manuscripts, with tale is through genre criticism which attends to
the attendant inconsistencies regarding time the function of a work and its parts. Another
and place on the road from London to Canter- interesting avenue of research is offered by
bury. Thomas J. Garbaty in 'The Monk and Rossell Hope Robbins's suggestion that the
the Merchant's Tale: An Aspect of Chaucer's lost love poems of Chaucer's youth, the
Building Process in the Canterbury Tales', lecherous lays, the 'ditees', and the 'songes
Modern Philology, 67 (Aug. 1969), 18-24, glad', may have been in French.
returns to Manly's theory that the Merchant's More general works of appreciation have
Tale was originally told by the Monk in appeared recently, most of which eschew a
response to the Wife's (now the Shipman's) Tale. central thesis. Some of these such as T. W.
Charles Owen maintains, in various articles Craik's The Comic Tales of Chaucer (1964), John
and in his chapter in the Companion to ChaucerLawlor's Chaucer (1968), S. S. Hussey's
Studies (1968), that the pilgrims go to Canter- Chaucer: An Introduction (1971), are admirable in
bury and back, and that the order is A, B1, B2, G,
their way, following the tradition and intended
H, D, C, E-F, I, while R. M. Lumiansky has
for the same public as D. S. Brewer's Chaucer
recently suggested in Studies in Language and
(1953), namely, 'People with literary tastes but
Literature in Honour of Margaret Schlauch (1971),
not necessarily with any specialized knowledge'.
p. 229, that the Physician should follow the
Franklin (as in the Ellesmere) because the A similar purpose is served by the profusely
attitudes of the two tellers towards diet, illustrated books of R. S. Loomis, Maurice
money, and astrology are contrasted. No Hussey, and F. E. Halliday who, working
sequence of groups is entirely free from ob- admittedly on differing scholarly levels, bring
jections but one of the virtues of this sort of the reader into direct visual communication
investigation is that it permits suggestions with Chaucer's time. It is, however, becoming
regarding Chaucer's working methods, of the increasingly difficult to produce a book which
kind demonstrated by R. A. Pratt, in 'The is simple but learned, given the amount and
Development of the Wife of Bath', in Studies in the complexity of scholarship which the author
Medieval Literature in Honor of Professor Albert must absorb. Yet there seems something wrong
Croll Baugh (1961), pp. 45-79, John H. Fisher, in the concept of a work as a dialectic addressed
'Chaucer's Last Revision of the Canterbury solely to a dedicated body of Chaucer scholars
Tales', Modern Language Review, 67 (1972), 241- and never to the general reader. Ian Robinson
51, and others. Problems related to the estab- has tried to write for the general reader as well
lishment of the best text for the Canterbury Tales as for the specialist, and the first of his two
are still discussed. As a result of a recent study a recent books is notably successful. Chaucer's
diplomatically rendered Hengwrt manuscript Prosody (1971) is the most lively, provocative,
will become the base-text for The Chaucer and readable book written on the subject, and
Variorum, an important project on which some shows a keen appreciation of Chaucer's poetry
thirty scholars are now engaged, under the as poetry. Finding that the long line of the
general editorship of Paul G. Ruggiers and Canterbury Tales is a 'balanced pentameter',
Donald C. Baker. Investigation of sources and working in half-lines as well as in feet, with
analogues is also continuing. R. A. Pratt the half-lines not definably restricted either
in length or in the number of stresses, he
8 Contemporary Chaucer Criticism
maintains that Chaucer developed a complex its kind, encompassing the vast subject of the
metre because the verse was intended to be culture of the age, yet treating it with freshness
'speech heightened'. James G. Southworth in and originality. Although Brewer concludes by
the second of his important monographs, The commenting on the appropriateness of Troilus's
Prosody of Chaucer and his Followers: Supplementaryending to the spirit of medieval Christianity,
Chapters to 'Verses of Cadence1 (1962), while he makes the secular spirit of the Middle Ages
observing that the movement of Chaucer's as expressed in life and art very real. Similarly,
diction was that of highly developed English Chaucer's London (1968) by D. W. Robertson,
speech, had relinquished the view that the Jr., despite the author's view of the pervasive-
iambic pentameter was the basis of Chaucer's ness of Christian attitudes and of the essential
prosody. Michio Masui in The Structure of difference between medieval and modern man,

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Chaucer's Rimewords: an Exploration into the Poeticbrilliantly reconstructs from existing records
Language of Chaucer (1964), found a conflict a life which reflects predominantly secular
between the natural rhythms of speech and the interests, engaging men and women not dis-
rhyme. Robinson raises many questions and similar from ourselves.
effectively demonstrates that a clearer under- Books on separate poems which have recently
standing of Chaucer's prosody is essential to our appeared, such as James Wimsatt's Chaucer and
assessment of the total poetic achievement. The the French Love Poets: the Literary Background
conversational tone of Robinson's second book of the Book of the Duchess (1968), and Paul
Chaucer and the English Tradition (1972) suggests Thurston's Artistic Ambivalence in Chaucer's
a basis in undergraduate lectures. Very zesty Knight's Tale (1968), are of interest primarily
and astonishing lectures they must have been. to the expert. Except for Blind Beasts: Chaucer's
Robinson takes uncompromising issue with Animal World (1971) by Beryl Rowland, the
accepted opinions—'there is no way of making same might be said of works on special subjects
the end of the poem \Troilus and Criseyde] . . . such as Chaucer and Ovid (1966) by Richard L.
follow from its beginning or middle' (p. 73), Hoffman, Chaucer and the Country of the Stars
dismisses, with the exception of Speirs, (1970) by Chauncey Wood, Chaucer and
Muscatine, and a few others, contributors to Augustan Scholarship (1970) by William L.
'the very small heap of Chaucer criticism' Alderson and Arnold C. Henderson, and
mentioned in the preface, and seeks to look at Chaucer's Physician: Medicine and Literature in
the poems in the way that he feels they should Fourteenth-Century England (1971) by E. Huling
be viewed by the common reader. Janet Ussery. Of the essay collections, Chaucer and
Richardson's Blameth Nat me (1970), on the Chaucerians (1966), edited by D. S. Brewer,
other hand, retains the characteristics of a while eminently readable on various levels,
doctoral dissertation, adopts a conservative includes among its nine original essays im-
critical stance, and begins with a re-examina- portant statements, especially those on style by
tion of Chaucer's artistic debt to the academic Brewer and Muscatine, which no scholar can
rhetoricians. The most valuable part of her afford to overlook. The Companion to Chaucer
book is the second section: a close textual Studies (1968), edited by Beryl Rowland, con-
analysis of six selected tales. Like Earle taining twenty-two original essays mainly by
Birney, she has a keen eye for structural ironies well-known Chaucerians, is intended to assist
and extended metaphoric patterns, and her students confronted with the formidable mass
perceptions are often illuminating. of Chaucerian scholarship for the first time as
well as those already familiar with it. Each
Two works which successfully appeal to both writer reviews the scholarship which he con-
the general reader and the scholar are con- siders to be significant on his topic and then
cerned with the background to Chaucer offers his opinion. Chaucer's Mind and Art
rather than his poetry. The great source book (1969), edited by A. C. Cawley, consists of six
for our knowledge of Chaucer's life is, of reprints and four new essays and is addressed
course, Chaucer's Life-Records (1966), the monu- primarily to one already familiar with
mental work edited by Martin M. Crow and Chaucerian dialectic. It has a new essay by
Clair C. Olson, but D. S. Brewer's Chaucer in Brewer reminding one that, with volumes of
His Time (1963) is likely to become a classic of
Contemporary Chaucer Criticism
essays continuing to prove useful, a collection platform and voice, reflecting current interests
of Brewer's own essays is highly desirable. and even influencing future study of the poet
Intended for a similar readership, Morton W. and his times' (p. 3).
Bloomfield's Essays and Explorations (1970) is
a notable volume, bringing together papers While I have shown trends and attempted to
published over thirty years. It includes emphasize the most important issues, I have
'Chaucer's Sense of History' (1952), 'Distance been compelled to omit reference to many
and Predestination in Troilus andCriseyde' (195 7),works which merit consideration,1 and my own
'Authenticating Realism and the Realism of fallibility, of which the reader scarcely needs
Chaucer' (1964), and many other essays which to be reminded, may have given rise to some
have had a powerful and continuing influence apparently arbitrary simplifications and ap-

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since their original appearance. praisals. Certain conclusions can, however, be
Although Chaucer criticism continues to drawn from the kind of scholarship surveyed.
receive generous space in most of the usual The values inherent in Chaucer's works have
periodicals, the tendency of journals specific- been successfully assimilated to modern taste,
ally concerned with interdisciplinary medieval and the criticism itself, with its apparent
scholarship is to move away from it. Mediaeval objectivity and scientific professionalism, is un-
Studies (Toronto) at present accepts articles in deniably contemporary; at the same time, the
English literature only if they are based on new approach which is proving to be most fruit-
and unedited material; the first two volumes of ful involves the reconsideration of Chaucer's
Viator (University of California), a new journal relationship to the traditions which fostered
which includes studies from late Antiquity to his art. There is still much in Chaucer's
A.D. 1600, contain no articles on Chaucer's works that is not understood, and the inter-
works. In compensation, one new journal pretive materials may well be locked in the
provides a yearly outlet for some twenty papers, memory of which we do not yet possess the
many of which are of very high quality. The key. But the purpose, which is sometimes in
Chaucer Review, edited by R. W. Frank withdanger of being lost sight of, is to understand
Bruce Rosenberg as assistant editor, directs its the text. While any investigation of Chaucer
appeal to both scholars and graduate students must be historical, the principal source of the
and has been an undoubted stimulus to evidence is the work itself. The style, in relation
Chaucerian scholarship. Its bibliography, to the aesthetic totality of the work, is the
edited by Thomas A. Kirby, is invaluable, and major concern. If present standards of criti-
one would like to see William R. Crawford's cism are extremely high, with the increased
sane and eloquent assessment of contemporary sophistication and the sharpened realization of
scholarship (1969) become an annual event the complex and enigmatic Chaucer standing
also. Although the editors originally planned in a rich and poised civilization just before its
to publish each paper 'unimproved', with the disintegration, the task of the critic becomes
writer accepting praise or blame through the
medium of published letters to the editor, such ever more difficult. Out of old books comes
correspondence has not appeared. Yet today, new knowledge, yes, indeed. But criticism at
the opportunity for error, for even a simple its best is creative, requiring that act of the
mis-statement of fact, has been increased by the imagination which is essential to all art: for
sheer bulk of criticism. A 'forum for a scholarly what is true of the poet transmuting experience
and critical dialogue', as described by the into art—'it is myself that I remake'—is no less
editors in the first issue in 1966, could provide true of the critic who must invert the process as
a corrective and assist in making a 'significant he seeks to communicate to his contemporaries
the nature of the poetic achievement.
1
P. M. Kean, Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry, Burrow, Ricardian Poetry: Chaucer, Cower, Langland, and the
I: Love Vision and Debate. I I : The Art of Narrative (London: Gawain Poet (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971)
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972) was not available to me; and Pamela Gradon, Form and Style in Early English
J. A. W. Bennett's 1970 Alexander Lectures, Chaucer in Literature (London: Methuen, 1971) are excluded because
Oxford and Cambridge, have not yet been published by theof their scope.
University of Toronto Press; two important works, J. A.
IO Contemporary Chaucer Criticism
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Bennett, J . A. W. The Parlement of Foules: An Inter- Payne, Robert O. The Key of Remembrance: A Study of
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