Complete Poetry Research Articles

Lord, G. deF. (ed.), Andrew Marvell: Complete Poetry. Pp. xl + 275 (Everyman's University Library). London and Melbourne: Dent, 1984. Hardbound £9.95 paperbound $2.95

Lord, G. deF. (ed.), Andrew Marvell: Complete Poetry. Pp. xl + 275 (Everyman's University Library). London and Melbourne: Dent, 1984. Hardbound £9.95 paperbound $2.95 Get access E. E. Duncan-Jones E. E. Duncan-Jones Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume 33, Issue 2, June 1986, Page 234, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/33.2.234 Published: 01 June 1986

The Moon and Medicine in Chaucer’s Time

The Moon and Medicine in Chaucer's Time Laurel Braswell McMaster University Hamziton, Canada Chaucds Doctoc of Phisic, ,lbdt a man of prnfrssional, theo­ retical grounding in the medicine of Avicenna and others, is also presented as a professional physician well grounded in astrological medicine-the "science" of Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and others mentioned in his portrait. From such teachers he has become a "verray, parfi.t, praktisour."1 Whether or not we consider this statement as ironic and satiric, we should not fail to recognize the real possibility that Chaucer was simply being accurate, a possibility such scholars as Talbot, Ussery, Siraisi, andVoigts have convinc­ ingly argued through their study of the more academic documents of medieval medicine.2 A survey of medieval medical manuscripts, more­ over, indicates a central orientation within the position and nature of the moon as a basis for medical practice, principally with reference to Galenic humoral theory. At the core of this lunar premise lies the microcosm theory of astrological medicine. To summarize, one could simply say that the natural world (the 1 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Complete Poetry and Prose, ed. John H. Fisher (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1977), GP, p. 17, line 422. This edition is cited throughout this article. 2 See, e.g., Charles H. Talbot, Medicine in Mediaeval England (London: Oldbourne, 1967); Huling E. Ussery, Chaucer's Physician: Medicine and Literature in Fourteenth­ Century England, Tulane Studies in English, vol. 19 (New Orleans, La.: Tulane University, Department ofEnglish, 1971), esp. p. 7; Nancy Siraisi, Arts and ScienceatPaduaBefore 1350 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1973); and, with reference to phle­ botomy, Linda E. Voigts and Michael R. McVaugh, A Latin Technical Phlebotomy and Its Middle English Translation, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 24, no. 2 (Philadelphia, Pa.: American Philosophical Society, 1984), especially pp. 11-25. For a list ofuniversity medical texts in relation to vernacular documents, see Linda Voigts, "Medical Prose," Middle English Prose: A Critical Guide to Major Authors and Genres, ed. A. S. G. Edwards (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1984), pp. 315-35. 145 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER microcosm) mirrors the celestial (the macrocosm), that heavenly bodies provide the key to human conditions, and that, as Robertus Anglicus succinctlyphrases it in hiscommentary onJohn ofSacrobosco's Desphaera: "One cannot claim to know the causes of things if one does not know the movements and dispositions ofthe celestial bodies, for they themselves are the causes of earthly matters."3 To accept as Robertus Anglicus did that astronomical (i.e., astrological) knowledge based on the movements and properties of the moon is a prerequisite for medical practice would have required no cognitive leap for Chaucer's contemporaries. Familiar in many versions to Chaucer's contemporaries was the opening statement oftheLibel/us de medicorum astrologia, alternatively called the Astronomia and attributed to Hippocrates. It begins in Peter of Abano's translation of about 1310 as follows: Ypocras, who was a physician and a most worthy master, asked, "What manner of physicianis he who does not knowastronomy [medicus non astroniam zgnorat]? No one ought to place himself in the hands of any physician who is no less than perfect." I know this to be true [continues Peter], because when I examined the writings of Ypocras, I discovered in them a work on the science of astronomy, which, although brief, was indeed estimable.4 The precept that a physician should be competent in astrology was com­ monplace enough to find its way into the works ofmany medieval English writers, for example, Roger Bacon, Richard of Wallingford, Nicholas of Lynn, and John Mandeville, none of them writing specifically about 3 Robertus Anglicus, Commentario, in The "Sphere" of Sacrobosco and Its Commen­ tators, Lynn Thorndike, ed. (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1949), pp. 143-44; "Non enim potest durare, si ignoret causam egritudinis, que quidem causa scire non potest, si ignoretur moms etdispositionemcorporum supercelestium, que est causa cuiuslibetdisposi­ tionis istorum inferiorum" ("For he is unable to persevere, if he fails to know the cause of a disorder, yet he will not know the cause ifhe is ignorant ofthe movement and disposition of the higher celestial bodies, which themselves cause the...

Roasting a Friar, Mis-taking a Wife, and Other Acts of Textual Harassment in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Roasting a Friar, Mis-taking a Wife, and Other Acts ofTextual Harassment in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales R.W. Hanning Columbia University Q,ofthe most ,h,,acteci,:i,, and ,cmarkabl,, frarures ofChau­ cer's Canterbury Tales is its penchant for what can perhaps best be called textual harassment. The Canterbury pilgrims- and indeed the characters within their tales-harass texts almost as frequently, and enthusiastically, as they harass each other. That is, they misquote, quote out of context, misinterpret, vulgarize, and generally abuse textual "auctoritee." Various hypotheses can be advanced to explain this constant mistreatment of established wisdom. For example, StewartJustman has argued persuasively that Chaucer's habitual abuse ofauthority in his poetry accurately reflects a basic tension in medieval intellectual culture between an impulse to take absolutist, monistic positions (buttressed by inherited "auctoritees") and a need to restrain absolutism (by invoking the same, or equivalent, au­ thoritative texts) in the face of complex reality. Because Chaucer under­ stood this tension, Justman claims, "authority [in the CT] is there for the abusing, and receivedmaterials are... abundantlyliable to abuse."1 Or we can assume that the pilgrims' infidelities to the letter and spirit of textual authority dramatize Chaucer's recognition ofthe inevitable distortion that befalls written texts in a pre-print, only partly literate culture. (We recall the poet's evocation, in book 5 of Trozlus and Criseyde and in the verses to Adam Scriveyn, ofthe hazards his own works face in the process of scribal transmission.)2 1 StewartJustman, "Medieval Monism and Abuse ofAuthority in Chaucer," ChauR 11 (1976):95-111; the quotation is from p. 108. 2 See TC5.1793-96: "And forcher is sogretdyversite / In Englyssh andynwrytyngofoure ronge, / So prey I God that noon myswryte the [i.e., the poem], / Ne the mysmetre for defaute oftonge." All referencesto and quotations from Chaucer's poetry are taken fromJohn 3 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER In my opinion we can best see textual harassment in CT as but one among many verbal tricks that the pilgrims play on each other to put themselves in the best (and their rivals in the worst) light or to express an idiosyncratic opinion or pet peeve without incurring rebuke. That is, authoritative texts offer prime occasions for the consciousmanipulation of language that links poetic and social discourse in Chaucer's basic concep­ tion of his framed tale collection. As I have articulated this conception elsewhere: In CT Chaucer propounds a fundamental kinship between poetry and the verbal systems generated by very real personal needs and social competition. The ... paradigm can be summarized thus: poetry is social strategy applied to language; society is poetic strategy applied to experience. Linking the two enterprises is the verbal strategy, or language game, a universal human tendency to transform our capacity for communication into an instrument of self-presentation, competition, or mastery.3 The specific language game I am calling textual harassment occurred, as Justman and others remind us, whenever medieval exegetes, scholars, and preachersselected from or imposed specialmeanings on their considerable legacy ofcanonic or authoritative textswith a view to buttressing a particu­ lar-and especially a new or possibly subversive-argument. Chaucer understood that this strategy carried with it considerable potential for distortion in the cause of intellectual self-aggrandizement or successful competition. (He also doubtless recognized its close relationship to tech­ niques-his own and others'-for appropriatingor subverting poetic tradi­ tions in the pursuit of a poetic vocation.) When, in CT, he presents the members ofhis storytelling, socially competitive "felaweship" as experts in textual harassment, he both exposes and celebrates this culturally sanc­ tioned, widely played language game, while concurrently giving himself scope for new displays of artistic virtuosity. H. Fisher, ed., The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1977; hereafter cited as Chaucer). See also Alfred David, "How Marcia Lost Her Skin: A Note on Chaucer's Mythology," in Larry D. Benson, ed., The Lerned and the Lewed: Studies in Honor ofBartlett Jere Whiting (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1974), pp. 19-29, for an instance of how Chaucer perpetuates a mistaken reading of an Ovidian tale from the Metamorphoses, by which the satyr Marsyas becomes a...

Whitman, Walt. Complete Poetry and Collected Prose. Ed. By Justin Kaplan [review

Whitman, Walt. Complete Poetry and Collected Prose. Ed. By Justin Kaplan [review

An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography 1981

An Annotated Chaucer Bibliography 1981 By Lorrayne Y. Baird Editor and Compiler With the assistance of: Claire Clements Morton, Auburn University; Virginia E. Leland, Bowling Green State University; Martha S. Waller, Butler University; Sumner Ferris, Calzfornia State College, Pennsylvania; Robert apRoberts, California State University, North­ ridge; Virginia Scott Zelk, Central Missouri State University; Pat T. Overbeck, Cincinnati, Ohio; Thomas W. Ross, Colorado Spn·ngs, Colo.; Shinsuke Ando, Toshiyuki Takamiya, and Keiko Kawachi, Keio University, Japan; Charles Long, Memphis State University; Nancy Rushmore Hooper, University a/Nevada; David W. Hiscoe, University ofNorth Carolina at Greensboro; Robert R. Raymo, New York University; Nan Arbuckle,]. Lane Goodall, and Lynne Hunt Levy, University ofOklahoma; Piero Boitani, Universita de Perugia, Italy; Rebecca Beal and Larry Langford, Rice University; Russell Peck and Thomas Hahn, University a/Roches­ ter; N. F. Blake, University ofSheffield, England; Tim D. P. Lally, University of South Alabama; Stanley R. Hauer, University of Southern Mississippi; Bernard S. Levy, Catherine Cavanaugh, and Virginia Darrow Oggins, SUNY, Binghamton; John H. Fisher, Michael Atkins, and Charles Rees, University o/Tennessee;James I. Wimsatt, University of Texas at Austin; Tony Colaianne, Virginia Polytechnic Institute; Robert L. Kindrick, Western Illinois University; Thomas H. Seiler, Western Michigan University; Donald Chapin and Constance Heiatt, University of Western Ontan·o; Hildegard Schnuttgen, Cynthia Ann Dobrich, Jim Villani, Rosemarie Barbour, Dianne Snyder MacMurray, and Ted Pawcio, Youngstown State University. In addition to the regular bibliographic staff, the following made ad hoc contributions:Judson Boyce Allen, Oxford; David Anderson, University of Pennsylvania; Larry D. Benson, Harvard University; Ian Bishop, University of Bn'stol; Derek Brewer, Emmanuel College, Cambridge;John Bugge, Emory Uni­ versity; Robert E. Chisnell, University ofSouth Florida; Paul Clogan, North Texas 217 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER State University; David G. Collins, Westminster College, Missoun·; P. Din­ zelbacher, Universitat Stuttgart; George P. Economou, Long Island University; Joerg Fichte, Universitat Tiibingen; Richard Gill, Pace University; Renate Haas, Universitat Duisburg; John M. Hill, U.S. Naval Academy; Linda Tarte Holley, North Carolina State University; Traugott Lawler, Yale University; Raymond McGowan, Loyola University; Glending Olson, Cleveland State University; Charles Owen, University ofConnecticut; Derek Pearsall, University of York; Walter S. Phelan, Rollins College; Donald M. Rose, University of Oklahoma; Bruce A. Rosenberg, Brown University; Beryl Rowland, York University, Toronto; Norito Sato, Japan; Henrik Specht, University ofCopenhagen; Eugene Vance, Universite de Montreal; Alexander Wiess, Radford University; Nigel Wilkins, Corpus Christi College, Cambn"dge; Toshio Yamanaka,]apan. The compiler acknowledges with gratitudegrants for travel and clericalassistance from the Research Council and English Department ofYoungstown State Univer­ sity. Special mention must be made ofHildegard Schnuttgen, Reference Librarian in Youngstown State University, for her tireless persistence in procuring hard-to­ get items through interlibrary loan. This bibliography continues those published since 1975 in previous volumes of Studies in the Age ofChaucer. Bibliographical information up to 1975 can be found in Eleanor P. Hammond, Chaucer: A Bibliographical Manual (1908; re­ print, New York: Peter Smith, 1933); D. D. Griffith, Bibliography of Chaucer, 1908-1953 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1955); W. R. Crawford, Bibliography of Chaucer, 1954-63 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967); LorrayneY. Baird, Bibliography ofChaucer, 1964-73 (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977); J. H. Fisher, ed., selected bibliography to 1974, full, 1975-79, in The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982); and John Leyerle and Anne Quick, eds., Chaucer: A Selected Bibliography (Toronto: University Press, 1981). The annotations are based upon listings in the 1981 MLA International Bibli­ ography, with additions. Additions and corrections should be sent to Lorrayne Y. Baird, Department ofEnglish, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio 44555. Authors' own annotations are invited (75 words for articles; 150 words for books). Preferably they should be sent on 5 x 8 cards and should comply with the form ofSAC's published entries. For a list ofabbreviations for Chaucer's works, see p. 000 in this issue of SAC. We search major journals for articles and reviews published in any given year; authors are urged, however, to send citations to reviews and articles that might otherwise be overlooked. 218 Classifications Bibliographies and Reports 1-4 Life 5-6 Facsimiles and Editions 7-16 Manuscript andTextual Studies 17-27...

The Complete Poetry & Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer ed. by John H. Fisher

The Complete Poetry & Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer ed. by John H. Fisher

A Concordance to the Complete Poetry of Stephen Crane

A Concordance to the Complete Poetry of Stephen Crane

Complete Poetry of Osip Emilevich Mandelstam. Translated by Burton Raffel and Alia Burago. Introduction and notes by Sidney Monas. Russian Literature in Translation, no. 2. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1973. x, 353 pp. $15.00.

Complete Poetry of Osip Emilevich Mandelstam. Translated by Burton Raffel and Alia Burago. Introduction and notes by Sidney Monas. Russian Literature in Translation, no. 2. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1973. x, 353 pp. $15.00. - Volume 33 Issue 3

Complete Poetry of Osip Emilevich Mandelstam

Complete Poetry of Osip Emilevich Mandelstam

The Complete Poetry and Prose of Chairil Anwar

The Complete Poetry and Prose of Chairil Anwar

Review. Word Index of the complete poetry and prose of Saint-John Perse, compiled by R. Little. Supplement 'A'

Review. Word Index of the complete poetry and prose of Saint-John Perse, compiled by R. Little. Supplement 'A'

REVIEWS

REVIEWS Get access Word Index of the complete poetry and prose of Saint-John Perse. Compiled by ROGER LITTLE. 1965. iv + 293 pp. Second impression 1967. Supplement ‘A’, 1967. C. A. HACKETT C. A. HACKETT SOUTHAMPTON Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French Studies, Volume XXII, Issue 3, July 1968, Pages 261–262, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/XXII.3.261 Published: 01 July 1968

Word Index of the Complete Poetry and Prose of Saint-John Perse

Word Index of the Complete Poetry and Prose of Saint-John Perse

The Complete Poetry of Henry Vaughan. French Fogle , Henry Vaughan

<i>The Complete Poetry of Henry Vaughan</i>. French Fogle , Henry Vaughan

The Art of Acting

In a famous speech about actors in 1928, Max Reinhardt called the art of theatre “the oldest, most powerful, most immediate of the arts, combining the many in one.” The statement may appear exaggerated, but it is only a weak echo of statements which great minds in the past have been inspired to make. Voltaire called the theatre “the noblest and most useful thing invented by the human mind,” and Victor Hugo designated the drama, in his well-known manifesto, the preface to Cromwell, as “complete poetry,” the “ocean” into which all the other streams of poetry flow. But I do not intend to speak of the theatre in general, only of the art of acting; partly because it seems to me that problems in the art of acting have had a profound effect upon the current as well as the eternal state of the art of theatre (does not the contemporary drama and film owe much to actors?), and partly because this distinctive art form has virtually never been the subject for scholarly analysis.

REVIEWS

REVIEWS Get access Milton: Complete Poetry and Selected Prose. Edited by E.H. VISIAK. London: The Nonesuch Press. 1938. Pp. xxviii+860 10s. 6d. net. D. SAURAT D. SAURAT Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of English Studies, Volume os-XVI, Issue 62, April 1940, Pages 219–220, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/os-XVI.62.219 Published: 01 April 1940

Milton : Complete Poetry and Selected Prose

Journal Article Milton : Complete Poetry and Selected Prose Get access Notes and Queries, Volume 175, Issue 13, 24 September 1938, Pages 233–234, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/175.13.233 Published: 24 September 1938