The Chaucer Review: An Indexed Bibliography (Vols. 1-30)

Beidler, Peter G. "Art and Scatology in the Miller's Tale." 12 (1977): 90-102.
Chaucer changes his analogues by making Alisoun put her buttocks out of the window and by adding the fart. That Alisoun would participate in a trick like this emphasizes her unladylike qualities and allows the Miller to demonstrate a contrast to the elevated Emily of the Knight's Tale. Alisoun's behavior also points out that Absolon's courtly love should be more holy and directed towards the Virgin Mary. The fart more cleverly ties the flood plot to the kiss-and-burn plot, and it completes the effrontery to all of Absolon's senses.

Beidler, Peter G. "Chaucer's Reeve's Tale, Boccaccio's Decameron IX, 6, and Two 'Soft' German Analogues." 28 (1994): 237-51.
Chaucer was most likely familiar with Decameron IX, 6, a story quite similar in many ways to the Reeve's Tale. Close comparison of the various analogues reveals a series of specific similarities--not present in other analogues--between Chaucer's version of the cradle-trick story and Boccaccio's. Critics should make a distinction between various kinds of analogues. A "source" is a story that Chaucer is known to have used directly; a "hard analogue" is one that he probably knew, to judge by the date of the analogue, the language in which it was written, and the details of plot and characterization, but that cannot be proven to be a direct source; a "soft analogue" is one that Chaucer could scarcely have known, to judge by the date, the language in which it was written, and the lack of specific similarities. Decameron IX, 6 is a hard analogue because Chaucer knew Boccaccio's work, knew the Italian language, and adopted certain details not available in other known analogues. On the other hand, two German tales are soft analogues. Chaucer presumably did not know either Das Studentenabenteuer or Rüdiger von Munre's Irregang und Girregar. No evidence shows that Chaucer knew German or was familiar with German literature. While both of the German tales share certain similarities with the Reeve's Tale, there are fundamental differences between these versions and Chaucer's cradle-trick story.

Beidler, Peter G. "The Reeve's Tale and Its Flemish Analogue." 26 (1992): 283-92.
The Flemish Een bispel van .ij. clerken, a derivative of Jean Bodel's Old French De Gombert et des deux clers, is a likely source for the Reeve's Tale. Chaucer probably also knew the Old French tale from which the Flemish version derives. Careful analysis of ten elements in De Gombert and the Flemish version shows how each contributes to the Reeve's Tale.

Bornstein, Diane. "An Analogue to Chaucer's Clerk's Tale." 15 (1981): 322-31.
The material of the Clerk's Tale was popular as didactic material promoting wifely obedience. Even Christine de Pisan refers to Griselda in her Cité des Dames. Brian Anslay of Henry VIII's household translated the material analogous to the Clerk's Tale, closely following Christine's French version. Anslay's text is reprinted here.

Dias-Ferreira, Julia. "Another Portuguese Analogue of Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale." 11 (1977): 258-60.
The oral circulation of stories like the Pardoner's Tale can be confirmed by this additional Portuguese example, provided in full. Its date and its relationship to Chaucer's tale are uncertain.

DiMarco, Vincent. "Richard Hole and the Merchant's and Squire's Tales: An Unrecognized Eighteenth-Century (1797) Contribution to Source and Analogue Study." 16 (1981): 171-80.
In writing Remarks on the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Richard Hole alludes to a seventeenth-century analogue for the Merchant's Tale by Inayat Allah Kaubu in Bahar-i Danish. The 1799 translation is reprinted here with comments. The Elder Pliny's Historia naturalis may be the source for the Squire's magic sword.

Hamel, Mary, and Charles Merrill. "The Analogues of the Pardoner's Tale and a New African Version." 26 (1991): 175-83.
This essay offers a new classification of the analogues to the Pardoner's Tale, as well as a newly discovered West African analogue that is a sophisticated retelling of the old folktale.

Hanks, D. Thomas, Jr. "Emaré: An Influence on the Man of Law's Tale." 18 (1983): 182-86.
Though scholars have viewed Emaré as only an analogue to the Man of Law's Tale because of the date of the earliest extant manuscript, careful reading of the romance reveals significant plot and verbal parallels. Readers can assume, therefore, that Chaucer must have read a previous version of the story, no longer extant.

Hogan, Moreland H., Jr. "A New Analogue of the Shipman's Tale." 5 (1971): 245-46.
In a dialect study, students discovered a brief modern version of the Shipman's Tale, recounted here.

Hoy, James F. "A Twentieth-Century Analogue to Chaucer's Merchant's Tale." 14 (1979): 155-57.
A number of analogues to the Merchant's Tale have been found, but none in the twentieth century. The recent joke recounted here parallels the tale at several important points.

Rosenberg, Bruce A. "The Bari Widow and the Franklin's Tale." 14 (1980): 344-52.
Folklore studies indicate that two authors in different places are unlikely to create similar complex tales. Thus, Boccaccio's Filocolo and Chaucer's Franklin's Tale most likely come from a common source--the "Widow of Bari." Although the surface details differ between the "Widow of Bari" and Chaucer's Franklin's Tale, the motifs are similar and occur in the same order. Chaucer adds an emphasis on time to the analogues, thereby increasing the realism of the characters.

Scattergood, V. J. "The Originality of the Shipman's Tale." 11 (1977): 210-31.
The Shipman's Tale clarifies Chaucer's definition of a bourgeois attitude towards money. Chaucer describes the merchant's household as prosperous, but unlike the merchants in the analogues, Chaucer's merchant is unnamed. Comparison between the monk's poor professional behavior and the merchant's excellent professional behavior emphasizes the merchant's honorability. The merchant also honors the friendship between himself and Don John, though Don John rejects the merchant once he gains the merchant's wife. The merchant's open behavior regarding his debt contrasts with the wife's and Don John's secretive deals to repay what they owe. The Shipman's Tale portrays merchants in a favorable light, though the merchant in the tale may be too concerned about earthly, as opposed to heavenly, things. The merchant also speaks plainly, while the wife and Don John speak ambiguously. Both the wife and Don John extricate themselves from potentially destructive situations by pretending that the merchant also speaks ambiguously. The literal quality makes the merchant vulnerable, but it also protects him from knowledge of the adultery his wife and Don John have committed.

West, Michael D. "Dramatic Time, Setting, and Motivation in Chaucer." 2 (1968): 147-87.
Because Chaucer chooses to focus on other elements of his stories, the analogues to his tales often surpass his in realistic elements. In the Merchant's Tale, the garden setting causes the tale to function in both the worlds of allegory and fabliau, giving the reader a sense of unreality while at the same time leaving the reader with the idea that marriage is "sheer hell" (176). The same elements operate in the Prioress's Tale. Chaucer significantly changes the timing of events from that in his source in order to satisfy the demands of the story. These changes, however, do not coincide with what the reader recognizes as reality. The Pardoner's Tale also demonstrates Chaucer's lack of concern for realistic action in his story. Chaucer's thieves do a number of strange things which thieves do not usually do, like getting three bottles of wine, but forgetting the bread. Unrealities also occur in Troilus and Criseyde. These actions demonstrate the overwhelming greed of his characters. The mutilation of realistic detail draws his audience into his stories, thus making the tales every bit as effective as the sources, but on their own terms.

Yates, Donald. "Chanticleer's Latin Ancestors." 18 (1983): 116-26.
Several analogues of the Nun's Priest's Tale are extant, and most include a bird and a fox or wolf. Gallus et Vulpes should be more carefully examined because in addition to similar elements, it also treats the material humorously, laying a foundation for Chaucer's entertaining use of the subject matter in the Nun's Priest's Tale. Isengrimus is a Latin epic analogue, but it differs from the Nun's Priest's Tale in developing a pilgrimage theme. Isengrimus also treats the theme of Fortune.