Clearly Chaucer's description of women shows his close relationship with the rhetoricians' 'manual' as well as French and Italian literature. As in the case of his 'art of poetry' in general, Chaucer's technique of portraying women seems almost always to have been discussed in terms of the influence of foreign literature. The present article is an attempt to examine, within the scope of this subject, a certain relationship between Chaucer and the old provincial English poetry of the early fourteenth century, like the Harley Lyrics and the tail-rhyme romances. Although Chaucer's knowledge of earlier or contemporary English poetry is undoubtedly shown in his parody of it in Sir Thopas, etc., how much his art was influenced by it is an insoluble enigma. But it is not unreasonable to imgaine that the young Chaucer now and then thought of relying on the literary tradition which had been established in provincial English poetry. For example, in the description of Beaute in 'The Romaunt of the Rose (Fragment A, 11, 1006-1032) we find words like 'bright', 'gentyl', 'gente', 'tretys', 'fetys'. These words, as is generally known, were the conventional epithets for the ideal feminine beauty in the lyrics and romances of the non-Chaucerian tradition. Moreover, we find in the same passage of the Romaunt two examples of the alliterative phrase: 'byrde in bour' (<Fr. 'esposee'), and 'rose in rys' (<Fr. 'rosee'). These again were the cliches conventionally used in the provincial lyrics and romances. Such a conventional flavour as is found in the vocabulary of the Romaunt seems to become much more casual in Chaucer's later works. This can be said to imply the poet's process of devaluation of this time-honoured provincial convention which is to be caricatured in his superb parody of it in Sir Thopas. This convention comes to life again in some humorous portrayals of women in The Canterbury Tales. Alisoun's portrait is a representative example. The Miller's Tale may be regarded as an ironical parody of fine amour professed by the Knight in the preceeding tale, and Chaucer's humour, as was pointed out by E. T. Donaldson, lies in his deliberate use of hackneyed provincial dictions. The use of a succession of alliterative lines in this portrait also seems to suggest Chaucer's subtle intention of presenting the carpenter's daughter with a certain provincial tincture. Several other instances are also considered in this present article. In view of rather scanty internal evidence, it may be too large an economy to associate Chaucer's art of poetry with earlier or contemporary English literature, but his description of women seems to give us a clue for investigating this difficult but tempting problem.

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In questa ricerca ho voluto introdurre la Posillecheata di pompeo Sarnelli e la traduzione tedesca di Felix Liebrecht del pentamerone e spiegare brevemente la relazione di questa traduzione con la raccolta dei "Kinder-und-Hausmarchen" di Grimm. La Posillecheata di Pompeo Sarnelli(Anagramma di Marsillo Reppone, 1649-1724)e molto importante, anche perehe in quest' opera(1674)troviamo citato, per la prima volta, il titolo del Pentamerone. P. Sarnelli, felice successore di Basile, nella Posillecheata raccoglie cinque fiabe nel dialetto napoletano. Nella introduzione della traduzione parziale giapponese del pentamerone(1941), i traduttori affermano che la raccolta delle fiabe popolari tedesche dei Fratelli Grimm e nata sotto l'influsso del Pentamerone. Secondo me, il Pentamerone di Basile e diventato famoso in Europa grazie ai Fratelli Grimm, specialmente per l' introduzione di Iacopo Grimm alla traduzione tedesca di Felix Liebrecht, "das Marchen aller Marchen oder das Pentamerone".

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"Medieval descriptions of nature are not meant to represent reality," said E. R. Curtius. As he points out, the description of landscape in medieval English literature is not that the writers described nature with deep interest exactly as it appeared to their eyes and aimed at accurate realistic description, but it had followed a European literary tradition and was only a rhetorical technique which they often made use of when they intended to amplify on a subject and explain it. We can see many descriptions of spring-time, such as a May morning, a brook, singing of birds, and beautiful flowers and trees, which by late medieval times had become conventional enough, and had tended towards surface ornamentation. On the other hand, we can rarely see descriptions of winter scenery except in the poems composed in the north; the characteristic features consist of night, rugged rocky mountains, wild woods, and storm, which are reminiscent of Old English poetry. The work of the "Master Anonymous" of West Midland is a unique one among a large number of Middle English romances, especially Arthurian romances. He exquisitely makes the best use of rugged winter descriptions as one of the most important subject matters, almost as if it were a character in the dramatic story, and not a mere ornamental and abstract epithet of the setting. Winter as a representation of nature offers a background against which all the characters play their parts, and also that same winter plays the part of a tempter or tester, who belongs to the same world as Morgan le Fay, the Green Knight, and his wife-the inhabitants of the evil world. Sir Gawain, an Arthurian hero, must endure all the ordeals imposed on him one after another and prove himself to be a true Christian knight in the expected tradition. The descriptions of harsh winter in the northern mountains, moreover, strikingly contrast with gay and bright Christmas festivals within the castles of Arthur and Bertilak; the former signifying the coldness and severity of nature, the latter, the warm and mild world of human society. Gawain's state of mind is closely related to most things of the outdoor world, and reflects in them internal meaning. His sorrow and care, and his joy and satisfaction are revealed in the mirror of nature. This complete combination of inside and outside gives coherence and meaning to the events of the narrative and serves to the ending as the main theme of the poem; that is, the testing of Gawain's knightly virtue. The Gawain-poet thus created a new world, masterfully making commonplace matieres fresh and implying his deeper sens in them.

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