GEOFFREY CHAUCER

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GEOFFREY CHAUCER

• The Canterbury Tales

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EARLY LIFE

• 1342-1400
• Born to a middle class family
• His father was a wine merchant who believed his
  child should have a formal education
• Odd jobs page, courtier, diplomat, civil
  servant, scrap metal collector
• Travelled all over Europe

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LATER LIFE

• Fluent in English, Italian, Latin, and French
• Worked as a government official under three
  different kings high social status
• Was captured as a POW during the Hundred Years
  War ? King paid his ransom
• Died of unknown causes murder suspected
• Chaucer was one of the first writers to be buried
  in the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey.

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WRITING STYLES

• Often called the father of English poetry
• Most scholars still wrote in Latin
• Felt English lacked sophistication and had a
  limited vocabulary
• Only local stories and ballads written in English
• He wrote in the vernacular or language of the
  commoners ?Now known as Middle English
• Allegory
• A story win which the character, settings, and
  events stand for abstract or moral concepts.
• It has a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
• Popular in the Middle Ages.
• Satire witty language used to convey insult
• Rhythmic pattern
• Lack of alliteration
• Best known for writing The Canterbury Tales, but
  also had several other works as well

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THE CANTERBURY TALES

• Although the work was never completed, The
  Canterbury Tales is considered one of the
  greatest works in the English language
• The narrator meets 29 pilgrims at an inn and
  travels with them to the shrine of St. Thomas
  Becket in Canterbury. They decide to have a
  contest whoever can tell the best tale wins a
  dinner at the inn when they get back, courtesy of
  the other travelers.
• Canterbury Tales can be considered estates
  satire
• Three Estates in European feudal society
• Peasants work (agricultural labor)
• Clergy pray
• Nobles fight (and rule)
• Begun 1386
• Planned 120 tales
• Completed 22 and 2 fragments

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The Story

• Twenty nine people that represent all aspects of
  Medieval society go on a pilgrimage to the
  cathedral at Canterbury in southeast England.

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• The cathedral at Canterbury is the main cathedral
  of the Church of England. The shrine to the
  martyr Saint Thomas a Becket is located at this
  cathedral.

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• Saint Thomas a Becket was the archbishop of
  Canterbury, and in 1170 he was martyred by some
  knights of the king of England, Henry II, who
  was overheard complaining about Beckets loyalty
  to the church at Rome over his loyalty to his
  king.

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Some of the characters

• The host of the tavern or innkeeper is the man
  who suggests that the pilgrims each tell a story
  on the way to entertain the group. Chaucer
  intended for each to tell 2 stories, but he only
  got to write one apiece.

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•         Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote 
                  When April with its
  sweet-smelling showers2         The droghte of
  March hath perced to the roote,           
       Has pierced the drought of March to the
  root,3         And bathed every veyne in swich
  licour                 And bathed every vein (of
  the plants) in such liquid4         Of which
  vertu engendred is the flour                 By
  which power the flower is created5         Whan
  Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth             
     When the West Wind also with its sweet
  breath,6         Inspired hath in every holt and
  heeth                 In every wood and field
  has breathed life into 7         The tendre
  croppes, and the yonge sonne                 The
  tender new leaves, and the young sun8        
  Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,         
         Has run half its course in Aries,9      
    And smale foweles maken melodye,             
     And small fowls make melody,10         That
  slepen al the nyght with open ye               
   Those that sleep all the night with open eyes11
          (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages), 
                 (So Nature incites them in their
  hearts),12         Thanne longen folk to goon on
  pilgrimages,                 Then folk long to
  go on pilgrimages,13         And palmeres for to
  seken straunge strondes,                 And
  professional pilgrims to seek foreign shores,14
          To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry
  londes                 To distant shrines,
  known in various lands15         And specially
  from every shires ende                 And
  specially from every shire's end16         Of
  Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,             
     Of England to Canterbury they travel,17      
    The hooly blisful martir for to seke,         
         To seek the holy blessed martyr,18      
    That hem hath holpen whan that they were
  seeke.                 Who helped them when they
  were sick.

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CHARACTERS

• Narrator (Chaucer)
• Host
• Knight
• Squire
• Yeoman
• Prioress
• Second Nun
• The Nuns Priest
• Monk
• Friar
• Merchant
• Clerk
• Man of Law

• Franklin
• Guildsmen
• Cook
• Shipman
• Physician
• Wife of Bath
• Parson
• Plowman
• Manciple
• Reeve
• Miller
• Summoner
• Pardoner

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Things to consider

• What estate is your character from?
• How is your character described in the General
  Prologue?
• What is his or her occupation?
• What happens in his or her tale?
• What is important about the tale (think satire)?