Chaucer Canterbury Tales 1343 1400 Father of English

Chaucer Canterbury Tales

� 1343 -1400 �Father of English literature �Middle Ages �Buried in Westminster Abbey Chaucer

�Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic meter, a style which had developed since around the twelfth century as an alternative to the alliterative Anglo. Saxon metre. Style �known for metrical innovation, inventing the rhyme royal, and he was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, a decasyllabic cousin to the iambic pentameter,

�arrangement of these five-stress lines into rhyming couplets �Heroic couplets

� This frere bosteth that he knoweth � � � � � helle And God it woot, that it is litel wonder; Freres and feendes been but lyte asonder. For, pardee, ye han ofte tyme herd telle How that a frere ravyshed was to helle l In spirit ones by a visioun; And as an angel ladde hym up and doun, To shewen hym the peynes that the were, In al the place saugh he nat a frere; Of oother folk he saugh ynowe in wo. Unto this angel spak the frere tho:

� This frere bosteth that he knoweth � � � � � helle And God it woot, that it is litel wonder; Freres and feendes been but lyte asonder. For, pardee, ye han ofte tyme herd telle How that a frere ravyshed was to helle l In spirit ones by a visioun; And as an angel ladde hym up and doun, To shewen hym the peynes that the were, In al the place saugh he nat a frere; Of oother folk he saugh ynowe in wo. Unto this angel spak the frere tho: Translation � This friar boasts that he knows hell, � And God knows that it is little � � � � � wonder; Friars and fiends are seldom far apart. For, by God, you have ofttimes heard tell H How a friar was taken to hell In spirit, once by a vision; And as an angel led him up and down, To show him the pains that were there In all the place he saw not a friar; Of other folk he saw enough in woe. Unto this angel spoke the friar thus:

�Characterization Chaucer �Directly stating what characters are like �narrator

�indirect Characterization �Looks and clothing �Thoughts and feelings �Saying and doing �How others react to them

�Religious Pilgrimage �Shrine of Becket �Killed by Henry II for not acquiescing to his demands �Archbishop of Canterbury �Started Inn �London from Tabard

� Chaucer’s original plan for The Canterbury Tales was for each character to tell four tales, two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. � the text ends after twenty -four tales, and the party is still on its way to Canterbury. � Chaucer either planned to revise the structure to cap the work at twenty-four tales, or else left it incomplete when he died on October 25, 1400. Tale � Influenced by � Decameron Boccaccio

�Story within a story �Chaucer �Narrator �Host �Tale-teller Frame Story �Prologue

�Characterization/de scription Style �Rhyming couplets �Verbal irony �Sarcasm