The Age of Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales

Historical Background n n The Hundred Years’ War The 1381 Peasant Uprising n n Awakening of national consciousness People’s hatred for the corrupt church and nobles—John Wycliff and William Langland Edward III, watercolour, 15 th century; in the British Library (Cotton MS. Julius E. IV)

His Contemporaries n John Wycliff (1324? 1384) n n n Translation of the Bible into Standard English(-Father of English Prose) Pamphlets in Latin against abuse of power Sir Gawain and the Green Knight n William Langland(1330? -1400? ) n The Vision of Piers Plowman (an allegory) John of England, from an early 14 th-century illumination.

Allegory n An allegory is a story or description in which the characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying meaning, and serve to spread moral teaching.

Geoffrey Chaucer(ca. 1340 -1400) n n The works of Chaucer The Canterbury Tales

Three Periods of Chaucer’s Works n n n 1360 -1372, under the influence of French literature; the Book of the Duchess 1372 -1386, under the influence of Italian literature; Troilus and Cryseyde 1386 -1400, the Canterbury Tales Boccaccio, detail of a fresco by Andrea del Castagno; in the Cenacolo di Sant' Apollonia, Florence

The Prologue n n Heroic couplet Caesura Description Humour

Heroic Couplet n It comprises rhymed decasyllables, nearly always in iambic pentameters rhymed in pairs: one of the commonest metrical forms in English poetry but of uncertain origin. – Cuddon, J. A. , A Dictionary of Literary Terms, p. 299

Names of Feet Name of Foot Name of Meter Meas ure Iambic ×/ Trochee Trochaic /× Anapestic ×× / Dactylic / ×× Spondee Spondaic // Pyrrhic ×× n n Trochee trips from long to short; From long to long in solemn sort Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot yet ill able Ever to come up with Dactylic trisyllable. Iambics march from short to long With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng. —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Names of the Lines Length Name one foot Monometer two feet Dimeter three feet Trimeter four feet Tetrameter five feet Pentameter six feet Hexameter seven feet Heptameter eight feet Octameter

The Canterbury Tales In Middle English In Modern English Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote When the sweet showers of April fall and shoot × ×|/×|×× | / ×|/×| The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, × / | ××|× / | And bathed every veyne in swich licour × / |× / |/×| Of which vertu engendered is the flour; … × ×|/×|× / | × × |/ / | × / | Down through the drought of March to pierce the root / × |× / |× / | Bathing every vein in liquid power / × | / ×| / × / | From which there springs the engendering of the flower, × × |× / | × × | / × |× ×| × / |

Caesura n For highlighting the separated parts, e. g. , n n They made us easy, all was of the best. For variation of sound, e. g. n n n Before my story takes a further pace, It seems a reasonable thing to say What their condition was, the full array Of each of them, as it appeared to me, According to profession and degree, And what apparel they were riding in;

The Canterbury Tales n n It gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer’s time; The dramatic structure of the poem has been highly commended by critics; Chaucer’s apt use of humor, “the smyler with the knyf under the cloke”; Chaucer proved that the English language is a beautiful language and can be easily handled in writing poetry. Crypt, Canterbury Cathedral (12 th century), England.

Assignments n Please read from p. 47 to p. 62, the Fifteenth Century.