The Canterbury Tales BY GEOFFREY CHAUCER Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales BY GEOFFREY CHAUCER

Geoffrey Chaucer • Born c 1343, died 1400 • Family was at least middle-class and had money and property • Became a page to the Countess of Ulster at the age of 13 • Fought in The Hundred Years War (appears to be a person of importance) • Held many different public offices including comptroller of the port of London, which put him in contact with many different levels of society (different social classes) • King Edward III awarded him a gallon of wine a day for the rest of his life for his poetic achievements • First poet buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey

The Canterbury Tales • Written c 1386 -1389, but never finished • Generally regarded as Chaucer’s greatest work • The work is a collection of 24 stories (intended to be 120 stories) framed by a prologue and an epilogue (the epilogue was never written) • In its current form the work is 17, 000 lines long and written mostly in verse, though some of the stories are in prose • The work is generally credited with popularizing the use of English in literature (as opposed to French or Latin), but evidence to support this is rather sparse.

The Framing Device • The stories of The Canterbury Tales are told in the fictional context of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. • 30 characters (including the narrator, Chaucer) of different social ranks meet in a tavern on their way to visit the cathedral. • They agree to a contest in which each of them will tell four stories (two on the way there and two on the way back) • The Host, Harry Bailey, is the 31 st character. He agrees to be the judge of the stories • The prize for winning is a free meal

Canterbury Cathedral • The cathedral is home to The Archbishop of Canterbury who is leader of the Church of England • It is also houses the shrine of Thomas Becket, a martyr who died defending the faith from his former friend and king, Henry II of England • It was a popular destination for English citizens who wanted to go on a holy pilgrimage, but could not afford to travel to mainland Europe or The Holy Land • The characters in The Canterbury Tales would not in reality have traveled together because of their different social ranks

Social Classes of the Middle English Period THE NOBILITY / RULING CLASS THE CLERGY / CHURCH COMMONERS • Everyone else was a • Those who held a fief (land or • Those who are ordained or office given by the king) under how serve the church in some commoner, but not all commoners were the same. the tradition of vassalage, type of mundane manner. • Vassalage meant that the noble has given allegiance to the king. • The middle class were a • Theoretically, anyone could become an ordained member growing, moneyed class of people. of the church. • Nobility became a hereditary title in most circumstances. • The church serves the spiritual • The nobility and church were supposed to serve the people. needs of the people. • It does not necessarily mean the person is wealthy. • Clergy should have been poor, • In practice, however, this was not the case. but often weren’t.