Chaucer

1MMEEDDIIEEVVAALL LLIITTEERRAATTUURREE IIIIIITTHHEE 1144TTHH CCEENNTTUURRYY

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343(the early 1340s) - 1400)

Geoffrey Chaucer was named the Father of English Poetry and this fame wasevident even during his lifetime. He had a tremendous influence in the establishment ofthe literary English as well as the establishment of a valuable English literature inaccordance to the standard imposed by the other European cultures, especially Frenchand Italian. In a literary landscape dominated by French forms, he managed to create apersonal style, by adapting the existing literary forms to the requirements of the Englishlanguage and the English setting. His characters come from all the walks of life, givingthe reader a rich and living image of the England of the Middle Ages.

He was born in the house of a wine merchant, in a well-to-do family and musthave enjoyed the benefits of such a birth, visible in his education. Being the son of awealthy merchant with court connections he definitely received an education suitablefor a similar career. In accordance to his social status, Chaucers life was connected totrade, diplomacy and court offices, starting from being a page in Elizabeth, Countess ofUlsters home, then her husbands (the Duke of Clarence, Richard IIs uncle) attendant.He was then in the service of John of Gaunt, Richard IIs other uncle and Henry IVsfather. Chaucer had several court jobs: Controller of Customs, Justice of Peace in Kentor Clerk of the Kings Works. He travelled a lot in his life: first in France as the Duke ofClarences attendant when he became a prisoner and had to be ransomed, then,carrying official letters. Probably he learned French and Latin, especially the type oflanguage used in official writings. He also travelled to Italy, between 1372-3, to Genoaand Florence where he would have become familiar to the works of Dante, Petrarch andBoccaccio. In 1378, he went to Milan, where he became more thoroughly acquaintedwith Petrarch and Boccaccio. The Italian influence is more clearly visible in the writingsbelonging to this period.

His works bear the mark of the milieu in which he lived and worked, of his travelsand readings. Life at the noblemens court and at the Kings court as well as the timespent at the French court or the court of Aquitaine familiarized him with the artistictastes of the aristocracy and the literary genres that they preferred, such as the courtlyromance. The travels to France and Italy opened his literary horizon, introducingChaucer to the great European literature and literary tastes. His administrative jobsenlarged his circle of acquaintances, as he met people from all the walks of life, fromaristocrats, wealthy merchants, lawyers to the simpler people, all of them being vividlypresented in his works.

A. Short Verse. His first short poems are exercises in translation, adaptation andverse form, especially in conventional forms of composition. He was interested incopying and adapting the dominant poetic forms of the time. He was the first one tohave adapted the French ballad, which was different from the English folk ballad. Heprobably envisaged an aristocratic audience, and such poems were forms of courtentertainment. (To Rosemonde, An ABC, Unto Pity, etc.)

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2B. Translations: in the effort to adapt and learn new poetic forms, Chaucer wasalso interested in translation.

1. Le Roman de la Rose is a French allegorical poem written by Guillaume deLorris (1237) and continued by Jean de Meun (c. 1280). Since it was widely known inthe 13th and 14th centuries, it provided a source of inspiration and allusion for otherliterary works as well as an example of literary style. The Middle English fragments areknown as Le Romaunt de la Rose and they are attributed to Chaucer because heconfessed having translated the text in his Prologue to The Legend of Good Women.However, the real paternity of the three fragments found in English is questionable, notall being nowadays thought to belong to Chaucer. The poem is an allegory of love and arepresentation of courtly love, using a convention widely employed later by Chaucer, aswell, that of the dream poem. The narrator is the knight in search of love, the lady isrepresented by a rose hidden in a garden, and the knight must reach it. The rose is ofimmense beauty, but with thorns that protect it. Allegorical representations are found inthe portrayal of the qualities or shortcomings that grant or prevent the entrance to thesecret garden. From the first category there are: Gladness, Courtesy, Sweet-Looking,Beauty, Richess, Largesse, from the second, Covetousness, Avarice, Envy, Sorrow, Age.Jealousy is the enemy who guards the rose after the knight manages to kiss it.

2. Boethius (c.480-524): De Consolatione Philosophiae (Consolation ofPhilosophy). The Roman Patrician, Boethius turned Christian was interested in thephilosophy of Aristotle and Plato. He was imprisoned and then executed on suspicion oftreason. While in prison, Boethius composed De Consolatione Philosophiae in which helamented his fate until he is visited by Lady Philosophy who points out to him theuselessness of his lamentations, since Fortune is unstable and deceiving, when heshould be searching for higher means of spiritual consolation. Earthly good andtreasures are unimportant and man should try to unite himself with the higher Good.Though Boethius wrote both in verse and in prose, Chaucer prefers to keep histranslation in prose, to make its meaning more accessible to his readers.

C. Dream Poems1. The Book of the Duchess is an occasional poem written to commemorate thedeath of Blanche, the first wife of Chaucers protector, John of Gaunt. Critics generallyagree that the poem was written before 1371 (Blanche died in 1368). The text is a dreampoem, the vision dream of the narrator, and its main purpose is to explore the feelings ofgrief, loss and regret and the desire to remember the loved and lost one.

The poem is divided in three distinct part, each one exploring, from a differentangle, the general theme.

PART 1 introduces the narrator who is tormented by the lack of sleep provokedby a sickness which he suffered for eight years. Someone brings him a romance and, inthe attempt to fall asleep, his attention is drawn to the story of Seys (Ceyx) and Alcyone.Seys, Alcyones husband, loses his life at sea, but his wife does not know what happenedto him and prays for an answer. The dead husband comes to her in a dream to tell herthat she should not weep any longer, but Alcyone cannot accept the sorrow, and dies aswell. The classical story does not seem much of a consolation for a grieving husband,and there is also the irony of the narrator who draws from the story only the consolation


3of the existence of a God of Sleep who could grant him the rest. Sleep does come to thenarrator, but it also comes with dreams that further explore the theme of loss and grief.

PART 2: the narrator fell asleep with the book in his hands and wakes up in themiddle of a hunt. Following the hunters, he finds a knight dressed in black, sitting undera tree and reciting a lament.

PART 3: the knight tells about his love and his lady (named White), finally sayingthat his beloved is dead. The sounds of the hunting party mingle with the sounds of thenarrators reality and he wakes up, still holding the book in his hand.

There are several possibilities to see the story. One equates Chaucer with thedreamer, while the knight in black is John of Gaunt lamenting the loss of his belovedBlanche (the knights love is named White). Another interpretation suggests that thedreamer and the knight are one and the same person, the dream being a pretext for self-analysis. Whatever the true intention of the poet might have been, it is certain that hewas interested in the way in which memory is supposed to function. The memory ofWhite and of the knight-lover is kept alive through poem and song, and so remembrancelives in literary or artistic creations. The mind, therefore, is like a book, in whichmemory writes the pages, but it is not a copy of the truth, memory being a re-createdprocess that mingles the events to be remembered to the rememberers reaction tothem.

2. The House of Fame (around 1379-80) explores again the meaning of memory,yet not personal memory, as in The Book of the Duchess, but collective memory.

BOOK 1: The narrator-dreamer wakes up in a temple of glass with golden imagesdepicting the stories of Troy. He dwells mostly on the sad story of Dido, left by Aeneas.However, the dreamer does not know where he is or who made this temple, so, hedecides to go out and starts looking for a person to tell him more about the place.Unfortunately for him, he finds himself in the middle of the desert

BOOK 2: The narrator is taken by Joves eagle, with wings of gold, that takes himto the House of Fame. There, he will find the answers. The narrator is a writer whowrote about love and spent his time only with the books, but never fully experiencinglife.

BOOK 3: The House of Fame is a noisy and crowded place presided by thegoddess Fame. All around her there are metal pillars, made not for splendor, but for use.On these pillars, there were the great poets of all times, from Josephus, who told theHistory of the Jews to Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Lollius, Guido delle Colonne, Geoffrey ofMonmouth, and all the scholars who told the deeds of Rome The narrator realizes thatthe way in which fame is granted is a matter of chance and caprice rather than merit.Moreover, any kind of memory/fame relies on the existence of people to tell the story.The narrator is later swept to a spinning house, full of windows and doors, crowded withpeople, rumors and gossip. He is told that there is a man of great authority who hasthe answers to his questions, but the poem stops there.

3. The Parliament of Fowles is thought to have been another occasional poem,composed to celebrate the wedding of Richard II with Anne of Bohemia, and so thepoem might have been composed between 1377 and 1382.

The narrator, a love poet, dreams of a garden of love, presided by Nature, inwhich the birds choose their mates. Birds are arranged according to their diet, the


4carnivorous forming the upper classes, followed by worm-eaters, water fowl and seed-eaters. This arrangement parallels the social classes in human society, the birds actuallybehaving in accordance to their hierarchical condition. The choosing process beginswith the female eagle and her three suitors who present their cases in highlyembellished words. The gathering of birds start quarrelling without reaching aconclusion, and since the choice is difficult and leads to the discontent of the other birdswaiting for their turn, the female eagle is required to make a choice herself. Toeveryones surprise, she postpones the decision by one year.

This poem shows an evolution in Chaucers style whose writing becomes moreflexible, no longer copying artificial French genres, but developing his own interests andpreferences of poetic shape and content.

D. Troilus and Criseyde written between 1381 and 1386, is considered by manycritics one of Chaucers finest works and he pays tribute to the great Italian writers thatinfluenced his work, such as Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. At the end of the poem, hepays respect to the great Ancient writers, placing himself and his book among them:

Go little book: go, my little tragedy:let God, to your maker yet, before he die,send the power to make a comedy!But, little book, do not go in envy,but be subject to all poesy:and kiss the steps where you see paceVirgil, Ovid, Homer, Lucan and Stace. (Book V, 1786-1792)

The poem also mentions Gower and to another of his contemporaries, Ralph Strode, aspeople of importance in the judgment of literary works and shaping the literary tastes.

O moral Gower, this book I directto you, and you, philosophical Strode,to warrant, and where need is, to correct,in your benignity and zeals good.And to that true Christ who died on rood,with all my heart for mercy ever I pray,and to the Lord right thus I speak and say (Book V, 1856-1862)

The poem is highly indebted to Boccaccios Il Filostrato, but it is not a translationof the Italian poem. It is an independent poem, much longer than the original and, inthe opinion of not few critics, much richer.

Following the tradition of courtly poems, Chaucer preferred a Trojan subject,dealing with the love between Criseyde, the daughter of the Calchas, the Trojan priestwho defected into the Greek camp, and Troilus, one of Priams sons, and so a brother ofthe hero Hector, and the lover Paris. Troilus has two models to follow, that of the heroicHector, or that of Paris, the lover, because of whom the war started. He, at first, chooseswar, despising love until he is smitten by the sight of the beautiful Criseyde, and then hebecomes a lover. The love story, intermediated by Pandarus, Troilus friend and,conveniently Criseydes uncle, is only short lived, because the young woman is reunitedwith her father in the Greek camp in an exchange of prisoners. Losing the hope ofescaping to be reunited with her lover, Troilus, she accepts Diomedes advances.Suffering and disappointed, Troilus throws himself into battle and is killed. The poemends with Troilus ascending to the eighths sphere where he laughs at his love and life,


5which seem to him superficial and futile. While Troilus oscillated between the two rolesimposed by his brothers, but not surpassing them in any: he is second to Hector inbattle, and a passive, love-struck lover of the romance convention, ruled by Pandarus,Criseyde is more of a pragmatist. Being at the mercy of conventions, she is aware thatshe cannot oppose political decisions and follow her love, and since, due to thecircumstances, she could not be faithful to Troilus, she decides to be faithful toDiomedes.

The ending is troubling for a love poem, since the final lines are dedicated to thefutility of the struggles or pain of lovers:

261And when he was slain in this manner,his light ghost full blissfully wentup to the hollowness of the eighth sphere,leaving behind every element.And there he saw, clear in his ascent,the wandering planets, hearing harmonyin sounds full of heavenly melody.

260.And down from there he spies

this little spot of earth that with the seais embraced, and begins to despisethis wretched world, and hold it vanitycompared with the true felicitythat is in heaven above. And at the lastdown where he was slain, his gaze he cast.

261.And in himself he laughed at the woe

of those who wept for his death now past:and damned all our work that follows soon blind lust, which can never last,when we should all our heart on heaven cast.And forth he went, briefly to tell,where Mercury appointed him to dwell.

262.Such ending has Troilus, lo, through love:

such ending has all his great worthiness,such ending has his royal estate above,such ending his desire, his nobleness,such ending has false words fickleness.And thus began his loving of Cressid,and in this way he died, as I have said.

As far as the style of the poem is concerned, Chaucer is at his best. Even if there arevoices that may reproach that there is too little action and too much talk, as far as thequality of the poetry is concerned, his mastery of rhyme, the variety of diction, theexcellence of his style, everything is at its best.


6E. Collections of Tales1. The Legend of Good Women. According to the text, this collection of talesabout love is written as a penance for the disparagement of love in other texts. The talesretell love stories in whose center are famous women such as Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido,Ariadna, Medeea. Most of these tales are tragic, seven of the ten women dying, fourthrough suicide.

This collection of stories is an experiment, taken up later with The Canterbury Tales,of putting together a variety of tales and trying to unite them in such a way as to make acoherent whole.

2. The Canterbury Tales is his final work and considered by critics hismasterpiece. It was started in 1387 and he continued work on it until 1400, the year ofhis death. The plan of the tales was definitely much more impressive than the finalachievement, since there are only 24 tales out of the foreseen 120 and 29 pilgrims. TheTales were found in different manuscripts (84 manuscripts survived), and there is nocertainty whether the order in which they appear nowadays is the order intended by thewriter (if he actually thought of such an order) or they were arranged by chance, by thedifferent copyists or when the texts were bound in manuscripts. It is also possible thatsome of the stories might have been written before, and included in this text later, sincethey seem to be self-sufficient and not dependant on the plan.

The collection of independent tales united in a framework was not uncommon in theperiod. Boccaccio framed the hundred tales of his Decameron by the context of theplague that forces the secluded noblemen to pass their time by telling stories. GiovanniSercambi, a fourteenth century writer also used the convention of a collection of varioustypes of tales. In England, John Gower gathered a number of tales on love in hisConfessio Amantis. Geoffrey Chaucer had tried to employ the same pattern before, inhis Legends of Good Wives.

The name of the collection comes from the frame that puts together a number ofstory tellers: the pilgrimage to Canterbury, to the shrine of Thomas a Becket Englandsmost famous site of pilgrimage. This convention gives the author the opportunity tobring together a composite group of people that otherwise would not be found together.Therefore, he manages to present the reader with a set of types representing almost allthe layers of the medieval society. They meet at Tabbard Inn and the Host, theinnkeeper, suggests telling tales in order to spend their time on their way to Canterbury:each one has to tell two tales on their way to Canterbury and two tales on their way back.Chaucer completes only twenty two, two remaining unfinished, though it is not knownwhether it was out of lack of time or out of his intention (the tellers are interruptedwhile telling their stories).

The text can be divided into two parts, the General Prologue, in which the frameis set and the portraits of the story tellers are drawn, and the stories themselves, some ofthem (like that of the Wife of Bath, of the Manciple and of the Pardoner) containing alsoa self-explanatory prologue before the tale.

The group contains people from almost all the layers of the society. The upperlayer is represented by people like the Knight and the Squire. The gentry is representedby the Franklin or the rich Merchant. The Reeve and the Manciple take care of theothers wealth or money, but they make sure the gain is theirs. There are simpler people,such as the Miller, the Shipman, the Cook as part of a group of specialized labourers,


7ranked closer to the Guild members: a Haberdasher and a Carpenter, a Webber, a Dyerand a Tapiser. There are learned, educated men: the Lawyer, the Physician, the OxfordClerk and representatives of the clergy, or people connected with the Church: the Monk,the Prioress and the Nuns, the Nuns Priest, the Parson, the Friar, the Summoner andthe Pardoner. There are only three women in the group of pilgrims: two are nuns andthe other is the Wife of Bath. From the lower classes, there are the Knights Yeoman andthe Plowman, the Parsons brother. There is also a narrator, named Chaucer, but who,ironically, is not a very good story teller and the Host, a large man, cheerful but hot-tempered. There are no aristocrats, neither some of the lowest in society, like beggars, orprostitutes, however, some are downright sinful and corrupt, like the Friar, or theSummoner or the Pardoner, others are kind, honest and moral, like the Parson and thePlowman, or the Knight, the highest on the social ladder represented in the text, and thepoor Clerk. The Miller is a drunkard whereas the Host is hot-tempered.

Though these characters are types, representing facets of the society that Chaucerwants to satirize or to idealize, their portrayal in the General Prologue is subtle anddiverse, Chaucer adapting the style of the text as well as the manner of portrayal to thetype of character, insisting either on physical portraits, on clothes, or on psychologicalaspects. The language and imagery are likewise adapted to the character. The tales arealso in keeping with the status and the temperament of the story teller.

There is a lot variation in the tales as well. The collection displays a wide varietyof genres and types of texts. There are courtly romances, like those told by the Knight,his son, the Squire (his story is unfinished), the Physician or Chaucers (againunfinished). Some tellers prefer the Breton lai/ lay (a literary genre popularized in the12th century France, it is a short narrative romance in verse, usually on the theme oflove, promises and magical occurrences): the Franklin and the Wife of Bath. The fabliauis another preferred genre. The fabliau is a realistic, short and plain story, rapid innarration and skilful. The form is primarily French and, at the origin, it was courtly notpopular, the aristocrats mocking at the lower classes or at the clergy. It was believed tobe a reaction to courtly literature. In Chaucers Tales, the fabliaux are told by the Miller,the Friar, the Reeve, the Summoner, the Shipman and the Merchant, and so, there is norule that they are told by the lower or the higher classes, since participants from all thegroups choose this comic-satirical type. There are also religious allegories, sermons,parables, lives of martyrs, like those told by the Clerk, the Pardoner, the Prioress,Chaucers Melibee, including the Parsons concluding religious sermon or the Monksseries of tragedies. The Nuns priest chooses a fable, whose protagonists are the famouscock Chaunticleer and the fox. The fables, known since Ancient Greece (Aesop, 6thcentury) are stories with a moral whose characters are non-human creatures orinanimate objects that are personified. The Manciples tale is a fable of explanation,telling why the crows are black. Many stories are adaptations from other sources:Boccaccio for the Knights tale, or Petrarch for the Clerks.

Many of these stories, either serious or comic, tackle the theme of love, usuallyrepresented by a love triangle: thus, the Knights tale which is an adaptation ofBoccaccios Theseide and tells the story of two young men, Palamon and Arcite, for thebeautiful Emily, is counterbalanced by the Millers fabliau in which Alisoun, the youngand pretty wife of an old carpenter, is desired by their lodger, the student Nicholas andby the local parish clerk, Absolon. The low language, the bawdiness and humor of thestory oppose the high attitudes represented in the courtly romances. The same low,


8bawdy attitude is visible in the Reeves fabliau, in which two students want to mock at amiller, by sleeping with his wife and daughter, eventually steeling his flour that wascooked into a cake. It is obvious that there is a rivalry between the Miller and the Reevethat becomes explicit in their stories, in which each mocks at the other.

The professional rivalry is visible in the tales told by the Friar and the Summoner.The Friar tells a story about a summoner and a yeoman who seems to be the devil andwho eventually takes the summoner to hell. In response, the Summoner tells a storyabout a greedy friar who aggressively asks for money. He will receive something inreturn, but it will be only a fart.

In the line of the serious tales, martyrdom, suffering and endurance arehighlighted. The Lawyer tells the story of Custance (Constance), the daughter of theHoly Roman Empire, who goes through a long series of hardships and suffering thatmark all the three stages of her life: daughter, wife and mother, but she never loses herfaith, being rewarded in the end. In the same line there is the story of the martyrdom ofSaint Cecilia, told by the Second Nun, or the tribulations of Griselda, the wife who obeysevery test set by her husband in the tale told by the Clerk. In the same line, the Prioresstells a story of a child killed by Jews, who keeps singing after death, so that the mothercan find the body.

The Pardonner tells a parable about three drunken and debauched man whowant to find death. They encounter an old man who tells them where to find death. Theygo to that place where they discover gold coins and they kill one another for the gold,finding, thus death.

Chaucers Canterbury Tales are interesting as single stories, but, though harderto grasp, it is more rewarding to see the relationships among them and to understandthat their bewildering appearance is, in fact, the image of the reality that the writerwants to reveal to his readers. There are critics who consider that the Tales describe anation unsure of its identity, distrustful of traditional authority, and torn by ambitionand materialism into separate spheres of interest. For both, the drives and interactionsof individual personalities express a loss of central control, a failure of hierarchy whichaffects society at all levels. (Whetherbee 1) It is the image of a society in transitionwhere new social types redefine the old social roles and interactions. It is a fictionalworld with no center, defined by oppositions between realistic and idealistic, worldlyand religious, traditionalist and individualist points of view. (idem 2)

Portraits in the Prologue TalesThe Knight (Cavalerul) - Courtly romance: the story of Palamoun and ArciteThe Squire (Scutierul) Courtly romance or lai (unfinished because it is

interrupted)The Yeowman (Arcasul)The Prioress (accompanied by aNun, a chaplain and three priests)(Stareta, o maica, o diaconita sitrei preoti)

The Prioress Tales: a religious tale (against the Jews)The Nuns Priests Tale: Fable about a Cock (Chaunticleer)and a Fox.The Second Nuns Tale: The life of St. Cecilia

The Monk (Calugarul) A collection of short stories mixing biblical, historical andcontemporary figures.


9The Friar (Fratele) Appearing as a fabliau, it is closer ot exemplary sermon,with the protagonist, the summoner, representing certainvices.

The Merchant (Negustorul) Fabliau about an old man January who married a youngwoman May

The Clerk (Diacul din Oxford) Allegory taken from Boccaccio and Petrarch (the story ofGriselde)

The Sergeant of the Law (Notarul) A religious tale, romance, Saints lives: the story ofCustance

The Franklin (= a freeholder notof noble birth) (Razesul)

Lai about marriage and freedom

Skilled Tradesmen: aHaberdasher, a Carpenter, aWebber, a Dyer, a Tapiser (unMamular, un Boiangiu,Dulgherul, un Tesator, Tapiterul -Breslele)The Cook (Bucatarul) Unfinished story/fabliau about an apprentice and a man

married to a prostituteThe Shipman (Corabierul) Fabliau about a monk, a rich merchant and his wifeThe Doctor/ Physician (Doctorul) A tale from The Romance of the RoseThe Wife of Bath (Targoveata dela Bath)

Lai: the story of a knight accused of rape.

The Parson (un Popa) A religious sermon and allegory on the Seven Deadly SinsThe Plowman (the Parsonsbrother) (un Plugar)The Reeve (=an administrativeofficer of a town or district, asuperintendent or a person ofhigh rank representing theCrown) (Logofatul)

Fabliau: a story about a miller and two students

The Miller (Morarul) Fabliau: A story about a carpenter tricked by a student, hislodger and a parish clerk

The Summoner (Aprodul) Fabliau about a FriarThe Pardoner (Vanzator deiertaciuni)

Parable about three man looking for and eventually findingDeath.

The Manciple (=a buying agentfor a college, an inn, anassociation of lawyers)(Economul)

Fable of explanation: why the crown are black

The Poet Sir Topas, a parody romance (unfinished), Melibee, a moraltale, which is a translation from a French version of a Latinbook Book of Consolation and Advice

The Host (Hangiul)


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_________ The Canons Yeomans tale (Argatul Avei) (canon= one ofthe bodies of dignitaries attached to a cathedral). Ahumorous tale about trickery through alchemy

LITERARY TERMSfabliau [fab-li-oh] (plural -liaux), a coarsely humorous short story in verse, dealing in a bluntly realistic manner with*STOCK CHARACTERS of the middle class involved in sexual intrigue or obscene pranks. Fabliaux nourished in Francein the 12th and 13th centuries, and were usually written in * OCTOSYLLABIC couplets; some 150 French examplessurvive, most of them anonymous. They were imitated in English by Chaucer (in rhyming *PENTAMETERS), notably inhis Miller's Tale and Reeve's Tale. Many fabliaux involve * SATIRE against the clergy. A standard plot is the cuckoldingof a slow-witted husband by a crafty and lustful student. (The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms)

exemplum (plural -pla), a short tale used as an example to illustrate a moral point, usually in a sermon or other *DIDACTICwork. The form was cultivated in the late Middle Ages, for instance in Robert Mannyng of Brunne's Handlyng Synne(early 14th century) and in Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale and Nun's Priest's Tale, as well as in many prose collections for theuse of preachers. (The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms)

Whan that Aprill with his shoures sooteThe droghte of March hath perced to the roote,And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breethInspired hath in every holt and heethThe tendre croppes, and the yonge sonneHath in the Ram his half cours yronne,And smale foweles maken melodye,That slepen al the nyght with open ye(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;And specially from every shires endeOf Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,The hooly blisful martir for to seke,That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.(The beginning of the Prologue)


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TTHHEE FFIIFFTTEEEENNTTHH CCEENNTTUURRYY

HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDThe fifteenth century is, unfortunately, less rich in great writers and works as the

previous centuries. Though William Caxtons (ca. 1415~1422 ca. March 1492) efforts ofbringing the printing craft to England (in 1476) and his endeavor to print the works ofthe great writers of his time inevitable led to an increased number of people with accessto books, the century was dominated by too much strife and danger to allow culture todevelop.

The Hundred Years War had started in a victorious note for the English side, butHenry Vs (1386-1422) battle of Agincourt (1415) is among the last resounding victoriesfor the English. At his premature death, the throne was inherited by his 9 months oldson who, upon growing up, showed more interest in religion than in the affairs of thecountry. His weakness inevitably led to internal struggles for power between two noblefamilies, the York and the Lancaster, both claiming to have descended directly fromKing Edward III, being heirs of two of his sons. And so, the War of the Roses starts in1455, to end with the victory of the Lancasters in 1485.

MEDIEVAL DRAMAThe drama is believed to have developed out the of the Catholic religious services as

dialogues in the form of questions and answers between the priest and the believers(antiphones and responsories) and from the short and rudimentary plays that reenactedscenes from the Bible and were staged at important religious celebrations, especiallyEaster. It is very difficult today to clearly grasp the importance of medieval drama sincewe are left with disparate written piece of an art which was largely unwritten and whichtestifies of a rich and imaginative performative culture.

MYSTERY PLAYS and MIRACLES were religious plays drawing inspiration formthe Bible (The Mystery Plays) and from the lives of saints (the Miracles). They wereplayed by the guilds that staged their play on a pageant and toured the streets. Thereare several cycles known: the Chester cycle, the Wakefield cycle, the N-Town cycle (anunknown town) and the York cycle.

MORALITY PLAYS showed the fate of a single person that becomes symbolic forhumanity, the Everyman and were played by travelling companies. The religious playswere suppressed by the advent of Protestantism.

THOMAS MALORY (c. 1405 - 1471) MORTE DARTHUR (1470)The only important text in fifteenth century, creating a link between Chaucer and thegreat Renaissance writers, is Sir Thomas Malorys prose text referring to the Arthuriancycle. During the unstable and bloody time of the War of the Roses, Malorys textappears as the last story of chivalrous ideals and brave deeds, against the background ofa world that has already given up such ideals. It is also the last medieval Arthurian textremaining, to our days, a standard for all later versions.


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The sources of the text are varied, from Geoffrey of Monmouths Arthurianstories, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and a stanzaic Morte Darthur of the sameperiod, as well as an alliterative Morte from Lincolnshire in the 15th century. The lasttwo derive from the French prose La Mort Artu.

The text was printed by Caxton in 1485, who edited it and divided it in 21sections. Malorys original text divided in only 8 sections was discovered at thebeginning of the twentieth century.

The story follows Arthurs life from his conception and birth, through his gloriousdeeds and great reign to his death and the decay of his kingdom. Long sections arededicated to Lancelot and his love to Guinevere, to Gawain, Tristan or to the Holy Grail.The story insists on the elements that seem to be missing from the historical times inwhich it was written. So, it speaks of faith and loyalty, of courage and justice, of purityand unselfishness. However, Arthur dies of betrayal and his kingdom is doomed toperish, ending the story in mistrust and regret. The story ends with the inscription onArthurs tomb: HIC IACET ARTHURUS, REX QUONDAM, REXQUE FUTURUS (Herelies Arthur, former king and future king).

The style appears simple, almost childlike, but at a closer look, it deserves itsname as the greatest prose writing of its time. The text flows with a specific cadence andmusicality, never becoming tedious or monotonous, and being adapted to the content, tothe point of tension, the climaxes, or the endings. It is not the vernacular of the day,neither some old language, and so, it reflects its content: that of a story mixing realitywith fantasy. The vocabulary is predominantly Anglo-Saxon, the Latin or French wordsbeing very scarce. With its more modern and easy to read manner, it is the link betweenthe great writers of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern stage of theEnglish culture.


Chaucer

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Transcript of Chaucer