Canterbury Tales

By Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer Born around 1340, died 1400, in London

Among the first writers to show that English could be a respectable literary language

Joined the king’s army to fight against the French in the Hundred Years’ War and was captured by the French.

Enjoyed royal favor; king paid his ransom; married Philippa, a lady in waiting to the queen

Uncommon Honor Chaucer was buried in London’s

Westminster Abbey, when an admirer erected an elaborate marble tomb for his remains. This was the beginning of the famous Poets’ Corner, where many other great English writers have since been buried.

Both an asteroid and a lunar crater have been named for Chaucer.

He is often considered the “father” of English literature.

Where is Canterbury?

Canterbury Today

Background of The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer planned 120 tales, but only completed 22 stories plus 2 fragments…died before he could finish.

Medieval “best-seller”– more manuscript copies of the poem exist than any other poem of its day

83 known manuscripts with minor variations in each. Some speculate the differences are due to copyists’ errors, or Chaucer revising it as the copyists were working.

No official, unarguably complete version of the Tales exists and no consensus has been reached regarding the order in which Chaucer intended the stories to be placed.

More Background… Group of travellers going on a pilgrimage to

Canterbury from London

A pilgrimage is a religious journey undertaken for penance and grace.

Pilgrims traveled to visit the remains of Saint Thomas Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral, where they thanked the martyr for having helped them when they were in need.

So Who Was Saint Thomas Becket?

Friend of King Henry II, who eventually made him Archbishop of Canterbury.

The king was hoping this would give him some leverage over the church

The church was in charge of trying their own people for crimes, and would often acquit them, even for murder.

Becket’s alliance shifted from the court to the Church, and he took a stand against the king

Becket fled to France, where he remained in exile for 6 years

Thomas Beckett’s Death

The two seemed to have resolved their dispute in 1170

But Becket had excommunicated Bishops of London and Salisbury for their support of the king, and refused to absolve them.

This outraged the king, which then inspired three knights to hunt down the Archbishop

The knights found him praying at the Altar in the cathedral of Canterbury, and drew their swords and began hacking away at him until he died.

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

Chaucer’s Tomb

The Physiognomists In the Middle Ages, a “science” called

physiognomy became popular.

It was based on the idea that the mental and emotional characteristics of an individual could be determined from physical characteristics like physique, hair, and voice quality.

Physiognomists

The Pardoner, for example. In medieval physiognomical lore, sparse yellow hair, soft and long, was a token of effeminacy, cunning, and deceptiveness.

To a fourteenth-century audience, the fact that the Wife of Bath’s teeth were set wide apart might indicate that she was envious, irreverent, bold, deceitful, and fond of luxury.

Canterbury Tales Narrator

Narrator is Chaucer, but don’t confuse “pilgrim Chaucer” with “author Chaucer”

Narrator is acting as a reporter of what others say, not adding/removing.

Pretends to be unaware of irony or satire

Why Should You Care?

1. Accurate depiction of life in the middle ages (class levels, interactions between the classes)

2. First story about lower classes

3. Satire & humor for social / political / religious commentary.

4. “The Canterbury Tales” point out problems within society.

Language Changes

English is divided into three periods:

Old English/Anglo-Saxon (ca. 449-1100)

BEOWULF

Middle English (ca.1100-1500)

THE CANTERBURY TALES

Modern English (ca. 1500-)

SHAKESPEARE

Language Changes chiknes           

chickens koude              could londoun          London pye                  pie shyne               shin daggere          dagger hoote somer    hot

summer broun              brown

Chaucer could see the language

change, even in his lifetime: He wrote:

"and certaynly our language now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche

was vsed and spoken whan I

was borne”

Listen to it!

http://www.herr-rau.de/archiv/chaucer/prologue.mp3

This website allows us to learn some background about the time period, as well as get to hear the sounds of Medieval English.

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the ram his halve 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 ende

Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to seke,

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote The 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 breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the ram his halve 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 ende Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan that they

were seeke.