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The Canterbury tales
Geoffrey Chaucer Contributions
Father of English poetry
Chaucer, for the first time in English literature， presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales。

Chaucer develops characterization to a higher artistic level， i。

e. characters who are morally and socially typical but exquisitely individual and realistic in detail。

Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace the Old English alliterative verse.
Chaucer used for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which is to be called later as the heroic couplet 。

Chaucer greatly increased the prestige of English as a literary language and extended the range of its poetic vocabulary and meters。

He is considered as a great master of the English language.
Chaucer’s contributions to English language
Chaucer’s language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact。

His verse is smooth. He introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types， especially the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which was later called the “heroic couplet” to English poetry.Though drawing influence from French， Italian and Latin models, he is the first great poet who wrote in the English language。

His production of so much excellent poetry was an important factor in establishing English as the literary language of the country. The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech。

The Canterbury Tales介绍
The Canterbury Tales is a book of stories. This is an important book， because it is one of the first to be written in the English language. The book is about a group of travelers who are going from London to Canterbury. As they travel along, each person tells a tale (a story)。

This is why the book is called The Canterbury Tales。

The Canterbury Tales， begun in about 1386, consists of stories told by some of the thirty pilgrims who set off from the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London, to visit the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury murdered in his own cathedral in 1170。

The aim was to tell four stories each： two on the way， two on the way back. The teller of the best story would be given a free dinner by the cheerful host of the Tabard. In fact, the collection is incomplete and only 24 stories are told。

Two of the stories are written in prose and the others are written in verse。

It opens with a general prologue where we are told of a company of pilgrims that gathered at Tabard Inn in Southwark， a suburb of London. They are on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. They set out together with the “jolly innkeeper,” Harry Baily， who becomes their “governor” and proposes that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back. The pilgrims being 31 in all the total number of tales，according to Chaucer’s plan, was to exceed that of Baccaccio’s Decameron.
These pilgrims include a Knight， his son the Squire， the Knight's Yeoman, a Prioress, a Second Nun， a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk， a Man of Law, a Franklin， a Weaver, a Dyer， a Carpenter，a Tapestry-Maker， a Haberdasher， a Cook， a Shipman， a Physician, a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple，a Reeve， a Summoner， a Pardoner， the Wife of Bath， and Chaucer himself.
Theme
Influenced by the early Italian Renaissance, Chaucer affirmed man’s right to pursue earthly happiness and opposed asceticism, praised man's energy, intellect， and love of life. Meanwhile，he also exposed and satirized the social evils， esp. the religious abuses。

Style
lively and vivid Middle—Age English
satiric and humorous
heroic couplet
of unequal merits
Characterization
——- vivid portrayal of individualized characters of the society and of all professions and social strata except the highest and the lowest
shows respect for the two landed gentry, the plowman and the parson;
satirized all the religious people except the parson；
shows a growing sense of self—importance of the trades and towns people， reflecting the changing social status， esp. in towns and cities。

General Prologue:
The General Prologue is the key to The Canterbury tales that narrates about the gathering of a group of people in an inn that intend to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury （England） next morning。

In the General Prologue, the narrator of The Canterbury Tales, who is one of the intended pilgrims, provides more or less accurate depictions of the members of the group and describes why and how The Canterbury Tales is told。

If we trust the General Prologue， Chaucer determined that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. The host of the inn offers to be and is appointed as judge of the tales as they are told and is supposed to determine the best hence winning tale。

As mentioned before, The Canterbury Tales was never finished。

The Prologue provides a framework for the tales. It contains a group of vivid sketches of typical medieval figures. All classes of the English feudal society, except the royalty and the poorest peasant, are represented by these thirty pilgrims。

Every figure is drawn with the accuracy of a portrait。

It is no exaggeration to say that the Prologue supplies a miniature of the English society of Chaucer’s time。

Looking at his word—pictures, we know at once how people lived in that era。

That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism。

”
Summary of The General Prologue
On April 17th toward the end of the fourteenth century nine and twenty pilgrims gather in the Tabard Inn in Southwark, just across the river from London, at the beginning of the road to Canterbury。

Geoffrey Chaucer talks to each one and joins their company for a pilgrimage to Canterbury to seek ”the blissful martyr，” Thomas à Becket。

Harry Bailey， the host of the Tabard, decides to join them and act as their leader; each pilgrim will tell four stories ——two each on the way there, two each on the way back. The pilgrim who tells the best tale -- with the ”best sentence and most solaas" will have a dinner at the others' cost when the company return s to the Tabard. The pilgrims agree and the next morning they set out, stopping at the Watering of St。

Thomas, just out of town， where they reconfirm their decision and, at Harry's direction,
draw straws to see who will tell the first tale. Strangely, the lot fell to the knight and he tells the first story.
Introduction to the pilgrims
The knight: perfect and gentle man who loved truth, freedom, chivalry and honor. The most socially prominent person on the journey; the battles he fought were all religious wars of some nature.
The Squire： a candidate for knighthood; a lover who can sing lusty songs， compose melodies, poetry
Yeoman: dressed in green； an expert woodsman, an excellent shot with the bow/ arrow。

Prioress： Madame Eglantine; a gentle lady; well—educated though her French wasn’t accepted Parisian French. Coy and delicate; table manner; More a woman than a nun! Without vocation but with the dogs and jewelry that satirical literature always condemns nuns for。

Associates of the Prioress： 3 priests and another nun
Pilgrim’s Image Gallery
Four main qualities of the Knight.
The first is the Knight’s love of ideals—“chivalrie” (prowess），“trouthe” （fidelity), “honour” （reputation)，“fredom” （generosity），and “curteisie” （refinement) （General Prologue， 45–46).
The second is the Knight’s impressive military career。

The Knight has fought in the Crusades, wars in which Europeans traveled by sea to non-Christian lands and attempted to convert whole cultures by the force of their swords.
The third quality the narrator remembers about the Knight is his meek, gentle， manner。

And the fourth is his “array,” or dress. The Knight wears a tunic made of coarse cloth， and his coat of mail is rust-stained, because he has recently returned from an expedition。

Significance
The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer’s Masterpiece and one of the monumental works in English literature。

It is one of the landmarks of English literature, perhaps the greatest work produced in Middle English
give us a true to life picture of his time. The work stands as a historical and sociological introduction to the life and times of the late Middle Ages
taking from the stand of rising bourgeoisie, he affirms men and opposes the dogma of asceticism preached by the Church.
As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy， intellect， quick wit and love of life.
His tales expose and satirize the evils of his time, attack degeneration of the noble, the heartless of the judge, the corruption of the Church and so on.
Living in a transitional period, Chaucer is not entirely devoid of medieval prejudices。

He is religious himself。

There is nothing revolutionary in his writing, though he lived in a period of peasant uprisings.
While praising man’s right to earthly happiness， he sometimes likes to crack a rough joke and paint naturalistic pictures of sexual life。

Chaucer has his weak points. But these are, however， of secondary importance compared with his achievement as a great poet and a story—teller.
literary terms
heroic couplet： Iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs. It is called heroic because in England，
esp. in the 18th century， it was much used for heroic (epic) poems. The heroic couplet became so important and fixed a form for various purposes that its influence dominated English verse for decades， until the romanticists dispelled the tradition in their demand for a new freedom。

Poetics
★ the heroic couplet
couplet： two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme
an iambic pentameter： a poetic line consisting of five verse feet with each foot an iamb， that is a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable —as in dah—DUM, dah—DUM dah-DUM dah—DUM dah-DUM.
an iambic pentameter couplet, e。

g。

At night there came into that hostelry [i]
Some nine and twenty in a company [i］
iamb： a poetic foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. （e。

g： alone； My heart is like a singing bird）
pentameter: a line of verse containing five feet。

Meter： any regular pattern of rhythm or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Foot： a unit of meter。

Rhyme: the repetition of sounds at the ends of words is called rhyme. When words rhyme at the end of lines of poetry it is called end rhyme。

—-----characteristic of featu res’description in the prologue (序言）
The unique introduction at the beginning, as long as 860 lines，is a frame of the whole book, clarifying author’s designation and conception. It has a close relationship with every later parts of the book, while we can also view it as a respectively dependent poem。

Hereby we will analyze the characteristic of fea tures’description in the prologue.
The prologue is actually a gallery of all walks of people。

Chaucer widely selec ted his materials from English society of that age. Except the top of royal and the lowest slaves，we can nearly find the representatives of all social classe s. Though reading the book，we can have a better understanding and broaden our eyesight of English society in 14th century，as well as enjoy the feast of a rt。

The prologue is rich in content。

There is the knight who has participated in n o less than fifteen of the great crusades of his era; the wife of Bath who ha s been married five times and well practiced in the art of love; the pardoner who is associated with shiftiness and gender ambiguity; just name a few. They be long to different parts of the society，living in different background，thus ha d different life styles，habits and custom。

They charted，joked, quarreled, and compromised；they discussed，praised, criticized, and persuaded。

They adopted t heir particular way to present their life experience, providing a vivid series of narratives which differ in content and style。

There is a general narrator, who is full of curiosity and enthusiasm. He is an anonymous, naïve member of the pilgrimage, who is not described。

He suggests to tell stories and then organized them into the book. Each of the tales，howe ver, narrated by different pilgrims, is told from an omniscient third—person poin
t of view, providing the reader with the thoughts as well as actions of the ch aracters. Therefore, there is no surprise to find that The Canterbury Tales incor porates an impressive range of attitudes towards life and literature。

The tales are by turns satirical, elevated, pious，earthy，bawdy, and comical。

The narrator opens the General Prologue with a description of the return of spri ng。

The April rains，the burgeoning flowers and leaves, and the chirping birds; piercing, engendering, inspiring and pricking，all those are of spring's renewal and rebirth，conjure up images of conception:
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……
(General Prologue，1~4）Foll owed by is a brief introduction to the background of the story。

“When the swe et showers of April fall and shoot, /Down through the drought ofMarch to pierce the root，/…It happened in that season that one day /In Southwark，at the Tabard，as I lay/Ready to go on pilgrimage and start/For Canterbury…At night th ere came into the hostelry/Some nine and twenty in a company/In fellowship, and theywere pilgrims all/That towards Canterburymeant to ride，…"
After all the essential elements being presented, then comes the features’descri ption, the main part in the prologue。

The narrator spends considerable time characterizing the group members according to their social positions。

The pilgrims represent a diverse cross section of 14th century English society. Medieval social theory divided society into three broad classes，called “estates”：the military, the clergy，and the laity. In the portraits that we will see in the rest of the General Prologue，the knight and squire represent the military estate。

The clergy is represented by the pri oress, the monk，the friar，and the parson。

The other characters，from the w ealthy Franklin to the poor Plowman，are the members of the laity。

These lay characters can be further subdivided into landowners (the Franklin）, professionals （the Clerk，the Man of Law，the Guildsmen，the Physician, and the shipman），laborers （the Cook, the Plowman）, stewards （the Miller, the Manciple, and the Reeve），and church officers ( the Summoner and Pardoner). The way of divi sion and emotional attitudes in description reflects the society's universal unders tanding towards different occupations at that time. It also allows readers to cat ch a glimpse of the theme, something like the corruption of the church, the imp ortance of company.。