Chaucer

• The inn-keeper is going to be their judge. And the best story-teller should be treated with a fine meal at the cost of all the rest.
• The pilgrims are 30 in all including the poet. Therefore, according to the plan, there should have been 120 stories altogether. But only 24 tales were written due to the author’s death in 1400.
Framework / Structure
• Framework ---- a narrative which was composed for the purpose of introducing and connecting a series of tales. • Collections of stories linked by such a device were not uncommon in the Middle Ages.
• Chaucer used heroic couplet with ease and charm. Its great master was Alexander Pope. It is so called because it has been much used for heroic / epic poetry.
• Pilgrims are divided into 4 groups: (1)Gentry (gentle class) (2) Clergy (3) Liberal professions (represented by the lawyer, physician and poet himself) (4) Tradesmen and craftsmen
• The outstanding poem of this period is The Book of Duchess. It is an elegy written on the death of the first wife of John of Gaunt. It has much of the conventional romance elements in it.
Function of the General Prologue
• The whole Prologue consists of 858 lines in all. The selection in our textbook just covers the first 160 lines. • The General Prologue is considered as the best part of the whole work.
(2) The Prologue provides a framework for the tales. ---- There is an intimate connection between the tales and the Prologue, both complementing each other.
Significance of The CT
(1) It gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer’s time. (2) It has a dramatic structure. ---- This has been highly commended by critics. This kind of a collection of tales put together was not rare in history.
• Though made up by seemingly unconnected tales, the whole poem is not in loose structure. Instead, all the tales are closely knitted together.
• Chaucer keeps the whole poem alive by interspersing the tales themselves with the talk, the quarrels, the opinions of the pilgrims, and especially the judgment of the inn-keeper, who gives the whole work unity by inviting, criticizing, admitting and denouncing.
Pilgrims / Characters
• The CT gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer’s time. Especially the Prologue, it is a splendid masterpiece of realistic portrayal. It supplies an artistic corridor of people from all walks of life in the medieval England.
The Third Period (1386 ---- 1400)
• The Canterbury Tales was written in the years between 1387 & 1400. It has a general prologue and 24 tales that are connected by “links”. The work was left unfinished upon the death of the poet in 1400.
General Prologue
• The Canterbury Tales opens with a general prologue, which is considered the best part of the whole work.
• In the prologue, the readers are told that on a spring evening, the poet drops in the Tabard Inn, where he meets 29 other pilgrims all ready for a journey of 60 miles to Canterbury.
• All kinds of people are represented by these thirty pilgrims, except the highest (the king and the top nobility) and the lowest (the very poor labouring people).
• Because of the long and tedious journey, the host of the Inn suggests that they should colour the journey by telling stories. He proposes that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two others on the way back.
The Age Leabharlann Baiduf Chaucer
Three Periods of Chaucer’s Life & Works
• The works of Chaucer are roughly divided into three periods, corresponding to the three periods of his life:
• and in the story he tells, as well as by his behavior along the road and his remarks on the way.
(3) It reflects Chaucer’s humour. ---- Humour is a characteristic feature of the English literature. There are many humorists in the history of English literature, such as Charles Dickens & Bernard Shaw. It should be noticed that Chaucer wrote for the people of the circle in which
• Chaucer’s work consists of three parts: (1)The General Prologue; (2) 24 tales, two of which left unfinished; (3) separate prologues to each tale with links, comments, quarrels, etc. in between.
• In The CT, stories are cleverly woven together by links between the stories. Most of the stories are related to the personalities of the tellers. The personality of each character, his private life and habits, his mood and social status are revealed in the Prologue
The First Period (1360 ---- 1372)
• Chaucer wrote under the influence of French literature. ---- In this period, he imitated French poetry and even translated French poems himself.
(1) The Prologue supplies a miniature of the English society of Chaucer’s time. ---- Looking at his picture gallery, we know at once how people lived in that era. So Chaucer was praised by Gorky as “the founder of English realism”.
• Since Chaucer was living in Greenwich, he might, from his house, have ample opportunities to observe the Canterbury pilgrimage for himself, which may well suggested to him the idea of a pilgrimage as a framework for a number of stories.
The Second Period (1372 ---- 1386 )
• Chaucer wrote under the influence of the Italian literature. ---- The most outstanding work is Troilus and Cryseyde. Other poems of this period are The Parliament of Fowls and The House of Fame.