英美文学乔叟

(二)Geoffrey Chaucer (1340—1400)

The first occupant of the Poets’Corner，Westminster Abbey

1.Literary career

Three Periods of literature career

（1）The influence of French literature, （1360s -1372）chiefly translated from the French works, eg. “Romance of the Rose ”《玫瑰传奇》.

（2）The influence of Italian Renaissance (1372- 1386) mainly adapted works from Italian literature, eg.“Troilus and Criseide ”《特洛勒斯和克里希德》

（3）The British Period: 1386 --- 1400 (Mature Period) purely English，“The Canterbury Tales”《坎特伯雷故事集》

2.The Canterbury Tales

（1）A pilgrimage of 30 people on a route to and from Canterbury (England)

（2）To tell stories to amuse themselves on the way

（3）Harry Bailly, the innkeeper, promised a free meal for the best-storyteller

（4）In structure: prologue and 24 stories (intended to have 120 stories, but unfinished)

（5）Prologue serves as a brief introduction, to enable readers to have a general view of the whole content.

（6）Among the 24 individual stories, 2 in prose and 22 in verse form.

3.Characters

All kinds of people except the royalty and the poorest peasants are represented by these thirty pilgrims.

（1）The gentle class : the knight, the squire(乡绅), the monk(僧侣), the prioress(女修道院院长), the Oxford scholar and the Franklin (乡绅);

（2）The burgher class (市民): the wealthy trademan, the haberdasher(男装店店主), the carpenter, the landed proprietor(地主), the weaver(织布工), the tapestry-maker（花挂毯制造商）, and the Wife of Bath（巴斯妇）;

（3）The professionals：the lawyer and the physician.

4.Contributions

（1）Father of English poetry

（2）Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry: heroic couplet （英雄双韵体）, an iambic pentameter (五步抑扬格）

（3）Chaucer’s English: London dialect. Chaucer made a crucial contribution to English literature in writing in English at a time when much court poetry was still composed in Anglo-Norman or Latin.

（4）Forerunner of English realism. 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.

（5）Chaucer develops characterization to a higher artistic level, i.e. characters who are morally and socially typical but exquisitely individual and realistic in detail.

5.Knowledge of poetry

Poem →stanza →line →foot →syllable

（1）syllable: a word or part of a word which contains one vowel sound(元音).

（2）Stress: a word or part of a word which should be pronounced with more force. In English,