英美文学8

G e o f f r e y C h a u c e r

杰弗里·乔索

t h e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e w r i t e r i n t h e M e d i e v a l E n g l i s h

l i t e r a t u r e

G e o f f r e y C h a u c e r(1340—1400) Chaucer’s three literary periods:

⏹1. The first or the French period:

⏹1) The Romaunt of the Rose

⏹《玫瑰传奇》a translation, popular in Middle ages

⏹2) The Book of the Duchess

⏹《悼公爵夫人》,the best work of the time

Chaucer’s literary career

2. The second or the Italian period:

Troilus and Criseyde:

《特罗伊拉斯和克莱西德》, a poem of a love story Chaucer’s literary career

☐3. The third or the English period, his best period:

☐The Canterbury Tales

☐《坎特伯雷故事集》

☐his masterpiece and a representative works of the Middle Ages.

Troilus and Criseyde

《特罗伊拉斯和克莱西德》

Chaucer’s longest complete poem about 8000 lines.

The poem is from a poem of Baccaccio.

The love story of Troilus.

Characters of

Troilus and Criseyde

Features of

Troilus and Criseyde

☐Chaucer endowed (赋予) the poem with interest of characters and that of incident.

☐He enriched the story by the vivid and humorous figure of Pandarus and by the development of the character of Criseyde, a fickle woman (易变的女人).

☐With the poem, he became mature in versification (作诗法;诗体).

☐He is a perfect master of his craft (writing skills).

The Canterbury Tales

●1. It has 24 stories.

●2. It is the description of the pilgrims（朝圣者）who tell stories.

●3. It is about the life of ordinary people.

●4. It gives vivid characters, with humor and satire. The Outline and the Prologue

The Tales

☐The stories are well suited to the different characters of the pilgrims.

☐Sometimes the pilgrims tell stories against each other; sometimes the stories form a group.

The Tales

●5. The famous ones are the story of :

●1) the wife of Bath（巴斯城的妇女）,

●2) the Knight（骑士）,

●3) the Pardoner（卖赎罪卷者）,

●4) the Nun’s Priest（尼姑的教士）,

●5) the Prologue（序诗）.

The Wife of Bath （巴斯城的妇女）

The wife of Bath shows Chaucer’s keen observation and his unsurpassed (无比的) talent for characterization.

She is the owner of a cloth factory, light-hearted, merry, somewhat vulgar (粗俗的), and exceedingly (非常) talkative.

It is a vivid sketch (概述) of a woman of the middle class, and a colorful picture of the domestic life of that class in Chaucer’s day.

Social Significance

Affirm men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth.

Opposes the dogma (教条) of asceticism (苦行主义;禁欲主义)preached by the church.

Praise …Expose and satirize…Attack

Emphasize the indifference to worldly wealth; the greed and debauchery(放荡) of all the other clerics(牧师,教士).

Weak points, e.g. nothing revolutionary in writing Chaucer’s language:

⏹1. His language is full of humor and satire.

⏹2. His language is vivid, exact and smooth, a master of word-pictures.

⏹3. He is the first to use heroic couplet which he introduced from France.