GEOFFREY CHAUCER
CANTERBURY TALES
OLD SAYING: IN SPRING, A YOUNG
MAN’S FANCY TURNS TO THOUGHTS OF
LOVE
Explain what it means
using your own words
1: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour
4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
5: Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
6: Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
7: Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
8: Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
9: And smale foweles maken melodye,
10: That slepen al the nyght with open ye
11: (so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
12: Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
13: And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
14: To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
GENERAL PROLOGUE
When in April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
As brings about the engendering of the flower,
What is the setting in time ?
What is the natural element present
here?
What is its effect on nature?
What is the connotation of spring?
When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath
Exhales an air in every grove and heath
Upon the tender shoots,
What natural element is present here
and what is its effect on nature?
…and the young sun
His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
Why is the sun young?
And the small fowl are making melody
That sleep away the night with open eye
(So nature pricks them and their hearts engages)
What is “the small fowl”?
So, what happens to nature in spring?
And to people?
Remember the old saying?
IN SPRING, A YOUNG MAN’S FANCY TURNS
TO THOUGHTS OF LOVE
Let’s see if it is true for Chaucer too
Then people long to go on pilgrimages
And palmers long to seek the stranger strands
Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands,
Palmer, A pilgrim
who carried a palm leaf
to signify the making of a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land
And specially, from every shire’s end
Of England, down to Canterbury they wend
To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick
To give his help to them when they were sick
So, what is the effect of spring on man,
according to Chaucer?
The same as in the old saying?
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, most devout at heart,
What season was it?
Where is the poet?
Why?
At night there came into that hostelry
Some nine and twenty in a company
Of sundry folk happening then to fall
In fellowship, and they were pilgrims all
That towards Canterbury meant to ride
How many people arrived?
What kind of people were they?
What were they going to do?
The rooms and stables of the inn were wide;
They made us easy, all was for the best.
And, briefly, when the sun had gone to rest,
I’d spoken to them all upon the trip
And was soon one of them in fellowship,
Pledged to rise early and to take the way
To Canterbury, as you heard me say.
Does the poet enjoy the
inn?
What is the relationship
between poet and
pilgrims?
But none the less, while I have time and space,
Before my story takes a further pace,
It seems a reasonable thing to say
What their condition was, the full array
Of each of them, as it appeared to me,
According to profession and degree,
And what apparel they were riding in;
And at a Knight I therefore will begin
What is the poet going to do now?
How is he going to do it?
Now, let’s read about
the knight in your textbook!!!