Chapter Two Medieval Period
Geoffrey Chaucer
Pre-Elizabethan age: Thomas More
A Brief Introduction to Elizabethan
age
Contents
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The Middle (Medieval)English period
1.
3.
Historical background
The literary scene of the period
The formation of Middle English
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Geoffrey Chaucer
1.
Life experience
His literary career
His major works
His contributions to English language and poetry
Analysis and appreciation of the General Prologue in his
masterpiece The Canterbury Tales
2.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Medieval Period(1066-1400)
Historical backgroud (P7-8)
Norman conquest: In 1066, French-speeking Normans
came under William the Conqueror.
*The establishment of the feudal system
*The 1381 peasant uprising
*The completion of the Doomsday Book《末日审判书》
*The launching of the Crusade
*The siging of the Magna Charter《大宪章》
*The war with France or the 100-year’s war (1337-1453)
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1.
2.
3.
4.
The literary scene of the period
There were mainly two forms of literary writings,
religious writing and romance.
The formation of Middle English
For about 3oo years after 1066, languages spoken in
England were confusion. There were Old English,
French and Latin.
For about 3oo years after 1066, languages spoken in
England were confusion. There was Old English,
descended from Anglo-Saxons,
The 100-year’s war with France was an awakening of
national consciousness in England.
The French language was gradually replaced by the
native tongue. The English language gained absolute
supremacy.
5.Thousands of words and expressions were
borrowed from French, Latin, Greek and Italian.
The English language in this transitional stage
from Old English to modern English, through
some 4 centuries (from12th – 15th) of
development and change, has gradually been
known as Middle English.
Representatives in this period
1.John Wycliffe (1320 – 1384): an Oxford scholar, the first
to translate the Bible from Latin to Middle English
(though not accurate), the pioneer in the field of
translating the Bible.
2. William Langland (1332 – 1400?) His masterpiece is
Vision of Piers the plowman, written in the form of a dream
allegory and in Middle English.
*(A term) An allegory is a story or description in which the
characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying
meaning, and serve to spread moral teaching. It has
double meaning: i, e., a primary meaning, or a surface
meaning, and a secondary meaning, or underlying
meaning. In an allegory, abstract qualities or ideas such as
patience, purity, or truth, are personified as characters in
the story.
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Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 – 1400)
Life experience
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1340 Chaucer was born in London, in the Vintry.
1357 Page to the Countess of Ulster.
1359 Taken captive while on a military expedition to
France.
1360 Released on ransom and returned to England.
1366 Married Philippa Roet, a Lady in waiting to the
queen.
1367 Served Edward III as a Valet
1368 Went abroad as a Diplomat.
1369 Sent to Italy to negotiate a commercial treaty.
1374 Becomes Controller of Customs at the Port of
London.
1378 Sent to Italy as a diplomat.
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1379 Became Controller of Petty Customs, London.
1380 Became Justice of Peace for Kent.
1381 Became Knight of the Shire for Kent.
1382 Chaucer’s wife Philippa Roet died.
1384 Started receiving pension from Richard II due to
strained financial conditions.
1385 Granted an annual hogshead of wine from the
King.
1386 Pension increased by Henry IV.
1389 Became Clerk of the King’s Works.
1400 Died on October 25 and buried in the Poet’s
Corner in Westminster Abbey.
His literary career
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His education: Little is known about his education.
But he is good at Latin, French, and Italian.
Three periods:
1360s-about 1372=French period: a translator (The
Romance of Rose) and an imitator (The Book of Duchess)
1372 -1386=Italian period: a Borrower (Troilus and
Cryseyde) borrowed theme, characters from Baccassio’s
Filastrato.
the last 15 years of his life=English (Maturity)
period: a creator (The Canterbury Tales)-his own theme,
choice of words, characters and plot.
His contributions to English
language and poetry
His contributions to English language
* Chaucer’s language is now called Middle/Current
language
* He established English as the literary language of
England. He wrote in the London dialect of his day.
* He did much in making the London dialect the
foundation for the modern English Speech.
 His contributions to English poetry
* He introduced from France the rhymed stanza of
various types, esp. the rhymed couplet of iambic
pentameter or Heroic Couplet into English poetry,
instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.
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Explanations of the Literary terms
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Iamb: a meter pattern composed of a pair of
syllables, with the first one unaccented and the
second stressed.
Pentameter line: A poetry line in which there
are ten syllables, with two ones made up of a
"foot", five feet in all.
Iambic pentameter: It is a poetry meter. In
each line, there are ten syllables which can be
broken up into five feet (pentameter) of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
(iambic) –hence iambic pentameter.
Analysis and appreciation of the first 2
stanzas in the General Prologue of his
masterpiece
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1.
2.
Contents
Historical context
Brief introduction
*the frame work
*the gallery of portrait of his characters
*the writing technique
3. Analysis and appreciation of the first 2 stanzas
*synopsis and understanding
*analysis and appreciation
*interpretation of the peculiarity of the first
stanza
*symbols and themes
*difference from Bacassio’s Decameron
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The front cover of Canterbury Tales
Canterbury Cathedral
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OUTSIDE
INSIDE
Historical context
The time of the writing of The Canterbury Tales was a
turbulent time in English history.
*The Catholic Church was in the midst of the Great
Schism and, though it was still the only Christian
authority in Europe, was the subject of heavy
controversy.
*Lollardy, an early English religious movement led by
John Wycliffe, is mentioned in the Tales, as is a specific
incident involving pardoners (who gathered money in
exchange for absolution from sin) who nefariously
claimed to be collecting for St. Mary Rouncesval
hospital in England.
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*The Canterbury Tales is among the first English
literary works to mention paper, a relatively new
invention which allowed dissemination of the written
word never before seen in England.
* Political clashes, such as the 1381 Peasant's Revolt and
clashes ending in the deposing of King Richard II,
further reveal the complex turmoil surrounding
Chaucer in the time of the Tales' writing.
*Many of his close friends were executed and he
himself was forced to move to Kent in order to get
away from events in London.
Brief introduction
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The Canterbury Tales is one of the landmarks of
English literature, perhaps the greatest work produced
in Middle English and certainly among the most
ambitious. Chaucer did not complete the entire
Canterbury Tales as he designed it. There are altogether
30 travelers on the pilgrimage to Canterbury. He
structured the tales so that each pilgrim would tell four
tales on the way there and back, and that would bring
the total up to 120. However, Chaucer only completed
20 complete stories and 4 fragments, not even
completing one tale for each pilgrim.
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The frame work: This long poem consists
of three parts: The General Prologue; 20
tales, and four fragments; and separate
prologues to each tale.
His gallery of portraits of people: comes
from all classes of the English society of
his time, ranging from a Knight to a humble
Plowman, except the royalty and the
peasant. The Pilgrims are a microcosm of
the 14th century English society.
His writing technique:
1.plainly narrative
2. everything is based on reality. The Prologue
supplies a miniature of the English society at
that time. Chaucer liked to use the realistically
writing skill to represent the reality.
3. That is why he is called the “father of
realism”/ master of realism; He applies to
the work a strong sense of humor and an
infinite sense of humanity
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Synopsis
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In April the pleasant showers of rain had pierced the drought of
March to the very root and bathed every plant with life-giving
moisture. The refreshing west wind had quickened the young
shoots in every wood and field. The young sun had completed its
second half course in the zodiac sign of the Aries, and the small
birds encouraged by nature sang melodiously. People longed to go
on pilgrimages and seek strange shores in this rejuvenating month.
People from every corner of England went to Canterbury to seek
the holy blessings at the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket.
One spring day at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, while the narrator
(Chaucer) was waiting for the next day to go on his pilgrimage to
Canterbury, a group of twenty-nine pilgrims arrived at the inn.
The narrator was accepted into their company and they decided to
rise early next morning and carry on their journey. The narrator
describes each of these pilgrims and tells the reader about their
ranks and the kind of clothes they wore.
Anslysis and appreciation
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“When in April" places us immediately in the
reverdie tradition -- literally the "re-greening," a
mode in medieval lyric poetry celebrating the
revival of spring and all that that entails.
1-18 lines present a unified and ideal organic
hierarchy -- a great chain of awakenings from the
rain to the roots of the plants to the flowers, the
sun to the fields and the birds growing musical
and insomniacal, to humans who maybe sublimate
the same impulses into pilgrimages to holy shrines
of martyrs. So we progress from the natural to the
divine, or from the natural/divine to the
anthropomorphic/sacred. Memorize these 18 lines!
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As a tradition, in Middle ages, if a poet began his
poem with spring, the reader would learn that the
poet would tell a love story. The General Prologue
begins with the description of Spring characteristic
of dream visions of secular love, the same tone,
even some of the same details in his Le Roman de la
rose. His audience may well have thought they were
about to hear another elegant poem on aristocratic
love. However, they hear instead:
Then longen folk to gon on pilgrimages. The focus changes
from secular love to religion, to a pilgrimage, and the
texture shifts from the elegant abstractions and
allegorical personages to a very real London in the
fourteenth century.
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A pilgrimage is a religious journey
undertaken for penance and grace. It was very
popular in fourteenth-century England, as the
narrator mentions. Pilgrims traveled to visit
the remains of Saint Thomas Becket,
archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered
in 1170 by knights of King Henry II. Soon
after his death, he became the most popular
saint in England. The pilgrimage in The
Canterbury Tales should not be thought of as
an entirely solemn occasion, because it also
offered the pilgrims an opportunity to
abandon work and take a vacation.
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At line 20, the narrator abandons his
unfocused, all-knowing point of view,
identifying himself as an actual person for the
first time by inserting the first person—“I”—
as he relates how he met the group of
pilgrims while staying at the Tabard Inn. He
emphasizes that this group, which he
encountered by accident, was itself formed
quite by chance (25–26). He then shifts into
the first-person plural, referring to the
pilgrims as “we” beginning in line 29, asserting
his status as a member of the group.
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This is a sudden shift. We readers find
ourselves hearing "Bifel," "I," "by aventure" -and we're in the realm of chance,
offhandedness, subjectivity, personal
specificity, randomness, the casual.
A distinction is now required between
Chaucer-poet and Chaucer-pilgrim. It's the
pilgrim giving us the prologue. Point-of-view
is through this puppet's eyes. So the often
ironic poet is using a narrator, a persona,
through which to speak -- a pretty fauxChaucer.
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The narrator ends the introductory portion of his
prologue by noting that he has “tyme and space” to
tell his narrative. His comments underscore the fact
that he is writing some time after the events of his
story, and that he is describing the characters from
memory. He has spoken and met with these people
as also a pilgrim, but he has waited a certain
length of time before sitting down and describing
them as a poet. He positions himself as a mediator
between two groups: the group of pilgrims of
which he was a member of the pilgrims and us, the
audience, whom the narrator explicitly addresses as
“you” in lines 34 and 38.
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On the other hand, the narrator's declaration
that he will tell us about the “condicioun,”
“degree,” and “array” (dress) of each of the
pilgrims suggests that his portraits will be
based on objective facts as well as his own
opinions. (REALISM)
Interpretation of the peculiarity of
the opening part
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The opening part of the General Prologue mixes
the spiritual with the secular and moves between
each form with relative ease.
It sets up imagery of spring and regeneration.
It does not conform to the cliché tradition "in
springtime a young man's fancy turns to love,"
but veers into more spiritual territory. In
springtime these travelers make a religious
pilgrimage to Canterbury.
It sets the tone and mood of the tales: gay and
ironic.
Symbols
(A literary term)Symbols are objects, characters, figures,
or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
 Springtime
The Canterbury Tales opens in April, at the height of
spring.
*The springtime symbolizes rebirth and fresh
beginnings, and is thus appropriate for the beginning
of Chaucer's text.
*Springtime also evokes erotic love, for example, the
Squire is compared to the freshness of the month of
May, in his devotion to courtly love.
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Themes
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(A literary term)Themes are the fundamental
and often universal ideas explored in a literary
work.
"The Canterbury Tales" has several overlapping
themes, which not only enrich the book’s texture
but also lend it some kind of coherence and
unity. Most of these themes are abstract and
cannot be stated as singular propositions. Nearly
all the subjects of Chaucer’s most serious
contemplation can be found in his magnificent
epic.
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The major themes are:
*critique of the church
*themes of the inherent corruptness of
human nature and decline of moral
values
*the problem of the position of women
and marriage relationships
*themes of honor and truth
*themes of Christian virtue and chivalry.
Difference from Baccassio’s
Decameron
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The structure of The Canterbury Tales is indebted to
Boccaccio's Decameron, in which ten nobles from
Florence, to escape the plague, stay in a country villa
and amuse each other by each telling tales. Boccaccio
had a significant influence on Chaucer. The Knight's
Tale was an English version of a tale by Boccaccio,
while six of Chaucer's tales have possible sources in the
Decameron: the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's, the Clerk's,
the Merchant's, the Franklin's, and the Shipman's.
However, Chaucer's pilgrims to Canterbury form a
wider range of society compared to Boccaccio's elite
storytellers.
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The Canterbury Tales differs from
Boccaccio's Decameron: the speakers are not
from a single social class, but drawn from a
broad range of society, from the noble knight to
the drunken rascal of a Miller and the
impoverished Parson. Choosing a pilgrimage as
the vehicle for the tales was a brilliant move -- a
pilgrimage was the one occasion in medieval life
when so wide a range of members of society
could plausibly join together on relatively equal
terms, allowing for greater differences in tone
and substance.
It is hot, let me feel the cool snow
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Coffee,please.
The Pre-Elizabethan Age: Thomas
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More
CONTENTS
A brief introduction of the historical
background
Literary representatives in pre-Elizabethan age
Thomas More
Historical background
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3.
From 1400 to 1550, significant changes had been
undergoing. Old England was in transition.
The wars of Roses (1455-1483): Barely at the end of
the 100-years War with France, England was again
blown into the whirlwind of civil war.
Tudor Dynasty: Then the King, Henry VII, took the
advantage of this situation, founded Tudor dynasty.
The religious reformation in England: Then Henry
VII’s son, Henry VIII (1509 -1547) succeeded the
throne. He started the extensive movement against the
control of the Roman Catholic Church.
He declared the break with Rome. This is the
Protestant Reformation, which in essence a
political movement in a religious disguise, a part of
struggle of the newly rising class for power.
4. The Counter-reformation: The reformation was
closely followed by the Counter –reformation
during the reign of Queen Mary (1553 – 1558),
Henry VIII’s daughter. She was a devout Catholic.
So many Protestants were burned as heretic. This
religious persecution did not stop until Queen
Elizabethan Age.
5.
The Enclosure movement and
introduction of the printing
In England the movement for enclosure
began in the 12th century and proceeded
rapidly in the period 1450–1640, when the
purpose was mainly to increase the amount
of full-time pasturage available to manorial
lords. Much enclosure also occurred in the
period from 1750 to 1860, when it was done
for the sake of agricultural efficiency. By the
end of the 19th century the process of the
enclosure of common lands in England was
virtually complete.
6. The religious Reformation in Europe
The term Reformation refers in general to the major
religious changes that swept across Europe during the
1500s, transforming worship, politics, society, and basic
cultural patterns. One key dimension was the Protestant
Reformation, the movement that began in 1517 with
Martin Luther's critique of doctrinal principles and
church actions in Germany and that led to the
establishment of new official churches—the Lutheran,
the Reformed or Calvinist, and the Anglican. These were
separate from the Latin Catholic Church in organization
and different from it in theology.
Renaissance and Humanism (literary terms)
*Renaissance: It is a movement of the humanistic
revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and
learning that originated in Italy in the 14th century
and later spread throughout Europe, marking the
transition from medieval to modern times.
*Humanism: A cultural and intellectual movement of
the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) that
emphasized secular concerns, rejecting religious
beliefs and centers on humans and their values,
capacities, and worth, as a result of the re-discovery
and study of the literature, art, and civilization of
ancient Greece and Rome.
7.
Humanists argued that man should be given all freedom to enrich
their intellectual and emotional life. In religion they demanded
the reformation of the church. In art literature, instead of
singing praise to God, they sang in praise of man and of the
pursuit of happiness in this life. Humanism shattered the
shackles of spiritual bandage of man’s mind by the Catholic
Church and opened his eyes to “a brave young world” in front of
him.
The English Renaissance can be traced in Chaucer’s The Canterbury
Tales. In the later half of the 14th century, Chaucer went to Italy.
This trip had a great influence on him. Generally speaking,
English literature of Renaissance may be divided into 3 stages of
development. The first stage extends from the end of 15th
century to the last half of the 16th century; The second
stage was just in the Elizabethan age; The third one was
the Jacobean period. The literary forms were poetry, prose,
fiction and drama.
Representative in pre-Elizabethan age
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Thomas More and his masterwork: Utopia
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535),
also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English
lawyer, author, and statesman who in his lifetime gained
a reputation as a leading Renaissance humanist scholar,
and occupied many public offices, including Lord
Chancellor (1529–1532). More coined the word
"utopia", a name he gave to the ideal, imaginary island
nation whose political system he described in Utopia,
published in 1516. He was beheaded in 1535 when he
refused to sign the Act of Supremacy that declared
King Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of
England.
The Elizabethan age
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Now came the Elizabethan Age in 1558. In this
age, the literature can be divided into 3 phase
(Read P35 -40); And there appeared the most
famous the University Wits (P37 -38). During
her rein, England was not only prosperous in
inner economics, powerful in expansion abroad
and ocean, but also flourised in culture and
thoughts, esp, in literature, such as poetry
(sonnets), prose and drama.
The three sub-periods in literature
1st period: 1557-1579
*The publication of Edmund Spenser’s The Shepheardes
Calendar
*Thomas Wyatt introduced the sonnet into England
*Henry Howard, Earl of Surry brought the the blank
verse into England
(A literary term) Blank verse: It is Rhyme-less iambic
pentameter or a line of ten syllables in five iambs, a
rhythemic unit of two syllables with the unstressed
followed by the stressed syllable.(Milton is the master
of this)
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2nd period: 1580-1599
*In poetry, Sperser contibuted his The Faerie Queene;
The epic poem came out unfinished with only the first
six books in 1596, which was dedicated to Elizabeth.
The excellence of it lies in the complexity and depth of
Spenser’s moral vision and in the Spenserian Stanza,
which Spenser invented for his masterpiece.
The main ideas in this poem: NATIONALISM
(celebration of Queen Elizabeth); HUMANISM (shows
strong opposition to Roman Catholicism);
PURITANISM (shows moral teaching)
Spenserian Stanza (a literary term): It is a nine-line stanza
of 8 lines in iambic pentameter plus an iambic
hexameter(six-foot line). The rhyme scheme is abab
bcbc c. It is created by Spenser in his The Faerie Queene,
thus named after him.
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Philip Sidney’s sonnet Astrophel and Stella; The theme, heavenly and
earthly love is reflected.
Shakespeare’s sonnets.
*In prose, Sidney’s Apologie for Poetry;
*In pastoral Romance, here’s Sidney’s Arcardia. It is pastoral.
Pastoral poetry (a literary term): Poetry that portrays or evokes rural
life, usually in an idealized way.
In essays, Francis Bacon published some of his essays.
*Another contribution from John Lyly is his Eupheus.
*In drama, there were “the University Wits” first, including
Christopher Marlowe, Bobert Greene, George Peele, Thomas
Lodge, Thomas Nash amd Thomas Kyd, who were all graduates
from Oxford or Cambridge or both except Thomas Kyd.They
paved the way for the rise of Shakespeare. And then, Shakespeare’s
some 20 of his plays were finished.
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The 3rd period:1599-1625
Shakespeare finished all his later plays
Ben Jonson did almost the whole of his work
Francis bacon did his best work in this
period,dominated English prose literarture for
decades.
The Authorized Bible, also named King James
Bible came into being in 1611. It is still the
best of its kind today, unequaled in precision,
beauty and power.
Assignments
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5.
6.
Written work
Define the terms: iambic pentameter, symbols, themes,
Ranaissance, humanism, blank verse, Spenserian Stanza and
pastoral poetry.
What are Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry and
language?
What are peculiar in the opening part of the General Prologue in
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer?
What is the symbol in the General Prologue? What does it
symbolize?
Who are “the University Wits”?
What is Edmund Spenser’s masterpiece? What are the main
ideas reflected in it?
Topics for discussion
1.
How to define Chaucer’s literary career? Why?
2.
What kinds of people are included in the gallery of his
character portrait in Canterbury Tales by Chaucer?
3.
Why Chaucer is called “father of realism”?
4.
How to undrestand the identity of Chaucer as both a poet and
a pilgrim?
5.
Compare Baccassio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales to find the difference between them.
6.
Why did literature flourish in Elizabethan age?
7.
The formation of English people and Old English language
8.
The formation of the Middle English Language
*Oral work:
Memorize the first 18 lines in the General Prologue.
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Spring is coming. Let’s go on pilgrimage.