Introduction to
The Canterbury Tales
Accelerated/Honors 12
Medieval Period
1066-1485
The Norman Conquest of
England
Stand-still in English literature
Medieval Hierarchy
Feudal system:
Nobility: barons, knights
Freemen: emerging middle class
(merchants, guildsmen)
Peasants or serfs
Medieval Hierarchy (cont)
Clergy
The Roman Catholic Church
(people shared a common faith)
Pope, archbishops, bishops,
priests, nuns, and monks.
the Black Pl a gue left
holes in socie ty that
provided for u pward
mobility
o it wiped out a thir d
of the popula tion
o undermined the
economic str ucture of
the feu d al s ys tem
Saint Thomas à Becket
Archbishop of Canterbury
Feud with Henry II
“Will no one rid me of this
troublesome priest?”
Miracles that led to a great
pilgrimage to Canterbury
Geoffrey Chaucer
C. 1343-1400
Known as “the father of English
literature”
Middle class
Vassal to the king
Started a “re-birth” of English
literature
Geoffrey Chaucer
Born in the reign of Edward III
his work has a quality of universality that is only
matched and exceeded by Shakespeare
Chose to write in the Mercian dialect (not French of the
court or Latin of the university & church). This dialect
became the English dialect spoken today.
Father was a successful wine merchant (the middle
class was new)
Geoffrey Chaucer
Born a commoner, but through his intellect and astute
judgments of human character, he moved freely among
the aristocracy, so he knew the world from many
aspects.
He became a court page at 12 and read romances to
the ladies at court; married a lady-in-waiting to the
queen
Took part in at least two military campaigns
Court poet of the later Middle Ages in Western Europe
Geoffrey Chaucer
He traveled widely, was a substantial citizen, welleducated, widely read.
He was a diplomat in Italy. Met or read forerunners of
the Italian Renaissance (Dante, Petrach, Boccaccio)
and spoke French, Italian, Latin fluently.
He held many public offices; throughout his public life
he came into contact with most of the important men of
London as well as with many of the great men of the
continent
Geoffrey Chaucer
His work did not reach people through printed books
but was recited and circulated in manuscript copies
He was the first poet buried in Westminster Abbey “One
of the best known parts of Westminster Abbey, Poets'
Corner can be found in the South Transept. It was not
originally designated as the burial place of writers,
playwrights and poets; the first poet to be buried here,
Geoffrey Chaucer, was laid to rest in Westminster
Abbey because he had been Clerk of Works to the
palace of Westminster, not because he had written the
Canterbury Tales” (westminster-abbey.org)
Literary Devices
Frame tale:
Narrative technique whereby a
main story is composed, at least
in part, for the purpose of
organizing a set of shorter stories,
each of which is a story within a
story.
Romance
Stories of adventure about knights and
chivalry
Courtly love:
Celebrates the love of a knight, usually for a
married woman. Thus, it is often adulterous
and secretive.
Knights are so madly in love with these
women that it consumes their thoughts.
Knights try to do many great deeds in hopes
of winning their love.
Fabliaux
Audience: middle class men
Risqué tales that usually satirize women and
clergy
Lots of obscenity; people act like animals as
opposed to chivalric romance
jealous husband who loses sexual
possession of his wife
wife who outsmarts her husband
corrupt members of the church
Heroic Couplet
Pioneered by Chaucer
Poems constructed from a
sequence of rhyming pairs
of iambic pentameter lines
The General Prologue
Middle English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE0MtENfOMU
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