2014 Review for Canterbury Tales quiz
Author and biographical information: Geoffrey Chaucer
Father of English poetry 1343-1400
The General prologue: how it is a medieval time capsule
Know the orders that travel: gentry, clergy, laypeople, working class, mercantile class (emergent middle)
The frame narrative and the contest: Harry Bailey, best story (most moral / entertaining gets dinner and
drinks)
Know who the narrator esteems and despises and therefore his moral compass
You should review TCT characters a touch to know who the goodies and the baddies are
Overall, have a sense of Chaucer’s reasons for satirizing the clergy
What types of stories did he tell: exemplums, romances, fablieaux…
The Tales:
The Knight’s Tale:
Pardoner’s Tale:
Palamon, Arcite, Emilye – the wheel of fortune!
radix malorum est cupiditas
Know the way irony is used in the tale; know what happens in the epilogue
Wife of Bath’s Prologue
know her attitude towards her husbands and the flesh
Wife of Bath’s Tale
the sovereignty!
Miller’s Tale
marry someone your own age; it’s meant to insult the reeve
Reeve’s Tale
don’t steal or it will come back to haunt you ; it’s meant to insult the miller
Quickly:
Friar’s Tale
about a summoner who deserves his fate (know why!)
Summoner’s Tale
about a friar who deserves… ahem
HW: Boccaccio’s Federigo’s Falcon (tonight)