1066-1485
 Romance
 Miracle
Play
 Morality Play
 Frame Story
 Realism
 Short Story
 Heroic Couplet
 Satire
 Exemplum
 Strophes
 Bob
and Wheel
 Tone
 Romance
 Folk Ballad
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Themes
Refrain
Incremental Repetition
Rhyme
Quatrain
Iambic Meter
Code Language
 Look
at the painting.
What does this tell ou
of Medieval life?
 William
of Normandy
defeats King Harold
 Divides land among
loyal barons
 Creates feudalism
 Effects:
• French
• Large Norman-Anglo
•
social, economic, and military system
•
based on a religious concept
of rank
•
some vassals appointed by king in
return for loyalty
•
lords (powerful vassals)
appoint
their own vassals
King
Lords
powerful
landowners
Vassals
did work or military
service for feudal lords in
exchange for land
Serfs
servants to lords and vassals,
bound to their master’s land
 Henry
II rose to power
 Named old colleague Beckett to powerful
position of Archbishop of Canterbury
 Henry’s knights kill Beckett in the
Canterbury Cathedral
 Old
English grows into Middle English
which is more recognizable to modern
reader.
 Middle Class rises
• Feudalism weakens
• Canterbury Tales

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
Bifil that in that seson on a day,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
And wel we weren esed atte beste.
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
And specially from every shires ende
And made forward erly for to ryse,
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse.
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
 Middle
class civil
servant and diplomat
 Soldier in the
Hundred Years’ War
 Lived in London
 The Canterbury Tales



29 Pilgrims journey to
the shrine of Thomas a
Becket in Canterbury
Stop at the Talbard Inn in
Southwark (South
London)
Story-telling contest
• 4 tales per person: 2 coming; 2
going
• Actually completed 22
 Began 2 others

Use of journey motif as
framing device
Cathedral of Canterbury


Sets stage for journey
Meeting place the Tabard Inn
in Southwark of 29 pilgrims
including:
• Knight and his Squire
• Yeoman
• A Nun (Prioress)
• a chaplain,
• 3 Priests
• A monk and a friar
• A merchant
• a cleric
• a lawyer
• a franklin (freeman)
3
young men of drunk and riotous
behavior search for Death.
 An old man whom they insult tells them
that Death lies up the hill under a tree.
 They find bags of gold and plot to send
the youngest for food and wine and then
kill him for the gold.
 He returns with poisoned wine and all
die.
 “The love of money is the root of all evil.”