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Chaucer
Letteratura Inglese 1 (500063)
Università degli Studi di Pavia
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The Canterbury Tales Fabliau The Norman conquest in eleventh century meant a transformation of the English literature and those are genres very appreciated by the public. The Fabliau short tale is in octosyllabic couplets and deals comically with incidents of ordinary life. It’s not sophisticated, not dealing with courtly stories. There are reference to sex, there’s frequently a married couple and there’s some kind of age difference, usually the young wife betray her husband. It’s frequent the seduction of young girls or young man. There’s no moral message, it’s simply for entertainment.
very popular in France 12th – 13th c., especially among middle classes
very few written down; oral type of humour
no didactic intention, a form of entertainment
sexual or scatological( references with bodily function) themes
irreverence, anticlericalism (priests are supposed to stay celibate and it’s frequent a religious figure, a priest or a monk who engages in some sort of physical encounter of the woman Fabliau (cont.) In the general prologue these caracters are representative of his society and he uses these kind of genres not only to caracterize those pilgrims( the knight for example tells a story of ...,a miller tells a story that fits with his social position). The genre used by Chaucer is representative of the caracter of the pilgrim that is telling a story.
only fabliau in isolation, “Dame Sirith”; other fabliaux are included in The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer puts them in a frame: the tales by several pilgrims
not aristocrats, but commoners:
Miller, Reeve, Cook, Shipman, Friar, Summoner and Merchant
- “Dame Siriz” about the “trick” or stratagem played by Willikin, a young priest, Margery, a young married woman, and Dame Sirith, the go-between.
- irreverent mixture: profane love that usually involves a ecclesiastical figure and a marry woman
- invocations to God
There’s no intention of reforming the church like in Piers Plowman but the only author’s
intention is to entertain the reader.
fable : derives from classical tradition, it’s a popular genre amongst young reader because they are
entertained by characters who are animals which are normally personification of human that are
characterized by human traits. The young reader extracts a moral message from the fable.
- In Canterbury Tales there’s “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”, in this tale there are two characters that are repetitive throughout medieval literature, Chanticleer and (Reynard=french name) the Fox The convention of naming those characters like that (in french) was adopted in English Literature, the convention of the fable is also continuing in English Literature.
- didactic,it has a moral message
- the other two do not: the beast tale and the fabliau don’t have a moral
- invocations to God
There’s no intention of reforming the church like in Piers Plowman but the only author’s
intention is to entertain the reader.
fable : derives from classical tradition, it’s a popular genre amongst young reader because they are
entertained by characters who are animals which are normally personification of human that are
characterized by human traits. The young reader extracts a moral message from the fable.
- beast tale : it is used as a means of criticism against the church and “ The Fox and the Wolf in the Well” is one of the most famous medieval beast tale (not included in the Canterbury Tales) - The connotations of a fox: it’s a valiano , it’s clever, it disrupts typically a cheaping wrong, the fox is less clever the corrupt cleric as fox was a well-known medieval figure of satire and complaint
The wolf is less clever, and usually the fox takes ... of the wolf. The fox is representative of the clerical figure.
- the image of the fox-priest was symbolic of widespread condemnation of clerical hypocrisy. The immorality of those clerical figures,
- does not end on a moral
[The aim of the pilgrimage is to obtain the forgiveness, to give thanks, to escape the plague, to entertain themselves, all the ecclesiastical go beacuse they have to visita s many places as they can. The church was a very complex structure and in this case the friar was qualified to ear a confession, he’s pretending to be more than a priest A sin of corruption: simony. Why is a knight on pilgrimage? In this period the Black Death occurred]
Geoffrey Chaucer(1340s – 1400)
- probably best known writer of Middle English period
- admired for his thematic range, irony, characterisation, skill as a storyteller, and insight as observer of society
- often seen as first “modern” author in English literary tradition
- other authors preferred to be seen as narrators of history or writers of works of instruction
- Chaucer is assured in his role as a writer of fiction
- in The Canterbury Tales he wears the mask of a minstrel (narrator or performer of a popular romance)...
- BUT most of his works have a highly individualised fictional narrator
- presented as Chaucer himself
- portrayed with humour as bookish and impractical lived most of his life in London
- started his career in royal service when appointed to an important household
- held various administrative appointments under Edward III and Richard II
- these included missions in Spain, Italy and France
- successful career in difficult times: power struggles during Richard II’s reign; several
supporters executed
Troilus and Criseyde (mid 1380s) is a narrative set in ancient Troy, written in the tradition of the
great classical epics
•story of Trojan War known from various Latin and vernacular sources, but Chaucer follows
Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato (“the Love-struck”). It has the frame of Trojan war in common with Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight.
•Troilus, a Trojan prince, becomes the lover of Criseyde, a young widow
•Criseyde is handed over(consegnata) to the Greeks in exchange for a prisoner
•there she gives up hope of returning, and accepts the love of Diomede
•Troilus is driven to despair, and eventually killed in battle
•characters and their relationship are given a seriousness and depth not found in Boccaccio
•GC considers predestination and freedom of choice
Both Troilus and Criseyde are observed as victims of circumstances, at once humanly and divinely
contrived, and beyond their direct control. Chaucer drew on (ha attinto) on Boethius for his
consolatory explorations of the ideas of free will, predestination, mutability, and fortune throughout
Troilus and Criseide. Nevertheless, his principal source of inspiration was Boccaccio’s “Il
Filostrato”, which Chaucer translated into English.
unfinished Legend of Good Women
- in the Prologue the God of Love reproaches GC for doing injustice to women...
- by writing about Criseyde but not about faithful and virtuous women
- GC writes about Dido, Cleopatra, Lucretia, Philomela – all well known in the Middle Ages
- unfinished:
- in the Prologue the God of Love reproaches GC for doing injustice to women...
Chaucer's Retraction Here the maker of this book takes his leave. Now I pray to all who hear or read this little treatise, that if there is anything in it that they like, they thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds all wisdom and goodness. And if there is anything that displeases them, I pray also that they ascribe it to the fault of my ignorance and not to my will, which would readily have spoken better if I had the knowledge. For our book says, "All that is written is written for our doctrine," and that is my intention. Therefore I beseech you, for the mercy of God, that you pray for me that Christ have mercy on me and forgive my sins, especially my translations and compositions of worldly vanities, which I revoke in my retractions: such as the book of Troilus and Criseyde , and the book of The House of Fame , the book of The Legend of Good Women , The Book of the Duchess , the book of Saint Valentine's day of The Parliament of Fowls , The Canterbury Tales (those that tend toward sin), the book of the Lion, and many another book, if they were in my remembrance, and many a song and many a lecherous lay; that Christ for his great mercy forgive my sins. Chaucer's Retraction (cont.)
But for the translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and other books of saints' legends, homilies, moralities, and devotions, I thank our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed Mother, and all the saints of heaven, beseeching them that they from henceforth unto my life's end send me grace to lament my sins, and to meditate upon the salvation of my soul, and grant me the grace of true contrition, confession, and satisfaction for sins in this present life, through the benign grace of him who is king of kings and priest over all priests, who bought us with the precious blood of his heart; so that I may be one of those at the day of judgment that shall be saved. Qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivit et regnat Deus per omnia secula. Amen.
Here ends the book of The Canterbury Tales, compiled by Geoffrey Chaucer, on whose soul may Jesus Christ have mercy. Amen. One of the most important themes in GC’s works: - role of women in love, marriage and society - debate on the contradicting requirements of courtly love and Christian marriage - a knight was expected to serve his lady - ... but a wife had to be obedient to her husband - GC asserts love should be based on mutual respect and is possible only among equals - Troilus sees himself as Criseyde’s “knight” and “servant” in love despite his superior social rank - The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale deal with sovereignty in marriage - also in The Franklin’s Tale - harmony is restored through the generosity of both parties and mutual “releases” many of GC’s poems deal with nature and experience of love - loss of love in The Book of the Duchess: it is an allegorical lament probably written in 1369 in which the narrator encounters a desolate knight who is mourning the death of his wife. Theirs has been a marriage of minds, a courtly liaison and more than the amorous vassalage of him to her. The kinght’s courtship, happy marriage, and unhappy bereavement is prefaced by a retelling of Ovid’s story of the widowed Queen Alcyone, who, faithful to the memory of the dead King Ceyx, is granted a vision of him.
- potential for destruction and renewal in The Parliament of Fowls
- origin and psychological effects of love, plus loyalty expected in love and society in Troilus and Criseyde
CHAUCER (Sanders) The Canterbury Tales is an unfinished poem written written in Middle English in 1387–1400.
In The Canterbury Tales, the author delineates the question of degree determinating the human world and the social perceptions conditioned by rank,. The General Prologue sets out the circumstances which bring the pilgrims together at the Tabard Inn before they set off for Canterbury to pray at the tomb of the martyred St Thomas Becket. The Host of the Tabard Inn proposes that each of the pilgrims should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two on the return journey. Interspersed between the 24 tales are short dramatic scenes (called links) presenting lively exchanges, usually involving the host and one or more of the pilgrims. Chaucer did not complete the full plan for his book: the return journey from Canterbury is not included, and some of the pilgrims do not tell stories.
“General Prologue” describes pilgrims who gathered at the Tabard Inn in Southwark on their way to Canterbury
“In all literature there is nothing that touches or resembles the Prologue. It is the concise portrait of an entire nation, high and low, old and young, male and female, lay and clerical, learned and ignorant, rogue and righteous, land and sea, town and country, but without extremes” (Nevill 1977, 17).
The use of a pilgrimage as the framing device enabled Chaucer to bring together people from many walks of life. The multiplicity of social types, as well as the device of the storytelling contest itself, allowed presentation of a highly varied collection of literary genres: religious legend, courtly romance, fabliau, saint’s life, allegorical tale, beast fable, medieval Sermon , alchemical account, and, at times, mixtures of these genres. Pilgrims are presented according to their estate: the Knight is placed first, followed by his son Squire, and by his attendant Yeoman. The fastidious Prioress with an accompanying Nun, three other Priests,and subsequently the Monk and the Friar succeeded the Knight presentation. The third estate is represented by a greater variety of figures, rich, middling, and poor, beginning with a Merchant, a Oxford Clerk, a Sergeant of the Law and a Franklin. The Prologue moves downwards socially to the urban guildsmen (Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, and a Tapicer), to the skilled tradesmen (artigiani esperti) (cook, shipman, doctor of physic), and a well-off( benestante) widow with a trade of her own (commercio di sua iniziativa) (the Wife of Bath). In this last tale, Chaucer shows his opposition to to anti feminist stereotypes. The Wife of Bath opens her discourse with the word “experience” and from that experience of five husbands she builds up a case a spirited case against conventional anti-feminism. She states that God gave her her sexuality and consequently she has been determined to enjoy it, albeit within the bounds of marriage. The Wife of Bath achieves mastery in a bourgeois domestic comedy in which is stressed the dignity in women of the ancient and modern ruling classes. Chaucer relegates his Parson, his Ploughman, his Manciple, and his reprobates (the Reeve, the Miller, the Summoner, and the Pardoner) to the end of his troupe and include also himself at the end of the list. It is with this last group of reprobates that he seems to want to surprise his readers by contrasting paragons of virtues. If the Knight at the top of the social scale seemed “a worthy man”, loyal to his knightly vows and embodying the spirit of chivalry, respectively, at the end, the Parson stands for the true mission of the Church to the poor, and the ploughman for the blessedness of holy poverty. Chaucer describes the two as brothers seeing their fraternity in Christian closeness to God. Although the Knight professional career has been marked by a series of military disasters and that his tale can be read ironically, it would seem likely that the scheme of The Canterbury Tales serves to enhance his dignity rather than to undermine it. The first story-teller is the Knight who presents an abbreviated version of Boccaccio’s Teseida. He tells about the rivalry of two noble cousins for the love of a princess, a history complemented by accounts of supernatural intervention in human affairs. If the ploughman is not allowed a story, the Parson’s tale is a long prose treatise( trattato)on the seven deadly sins. Between these two tales, Chaucer arranges stories fitted to their tellers’ tastes and professions fitted into the overarching(globale) narrative containing prologues, interjections and
Chaucer
Corso: Letteratura Inglese 1 (500063)
Università: Università degli Studi di Pavia
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