The Canterbury Tales

By Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Called “The Father of English Poetry”• Most famous for the Canterbury Tales

Chaucer’s Time

• Born in 1342 in London• 13th century had been a prosperous time for

Europe• 14th century saw agricultural decline, the Black

Death (Bubonic Plague), increased wars and political turmoil, collapsing religious and state institutions, and an estimated loss of 50% of the European population.

Chaucer’s Early Life

• As a young teenager, became a page in the home of an important family

• Met many powerful people and received a rigorous education

• Met John of Gaunt, his future patron and protector

Military Experience

• At 17, enlisted in the army and went to France to fight in the Hundred Years’ War between France and England

• Captured as a POW• His friends persuaded the King of England,

Edward III to help pay for Chaucer’s ransom• Became a Valet to the King of England and

moved in wealthy circles

Early Poetry

• Began to write poetry on his return from France

• Translated famous French poems for English-speaking audiences

• Married Philippa de Roet, but did not write any poems to her

Italy

• Promoted to Foreign Relations officer, traveled frequently to Italy

• The Italian literary Renaissance was just beginning

• Influenced by Dante’s and Boccaccio’s beautiful poetry and story-telling

Beginning of the Tales

• Edward III died and Richard II became King

• Richard disliked Chaucer and relieved him of his job until John of Gaunt arranged for him to be reinstated

• During the three-year interim, Chaucer had time to write more poetry than ever, and began the Canterbury Tales

Death

• Died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey

• A tomb was later built over his burial site, and so began the “Poets’ Corner” in Westminster Abbey where many great English writers are now buried

Chaucer’s Works

• We do not know exactly when Chaucer wrote most of his poems

• Many of his poems have been lost, according to a list made by Chaucer himself

• Most famous are the romance Troilus and Criseyde and the Canterbury Tales

• Main subjects of poetry were romance and religion

Chaucer’s Style

• In Chaucer’s day, all literature was written in poetry, or rhymed verse

• Prose had not yet become popular• So Chaucer wrote poetry, but is unique for his

ability to make it sound like realistic speech• Wrote about serious subjects with humor and irony• Offended many with his realistic, flawed characters• Most importantly, he wrote in English• Not French or Latin, the languages of educated

persons at the time

Some history behind the Tales

• Chaucer writes about a group of people called Pilgrims

• A Pilgrim is a traveler, often for religious reasons on a long journey

• Pilgrims in the Middle Ages went on journeys to religious sites associated with Saints and miracles to offer prayers and/or thanks

• Still a popular spiritual activity in many world religions today

Canterbury

• The pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales are on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral

• Thomas à Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in 1170 after arguing with the King over the rights of the Church

• Shortly after canonized as a Saint• High-profile English saint, so his

Cathedral attracted many pilgrims

The Canterbury Tales

• In the Canterbury Tales, 23 people on a Pilgrimage to Canterbury meet while staying at an Inn for the night

• The Innkeeper offers to travel with them, and decides that they will each tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back

• The pilgrims will then decide which story is best, and that person will get a free meal at the Inn

What Really Happened

• Not including an Introduction and Conclusion, that’s almost 100 tales that Chaucer had to write.

• He did not complete these in his lifetime

• He wrote a Prologue introducing all of the characters, and around 20 tales

The Characters• The Tales have many different narrators, but are all

united by the central theme of the Pilgrimage to Canterbury

• The narrators are rich and poor, old and young, male and female, educated and uneducated, clerical and lay, high and low, town and country, good and bad

• But there are no extreme characters – they are all individual, realistic, normal people with their own quirks, habits, faults, and stories

• This was a new kind of writing that many were not used to, but which quickly became popular

The Tales

• Chaucer read and traveled widely, and remembered what he learned

• The tales his pilgrims tell come from all over Europe and from Asia

• But he also invented some of the tales from his personal experiences with a wide array of people

• As was popular in stories at the time, most of the tales end with a moral or a piece of wisdom from which the characters learn

The Book• Canterbury Tales “published” as an

Illuminated Manuscript• Before the Printing Press, so books

were hand-copied by monks and nuns

• Decorated with beautiful illustrations

• Books very very expensive, so only very rich could afford them

• Canterbury Tales would have been read aloud at public gatherings for mass entertainment

Reception

• Chaucer was one of the first authors to write in English• Some looked down on the Canterbury Tales, but many

people loved being able to read them in their native language

• Helped make English a legitimate language for literature, law, and politics

• Chaucer was also one of the first authors to put his name on his work and acknowledge that it was his intellectual property – our modern idea of “authorship”

Middle English

• Chaucer wrote in English – but can you understand him?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE0MtENfOMU

• We will be reading a Modern English translation!

• Why does it sound so different?