无忧 PPT 整理发布 Part III Geoffrey Chaucer （ 1340 ？ ）杰弗里 · 乔叟 I. Chaucer’s Life II. Chaucer’s Literary Career III. The Canterbury Tales IV. Chaucer’s Contribution

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)

无忧 PPT 整理发布 The representative writer in the Medieval English literature Literary position: father of English poetry, founder of English literature

无忧 PPT 整理发布 The Canterbury Cathedral

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Geoffrey Chaucer Fourteenth-century English poet and public servant. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote verse renowned for its humor, understanding of human character, and innovations in poetic vocabulary and meter. His masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales ( ), tells the tale of English people on a pilgrimage to Saint Thomas à Becket’s shrine at Canterbury. The pilgrims emerge as complex characters through the stories they tell and through their interactions, which serve as transitions between the different tales. This excerpt from the Tales comes from “The General Prologue,” in which Chaucer introduces the characters and establishes the framework of the poem.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 I. Chaucer’s Life Chaucer’s active career as courtier( 侍臣 ), soldier, diplomat, and civil servant provided him not only with knowledge but also experiences which accounted for the wide range of his writings.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Chaucer’s life experience 1. He was born into a wine merchant family in London. 2. At 17, he became a page in a nobleman’s household. 3. At 19, he went to France with the English army and was imprisoned 4. He was married to a maid of honor to the queen at At 27 he entered the service of the king. 6. From he went to Italy on diplomatic missions. 7. In 1374, he was made controller of customs in London. 8. He was even made MP （ Member of Parliament 议员） for Kent in He died in He was buried in Westminster Abbey—the Poets’ Corner.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Chaucer’s life experience( ) 1)Born in 1343 in London 2)As a son of a wine merchant and deputy to the kings’ butler 3)Little known about his education, he could read French, Latin and Italian. 4)Was appointed to the household of the Countess of Ulster in 1357 and started his royal service since then.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 5) In , went to France with Edward III's army during the Hundred Years' War. 6) Got married in ) Went abroad several times for diplomatic and commercial missions. 8) especially in Italy, he met Boccaccio and Petrarch in , much influenced by the Italian humanists, such as Dante.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 9) Died in 1400 and buried in the poet’s corner of Westminster Abby 10) Chaucer’s monument was erected in 1555.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 II. Literary Career 1. The first or the French period ( ) 1) The Romaunt of the Rose 《玫瑰传奇》 a translation, popular in Middle ages 2) The Book of the Duchess 《悼公爵夫人》 the best work of the time 2. The second or the Italian period ( ) Troilus and Criseyde 《特罗伊洛斯和克瑞西德》 a poem of a love story

无忧 PPT 整理发布 3. The third or the English period, his best period ( ) The Canterbury Tales 《坎特伯雷故事集》 His masterpiece and a representative works of the Middle Ages.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 III. The Canterbury Tales 1. It has 24 stories. 2.It is the description of the pilgrims （ 朝圣者 ） who tell stories. 3. It is about the life of ordinary people. 4. It gives vivid characters, with humor and satire.

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无忧 PPT 整理发布 5.The Outline and the Prologue Tabard Inn( 泰巴客店 ) 29 (30) pilgrims, to Canterbury 24 stories written All major types of medieval literature Outline of the Story The Prologue ( 序诗 ) a framework for the tales vivid sketches of typical figures from all walks of life The Prologue supplies a miniature ( 小画像 ) of the English society of the time

无忧 PPT 整理发布 6.The Tales The famous ones are the story of : 1) the wife of Bath （巴斯夫人）, 2) the Knight （骑士）, 3) the Pardoner （卖赎罪卷者）, 4) the Nun’s Priest （尼姑的教士）, 5) the Prologue （序诗）.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Wife of Bath’s Tale The Wife of Bath is depicted as the new bourgeois wife asserting her independence.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 7.The Wife of Bath （巴斯城的妇女） The wife of Bath shows Chaucer’s keen observation and his unsurpassed ( 无比的 ) talent for characterization. She is the owner of a cloth factory, light- hearted, merry, somewhat vulgar ( 粗俗的 ), and exceedingly ( 非常 ) talkative. It is a vivid sketch ( 概述 ) of a woman of the middle class, and a colorful picture of the domestic life of that class in Chaucer’s day.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 The Prologue of the Wife of Bath’s Tale The wife of Bath speaking “Experience--and no matter what they say In books--is good enough authority For me to speak of trouble in marriage. For ever since I was twelve years of age, Thanks be to God, I’ve had no less than five Husbands at church door--if one may believe I could be wed so often legally!” (P.220)

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Theme Chaucer is influenced by the early Italian Renaissance, and he believes in man’s right to pursue earthly happiness. He is anxious to see man freed from superstitions and a blind belief in fate. He is always keen to praise man’s energy, adroitness, intellect, quick wit and love of life. He exposes and satirizes the social evils, esp. the religious abuses.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 The significance of The Canterbury Tales 1).It gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer’s time. The gentle class--- the burgher---- the professionals 2). The dramatic structure of the poem: the stories are well woven by “links”. 3). Chaucer’s humor----- characteristics feature of English literature ---- gentle satire and mild irony.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 IV. Chaucer’s Contribution 1. He introduced from Italy and France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (heroic couplet) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. 2. He was the first great poet who wrote in English language (Middle English), thus establishing English as the literary language. 3. He did much in making the London dialect the foundation for modern English language.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Heroic Couplet: the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. ( 英雄双韵体 ) Iambic Pentameter: is the most common English meter, in which each foot contains an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable. ( 五音步抑扬格 )

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Here is a passage from Alexander Pope: (“Of the Characters of Women”) See how the world its veterans rewards! A youth of frolics, an old age of cards; Fair to no purpose, artful to no end, Young without lovers, old without a friend.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 1. meter 格律 regularized rhythm, an arrangement of language in which the stressed syllables occur at apparently equal intervals in time. 2.foot 音步 basic metrical or rhythmical unit within a line of poety.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 3. four types of feet 1 ） iamb/iambic 抑扬格（的） eg to ˊ day 2 ） trochee/trochaic 扬抑格（的） eg mor ˊ ning 3 ） anapest/anapestic 抑抑杨格（的） eg on the ˊ top 4 ） dactyl/dactylic 扬抑抑格（的） eg ˊ evening

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Different numbers of feet in a line: 1.monometre 单音步 2.dimetre 双音步 3.trimeter 三音步 4.tetrameter 5.pentametre 6.hexametre 7.heptametre 8.octametre

无忧 PPT 整理发布 forms of English poetry 1)heroic couplet a pair of iambic pentameter line rhyming aa, bb, cc,… 2)sonnet: iambic pentameter rhyming abab cdcd efef gg 3)blank verse unrhymed iambic pentameter

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Homework 1. What’s Chaucer’s contribution to English literature? 2. Summarize and comment on The Canterbury Tales.

无忧 PPT 整理发布 Homework for this semester Classical Works: 1. Hamlet / King Lear William Shakespeare 2. Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift 3. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 4. A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens 5. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte 6. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte 7. Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 8. Mrs. Warren’s Profession George Bernard Shaw