14 th century England. Chaucer: introduction

Middle England Values  Gentilesse/Gentil: Refinement and courtesy resulting from good breeding A function of social class to a certain extent gentil is related to the modern term gentleman  Trouthe/Trewe: 1. fidelity, loyalty; 2. pledge, promise cf. modern English, to "pledge one's troth," meaning to agree to marry It is more than simply the idea of truthfulness or trueness to one's word.  Courtly love and knightly behavior

Courtly Love (wrap up)  Modeled on the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord  Idealized sort of relationship (could not exist within the context of "real life" medieval marriages)  The audience for romance was perfectly aware that these romances were fictions  Capellanus's "Art of Courtly Love“: a satire mocking the conventions of courtly love

Stages in Literary Development  Translated incompletely the Roman de la Rose and Wrote some short poems before 1360  The Book of the Duchess is a dream vision and an elegy at once.  Translated the Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius, which influenced him profoundly  The House of Fame: first typically Chaucerian work  After 1370 the Italian influence on Chaucer’s work became major in his poetry: The Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Criseyde.

Chaucer ( ): Social background  Born in a well-to-do bourgeois family in London,  Commoners who were advancing in wealth and social prestige  Excluded from the aristocracy by birth, and from the country gentry by their city occupations  They were somewhere in between: the beginning of the English middle class.

Chaucer: Career Path  Teenage: a page in the household of Prince Lionel (son of King Edward III)  His 1 st great patron was John of Gaunt (5th son of the king): the most powerful nobleman in England.  Received offices, grants of money, and other privileges for his services from successive kings, Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV.  Sent on diplomatic missions to Flanders, France and Italy  Became a public man but of modest importance

Formal and informal education  His development: summed up as comprised in three stages, French, Italian and English.  Embedded the first translation of a Petrarch sonnet into English.  Other models were Boccaccio and Dante. The influence was not directly exercised through Italy, but via the French.  His latest stories have no direct originals and in their humour and freedom anticipate the typically English temper.

The Middle Ages – Norman Invasion  1066 – Duke William of Normandy  One-day long battle  Defeated and killed King Harold of England  William felt entitled to the English throne (Edward, previous king, left no heirs)  Combined Norman emphasis on law and order with Anglo Saxon democracy and culture

Feudalism  Caste system (social class)  Military system  Property system  System of social behavior  Top of the Ladder: William the Conqueror Barons, vassals, lower vassals, landless knights, serfs

City Classes  Eventually many people left the country and moved to the cities  City classes not defined by the feudal system Upper, middle, lower Middle class = merchant class who could afford what they wanted

Crusades & Hundred Years’ War  Crusades: Series of religious wars to spread Christianity throughout Europe Struggle against Muslims Ultimately a failure Europe benefited from contact with higher civilization of Middle East  Hundred Years’ War Battles between England and France Lasted over 100 years ( ) Feud stemming from Norman Invasion Militarily unsuccessful for Britain; did increase sense of nationalism

The Black Death: historical consequences  People died without last rites and without having a chance to confess their sins.  There were not enough workers left to work the land  It has been estimated that 40% of England's priests died in the epidemic.  The Church authority was questioned  The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was one result of the social tension caused by the adjustments needed after the epidemic.

Black Death  Highly contagious plague  Spread through cities from fleas of infested rats  Killed 1/3 of people in England  Gave more power to people in lower classes Caused labor shortage Lower class workers willing to work could negotiate wages and working conditions

The Canterbury Tales: Background  One of the landmarks of English literature.  Had a continuous history of publication.  Chaucer did not complete the entire Canterbury Tales as designed.  Tales structured so that each pilgrim would tell four tales (only completed twenty-four tales).  Dramatic illusion of the tellers within a framework of tales: double fiction  Include romantic adventures, fabliaux, hagiographies, bestiaries, religious allegories, a sermon

Martyrdom of Sir Thomas a Becket  Thomas was a Norman who had great power in England as well as Catholic church (prime minister and Archbishop)  Sided with the Pope rather than the King  King Henry II (half joking) said he wanted Thomas put to death  Henry’s knights killed Thomas in the cathedral at Canterbury

Martyrdom of Sir Thomas a Becket  Saint Thomas the Martyr Made a saint and martyred by a cult following who opposed the king  People made pilgrimages to Canterbury to honor Saint Thomas’s memory  The Canterbury Tales are a fictional collection of stories from a group of people making this pilgrimage to Canterbury

Glossary 1: Fabliau Short, humorous and typically bawdy poem. Abounded as elements of poetry in France of the 12th and 13th centuries. Appeared in English some 100 years later. Deals for the most part with domestic comedy full of sexual innuendo of the merchant and middle classes. Some of the motifs are from oriental sources. Involve a lovers' triangle, trickery designed to gain favours from a desired woman most likely married or otherwise unavailable (too young etc.). Trickery designed to delude an ageing or otherwise undesirable husband to clear the way for a lover.

Glossary 2: Hagiography  The study of saints.  Refers literally to writings on the subject of holy persons: biographies of ecclesiastical and secular leaders.  Focus on the lives of men and women canonized by the Christian Church  Other religions such as Buddhism and Islam create and maintain hagiographical texts concerning saints and other individuals believed to be imbued with the sacred.  The related term hagiology refers to the study of saints collectively, without focusing on the life of an individual saint.  The term "hagiography" has also come to be used as a pejorative reference to the works of contemporary biographers and historians whom critics perceive to be uncritical and even "reverential" in their writing.

Glossary 3: Bestiary  A compendium of beasts  Made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks.  The natural history and illustration of each beast were usually accompanied by a moral lesson.  This reflected the belief that the world itself was literally the Word of God, and that every living thing had its own special meaning (the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus).  Also a reference to the symbolic language of animals in Western Christian art and literature.  Particularly popular in England and France around the 12th century and were mainly compilations of earlier texts.

Next Time Assignment  The General Prologue What was the purpose of a medieval pilgrimage? Who is the "holy blisful martyr" ? Why is he of interest to the pilgrims? How many pilgrims are there? How is this helpful to Chaucer in his ambition to show his art as a poet? Which pilgrims represent new classes? Which figures are painted in a positive or in a negative light? What seems to be Chaucer's attitude toward the Church? What is the role of Chaucer the pilgrim within this group?