G EOFFREY C HAUCER AND T HE C ANTERBURY T ALES Please get out your Buff Binder and turn to a clean page for notes.

E ARLY L IFE Born to a middle class family His father was a wine merchant who believed his child should have a formal education Odd jobs = page, courtier, diplomat, civil servant, scrap metal collector Travelled all over Europe

L ATER L IFE Fluent in English, Italian, Latin, and French Worked as a government official under three different kings = high social status Was captured as a POW during the Hundred Year’s War  King paid his ransom Died of unknown causes – murder suspected Chaucer was one of the first writers to be buried in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

W RITING S TYLES Often called the father of English poetry Most scholars still wrote in Latin Felt English lacked sophistication and had a limited vocabulary Only local stories and ballads written in English He wrote in the vernacular or language of the commoners  Now known as Middle English Allegory: A story win which the character, settings, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts. It has a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Popular in the Middle Ages. Satire: witty language used to convey insult Rhythmic pattern Lack of alliteration Best known for writing The Canterbury Tales, but also had several other works as well

Church: Pope

T HE C ANTERBURY T ALES Although the work was never completed, The Canterbury Tales is considered one of the greatest works in the English language The narrator meets 29 pilgrims at an inn and travels with them to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury. They decide to have a contest: whoever can tell the best tale wins a dinner at the inn when they get back, courtesy of the other travelers. o Canterbury Tales can be considered “estates satire” o Three “Estates” in European feudal society – Peasants work (agricultural labor) – Clergy pray – Nobles fight (and rule) Begun: 1386 Planned: 120 tales Completed: 22 and 2 fragments

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye (so priketh hem nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially from every shires ende Of engelond to caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

G ENERAL P ROLOGUE General Prologue sets up the Frame Tale (outside story with little stories told within the main tale) It is spring and 29 people decide to go to Canterbury Cathedral for healing. The host (Bailey) decides to set up a game where everyone tells two stories on the way there and two stories on the way back. The winner gets dinner in his inn. Everyone else is supposed to stay and eat/drink as well ($$). They draw straws to see who goes first but the Knight (conveniently) gets to go first.

C HARACTERS Narrator (“Chaucer”) Host Knight Squire Yeoman Prioress Second Nun Three Priests Monk Friar Merchant Clerk Man of Law Franklin Guildsmen Cook Shipman Physician Wife of Bath Parson Plowman Manciple Reeve Miller Summoner Pardoner

1.Wife of Bath (lines ) 2.Pardoner (lines ) 3.Knight (lines 44-80) 4.Miller (lines ) 5.Reeve (lines ) 6.Nun or Prioress (lines ) 7.Oxford Cleric (lines ) 8.Merchant (lines ) 9.Franklin (lines ) 10.Squire (lines ) 11.Yeoman (lines ) 12.Monk (lines ) 13.Friar (lines ) 14.Sergeant at Law or Lawyer (lines ) 15.Cook (lines ) and the Skipper (lines ) 16.Doctor (lines ) 17.Parson (lines ) 18.Summoner (lines ) Starts of page 144

With a partner: Read the section, Take notes (read between the lines), Illustrate your character, Include their character name (Knight, Wife of Bath, etc.), Label your drawing with examples from your notes/text, and Include quotes from the text.