1. The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer

2. 2 The Miller’s Tale Prologue to the Miller’s Story – Understandable? What is a Miller? What is the name of the Miller? -Robin Why do the others not want the Miller to tell his tale? -1.he is a ( stout and gracious )churl and drunk.2.Besides, the host already ask the Monk, who come from a higher rank to tell a story. Is this a prose or a poem? -a poem

3. History Late Medieval Society consisting of nobility, church and commoners (workers) -upper class 1% and lower class 99%(social division) Mainly French speaking society in England but changing for use of Middle English(Chaucer the first to use English in Lit.) Criticism of divided and corrupt church Tradition of telling tales from pilgrimages Based on famous Italian writers, e.g. Dante, Petrarch & Boccaccio

4. Author Geoffrey Chaucer – the Father of English Literature in a period dominated by French Born into growing and rich MIDDLE CLASS Active in civil service & customs for nobility Famous as Scientist & Author during his life Spoke fluent FRENCH, Latin, ENGLISH & Italian and was in Spain, France and Italy on diplomatic missions for the King of England

5. Style & Themes Highly critical of English Society and Church Collection of stories representing many ranks Part of a tradition of reading Poems Aloud Mix of Linguistic styles & Rhetoric popular Themes of the Second Flooding & The Misdirected Kiss as Criticism of Society Conflict between Classe--miller and monk & Relativism of Ideas about Medieval Society

6. 6/28/2016 Theme for Miller's Tale religion --religious commentary that may relate to corruption in the Catholic Church in 14th century Europe, and/or the dangers posed by lay heretics. On divination and misuse of Holy Scripture-- Young scholar misuse his cleverness to sleep with his landlord's wife. Hypocrisy of the clergymen--corrupted clergymen -- wear fine ornaments, similar to a prince; sexual, or attempted sexual relationships, among clergymen. Many clergymen broke their vows of chastity, taking lovers, and even raising illegitimate children

7. Images of the Miller’s Tale

8. More Information Harvard database on Chaucer - http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer / http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer / Wikipedia Page for the Canterbury Tales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury _Tales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury _Tales The Norton Anthology of English Literature (8 th ed. Part 1)

9. Discussion Questions Is Chaucer’s Middle English understandable? Why do you think the Miller tells his story after the Knight instead of the Monk? --??? What kind of people are criticised in the Miller’s Tale? --the clergyman, the young scholar Which person do you think tells the next Tale?-the Reeve's Tale What do you think of the Tale? Funny? Interesting? Strange? Something else? -funny and interesting--landlord, clergy are fooled

10. Reading material Next time: Thomas More – Utopia – Part 1 and 2