1. Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer

2. Chaucer’s Life and Family
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Chaucer’s Life and Family
Born in 1343
Chaucer belonged to the upper middle class.
He had a wife and children.
He was well-travelled
Read English, Latin, Italian, and French
Well respected among peers and held in high esteem by king; received annual wine supplies, which later increased in size
Little is known of his life beyond official duties and achievements.
He died in 1400 (October 25?).

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Chaucer the man
Positions held:
Esquire of the royal court
Controller of customs for the
port of London
Soldier - Hundred Years’ War
Diplomat
Poet
Justice of the peace
Member of Parliament

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Celebrated Author
His work was popular, considered the father of English poetry & the greatest English poet
He was praised for making English suitable for poetry
Wrote in the vernacular
Introduced iambic pentameter
No one except Shakespeare has surpassed him
First writer buried in Westminster Abbey (famous cathedral in London, England)

5. The Writing of the Tales
Begun: This was a 13-year project:
 bulk written
 latest tales
Planned: 120 tales
Completed: 22 and 2 fragments
Remaining: 80 manuscripts
Pilgrimage as a framing device for tales
Conventional springtime opening

6. The Canterbury Tales Ranks as one of the world’s most famous works
Provides the best contemporary picture we have of 14th century England
Introduces 29 pilgrims traveling the roads to Canterbury Cathedral
Journey begins at Tabard Inn
Frame story (story within a story)
All 29 pilgrims are introduced in the Prologue

7. About The Canterbury Tales
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About The Canterbury Tales
The characters tell stories that reflect “everyman” in the universal pilgrimage of life.
The pilgrimage is a quest narrative that moves from images of spring and awakening to penance, death, and eternal life.
Told as a game to make the journey less tiresome and grueling, and to see who tells the best tale.
Brings together in this work the three classes of Medieval society: nobility, clergy, & commoners
Many different storytellers—some rough, vain, or materialistic; others wise, pious, or noble.
Therefore, many different tales...

8. Pilgrimage Very popular to go on pilgrimage
Pilgrims often went to Rome, Mecca, or Jerusalem
To seek out Arch Bishop Thomas Beckett of
Canterbury Cathedral
Reasons
Hope of heavenly reward
Penance
People went in groups for safety

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Structure and Themes
A prologue precedes each character’s tale
The prologue introduces the character personally
The tale reveals more through the character’s chosen subject and treatment of that subject
Major themes include morality and genuine vs. false pilgrimage

10. Structure and Themes
All of the tales are told in rhymed couplets or in stanzas of seven except The Tale of Melibeus and The Parson’s Tale
All tales are in iambic pentamenter (5 metrical feet in each line)

11. The Travelers to Canterbury

12. The Travelers to Canterbury

13. The Travelers to Canterbury

14. Chaucer’s Snapshot of the Middle Ages Population

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The Characters
Knight
Squire
Yeoman
Nun or Prioress
Second Nun
3 Priests
Monk
Friar
Merchant
Oxford Cleric
Sergeant at Law
Franklin

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More Characters
Haberdasher
Dyer
Carpenter
Weaver
Carpet Maker
Cook
Skipper
Doctor
Wife of Bath
Parson
Plowman

17. More Characters
Miller
Manciple
Reeve
Summoner
Pardoner

18. The Text in Verse: Prologue
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The Text in Verse: Prologue
“Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury.
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,. . .
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne. . . 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,…”         
Source:

19. The Knight
Was an honorable warrior who fought for Christianity against the heathens.
Appropriate that he is the first pilgrim to be introduced because he stands at the top of the social hierarchy, thus is the most socially prominent person on the journey.
Tells the first story; many offer him compliments.
All of the battles mentioned that he fought in were religious wars of some kind.

20. The Knight Prologue’s description: Worthy man Loved the following
Chivalry
Fidelity
Honor (good reputation)
Generosity
courtesy
Honored for his worthiness in war

21. The Knight Prologue’s description:
Fought in many battles/ had “been at many a noble expedition”
Alexandria
Prussia
Lithuania/Latvia
Russia
Grenada at siege of Algeciras to Belmarye (north Africa)
Morocco
The Mediterranean
Tiemcen
Turkey

22. The Knight Prologue’s description:
Even though he was brave, he was prudent
Deportment: “meek as a maid”
Never said any rude word in all his life to any person
Horses were good
Clothing/dress
Not gaudily dressed
Tunic of coarse cloth, stained with rust from his chain mail suit
Has just returned from an expedition

23. A Knight’s Tale Probably adapted from Boccaccio’s Teseide
Tale of ideal love and chivalry.
Would be a popular type of tale in Chaucer’s day.

24. A Knight’s Tale Premise:
Two Thebian knights, Palamon & Arcite, fall in love with the same woman, Emelye, whom they see only from their prison window in Athens.
Their life-long friendship is immediately disrupted by their rivalry for Emelye.
In time Arcite is released from prison on the condition that he never again set foot in Athens.
Palamon eventually escapes years later.

25. A Knight’s Tale
The men meet by chance in a grove hear Athens and are about to fight when Theseus and his company interrupt them.
After forgiving the knights for their past, Theseus schedules a tournament (50 weeks later) for the hand of Emelye.
Arcite wins the tournament, but scarcely has had time to claim his fair prize when the misaligned planet Saturn causes him to fall from his horse and die shortly afterward.

26. A Knight’s Tale
Palamon forgets his ill feelings toward Arcite and retires to Thebes, where he mourns his former friend.
Several years later, Theseus summons Palamon, who is still mourning and wearing black, and gives him Emelye in marriage.
Makes of two sorrows one “parfit joye, lastynge everemo.”

27. A Knight’s Tale Not much action in the romance.
Two knights are almost the same
Both
Make speeches declaring their love
Curse their destiny
Pray to their respective gods
Conflict that a story about medieval knights and their customs would be set in ancient Greece.