1. Life and Literature of The Middle Ages
Sully-sur-Loire, a medieval castle visited by (among others) Joan of Arc, Louis XIV
Giotto “Madonna and child”
Notre-Dame church in France

2. Later referred to as the Middle Ages
478-mid 1400s – Dark Ages
Later referred to as the Middle Ages
Chaucer wrote during the transition to the Renaissance
Ancient “Classical” Period
Middle Ages
Renaissance

3. Middle Ages: General Timeline
C.E.
Crusades
1347 Bubonic Plague
1066 C.E.
Norman invasion of Britain
450 C.E.
Anglo-Saxons invade England
1455 C.E.
Printing Press
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Sir Gawain & Green Knight
306 C.E.
Constantine comes to power in Eastern Roman Empire; beginning of Byzantine Empire
476 C.E.
Fall of Rome
Beowulf
Composed
sometime
between
850 C.E.
900 C.E.
1386 C.E.
Chaucer begins writing Canterbury Tales
1453
Fall of Byzantine Empire with invasion of Ottoman Turks

4. The Church
Christianity became the universal faith of almost all of the people of Europe.
The Church was often the only way to get an education.
Poor were given opportunity
Religious workers are called clergy.
Pope ruled the Christian Church.
Bishops, priests, nuns, and monks.
By the later Middle Ages, the gods of the Romans, Greeks, and Celts had long since been forgotten, and Christianity became the universal faith of almost all of the people of Europe. People did not think of Europe as a distinct place until the Middle Ages had passed. Instead they spoke of “Christendom,” or the community of Christians. Christianity was the most important influence of the Middle Ages.
Religious life attracted many people during the Middle Ages. The Church was often the only way to get an education. It also allowed poor people to escape a dreary life and possibly rise to power. Religious workers are called clergy. In the Middle Ages, the Pope ruled the Christian Church. Other clergy included bishops, priests, nuns, and monks.
Monks were men who lived in monasteries, or small communities of religious workers. Monks devoted their lives to prayer, and their behavior influenced the entire church. Monasteries produced many well-educated men prepared to serve as administrators for uneducated kings and lords. Monks were responsible for keeping the Greek and Latin “classical” cultures alive. Monks copied books by hand in an era before the printing press. Though few in number, monks played a significant role in the Middle Ages.

5. The Church
Monks: men who lived in monasteries, or small communities of religious workers.
devoted their lives to prayer
Monasteries acted like universities
Responsible for keeping the Greek and Latin “classical” cultures alive.
Monks copied books by hand in an era before the printing press.
Though few in number, monks played a significant role in the Middle Ages.

6. The Canterbury Tales
Englishman Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400.
The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle English.

7. Ellesmere Manuscript

8. Canterbury Tales A rich, tapestry of medieval social life
all classes:
from nobles to workers
from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves.
When The Canterbury Tales were written:
Christianity was the dominant social force throughout western Europe
1388: Wycliffe, an English Reformer, released a version of the Bible translated into English
Began changing views of the church and how it should run

9. The Canterbury Tales
Chaucer began work on The Canterbury Tales about 1387
30 Pilgrims
4 tales each (2 on the way, 2 on the way back)
Only 24 tales were finished
Chaucer's Tales gained mass popularity in the early fifteenth century.
This facsimile is the first reproduction ever made of this manuscript, considered a prime authority for the text of The Canterbury Tales.
He began work on The Canterbury Tales about 1387, and intended for each of his thirty pilgrims to tell four tales, two while traveling to Canterbury and two while traveling from Canterbury. However, only twenty-three pilgrims received a story before Chaucer's death in 1400.
Chaucer's Tales quickly spread throughout England in the early fifteenth century. Scholars feel The Canterbury Tales reached their instant and continued success because of their accurate and oftentimes vivid portrayal of human nature.
. . . it has been said of The Canterbury Tales that all of humanity moves through its pages. The stories are full of an inimitable humor, at once friendly and shrewd. The points are often made casually, often with bludgeon strokes, but they are always human and illuminating.
This facsimile is the first reproduction ever made of this manuscript, considered a prime authority for the text of The Canterbury Tales. Many scholars rank this work with the manuscripts of John Milton as the most historically significant surviving manuscripts in the English language.
“ all of humanity moves through its pages.”
Presents humor, at once friendly and satirical.

10. The Pilgrimage The story revolves around a journey, or
pilgrimage, to Canterbury to pay homage
(expression of high regard) to
Saint Thomas à Becket.
St Thomas Becket, St Thomas of Canterbury (c – December 29, 1170) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to He is venerated as a saint and Martyr.
He engaged in a conflict with King Henry II over the
rights and privileges of the Church and was assassinated
by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral.

11. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Pilgrimage as a Structural Device
How does one give structure to a poem in which 30 characters from different ranks of society, some within the church and some without, tell stories to one another?
Reason for the stories is to pass the time
The framing device of the pilgrimage also adds a sense of realism to the tales

12. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
The distinction between Chaucer the poet and Geoffrey the Pilgrim
Geoffrey the Pilgrim often seems to be naïve
Chaucer the man and poet was not naive

13. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue
Imagery and Themes of the First 18 Lines
The GP begins with references to beginnings
Many images of rebirth and renewal
April itself is often presented as a time of rebirth
Spring is the perfect time to start a pilgrimage

14. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue
Lines 19 to 34
Note change in tone and in imagery
Shift from the "High Style" in the opening stanza to a more relaxed, conversational tone in the second
This is the more familiar tone of the tales--the characters seem to come to life
Introduction of Geoffrey as a friendly, gregarious man

15. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue
Lines 35 to 42
Shift to the description of the different pilgrim
Chaucer’s innovative approach to description
Social hierarchy = important idea in the Middle Ages
The Great Chain of Being* (hierarchy)
Three general social classes of the Middle Ages portrayed in The Canterbury Tales: nobility/aristocracy, clergy, peasantry
Three idealized characters: the knight, the parson, and the plowman

16. Chain of Being* God Angelic Bodies
Humans (Kings and royals first – almost seen as a separate category)
Animals (Noble beasts)
Plants (Vegetation)
Minerals (Diamonds being “Primate” or best)
This is the order of creation, the hierarchy – when people don’t act according to their rank, there is chaos, disorder, and imbalance.

17. Chain of Being and Chaucer*
His characters do not act accordingly
Negatively effects them
Negatively effects society
We (humans) are fallen and out of order, but we should not make it worse with poor behavior.

18. Canterbury Tales Page 94
1    Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote       When April with its sweet-smelling showers
2   The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,        Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour       And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;    By the power of which the flower is created;
  Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth   When the West Wind also with its sweet breath,
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth   In every holt and heath, has breathed life into
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne       The tender crops, and the young sun
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,      Has run its half course in Aries,
And smale foweles maken melodye,       And small fowls make melody,
10     That slepen al the nyght with open ye          Those that sleep all the night with open eyes 11     (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),           (So Nature incites them in their hearts), 12   Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,            Then folk long to go on pilgrimages, 13 And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,           And professional pilgrims (long) to seek foreign shores, 14    To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; To (go to) distant shrines, known in various lands; 15  And specially from every shires ende      And specially from every shire's end 16   Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,        Of England to Canterbury they travel, 17  The hooly blisful martir for to seke,         To seek the holy blessed martyr, 18   That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.                Who helped them when they were sick.