1. Geoffrey Chaucer (1st hour), The Canterbury Tales; Popular Ballads

2. Part one Geoffrey Chaucer Ⅰ. Life 1.Geoffrey Chaucer, the founder of English poetry, was born, about 1340 in London. 2. he went to France at 19. 3. he married Philippa, a maid of honour to the queen and relative of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, who became his patron. 4. he was sent to the Continent on diplomatic missions, two of which took him to Italy.

3. Chaucer's political background can be seen from his relation with John of Gaunt, his patron. John of Gaunt was a friend of John Wycliffe (c. 1320- 84) the radical reformer who founded a sect of poor preachers called the "Lollards”. These Lollards preached a teaching against the Catholic Church, and thus helped in preparing the Rising of 1381. Under these influences, Chaucer adopted an attitude of opposition against Catholicism and attacked the corruption of the contemporary church government, in his poems:

4. Ⅱ. Chaucer's Literary Career his literary career can be divided into three periods corresponding with the stages of his life. 1. The first period consists of works translated from French, as "The Romaunt of the Rose”. 2. The second consists of works adapted from the Italian, as "Troilus and Criseyde". 3. The third includes " The Canterbury Tales", which is purely English.

5. Part two "The Canterbury Tales" (1387-1400) " The Canterbury Tales" is Chaucer's masterpiece and one of the monumental works in English literature. 1.Outline of the Story On a spring evening, the poet, moved by the passion for wandering drops himself at the Tabard Inn in Southwark at the south end of London Bridge. Here he meets nine and twenty other pilgrims ready for a journey of 60 miles on horseback to Canterbury. Chaucer joins this company. At the suggestion of the host of the inn, they agree to beguile the journey by story-telling. Each is to tell two stories going and two returning. The best story-teller shall be treated with a fine supper at the general expense at the end. The host is to be the judge of the contest. This is a good idea, and a gigantic plan, too. For it should be an immense work of 124 stories. Only 24 were written.

6. Strengths of Canterbury Tales these tales cover practically all the major types of medieval literature: courtly romance, folk tale, beast fable, story of travel and adventure, saint's life, allegorical tale, account, and others. ALL these tales but two are written in Verse.

7. Allegory 1.It is a fictional literary narrative or artistic expression that conveys a symbolic meaning parallel to but distinct from the literal meaning. 2. Allegory has also been defined as an extended metaphor. The symbolic meaning is usually expressed through personifications and other symbols. 3. Related forms are the fable and the parable, which are didactic, comparatively short and simple allegories. 4. The art of allegory reached its height during the Middle Ages, especially in the works of the Italian poet Dante and the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, and during the Renaissance. Two early examples of allegory are Le Roman de la Rose and Piers the Plowman.

8. the poet succeeded in linking the stories together through two ways. 1.The personality of the host affords a clear string of connection from the first to the last tale; he gives a unity to the whole work, inviting, criticizing, admiring, denouncing, but always keeping himself in evidence. 2. there is an intimate connection between the tales and the Prologue, both of which complement each other.

9. 2. The Prologue: The Prologue provides a framework for the tales. It contains a group of vivid sketches of typical medieval figures. They range from the knight and squire and prioress, through the landed proprietor and wealthy tradesman, to the drunken cook and humble plowman. There are also a doctor and a lawyer, monks of different orders and nuns and priests, and a summoner, a sailor, a miller, a carpenter, a yeoman, and an Oxford scholar. Finally, in the centre of the group is the Wife of Bath, the owner of a large cloth- factory. Every figure is drawn with the accuracy of a portrait. It is no exaggeration to say that the Prologue supplies a miniature of the English society of Chaucer's time. That is why Chaucer has been called "the founder of English realism.”

10. The Prologue

11. Chaucer's language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact. He is a master of word-pictures. His verse is among the smoothest in English. There are pages where, in spite of trifling differences in spelling and grammar, hardly a single Word will offer difficulties to a man of tolerable reading in modern English.

12. Chaucer is the first great poet who wrote in the English language. 1. His production of so much excellent poetry was an important factor in establishing English as the literary language of the country. 2.Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.

13. Popular Ballads The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad. A ballad, is a story told in song, usually in 4-1ine stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. When it was chanted by ballad-singers, the audience joined in a refrain which usually followed each stanza. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters of class struggle. Of paramount importance are the ballads of Robin Hood.

14. IIl. The Robin Hood Ballads Robin Hood, a legendary popular hero, is depicted in the ballads as a valiant outlaw, famous in archery, living under the greenwood tree with his merry men, taking from the rich and giving to the poor, waging war against bishops and archbishops, and constantly hunted by the sheriffs, whom he constantly outwits.

15. The character of Robin Hood is many-sided. Strong, brave and clever, he is at the same time tender-hearted and affectionate. He is a man with a twinkle in his eye, a man fond of a merry joke and a hearty laugh. But the dominant key in his character is his hatred for the cruel oppressors and his love for the poor and downtrodden. His particular enemies are the upper ranks of the nobility-earls, barons, archbishops, bishops and abbots. And the king's officials are the object of his most intense animosity, as typified in the ballads by the Sheriff of Nottingham, a man noted for rapacity and treachery, who meets his death at the hands of Robin Hood and his merry men of the greenwood.

16. Answer the following questions. 1. What is the influence of the Prologue of “the Canterbury Tales”? 2. What is Chaucer’s contribution to English language? 3. What is the social significance of “ the Canterbury Tales”? 4. What is a ballad? The characteristics?

17. Keys to the questions 1.There is an intimate connection between the tales and the Prologue, both complementing each other. The Prologue provides a framework for the tales in the Canterbury Tales. 2.Chaucer’s language is vivid and exact. His verse is smooth. His words are easy to understand. He introduced from the rhymed stanzas of various types, especially the rhymed couplet. He is the first important poet to write in the current English language, making the dialect of London the foundation of modern English.

18. 3.Chaucer gives us a true-to-life picture of the society of his time. He affirms man and opposes the dogma of asceticism preached by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, wit and love of life. His tales expose and satirize the evils of his time. 4.A ballad, is a story told in song, usually in 4-1ine stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters of class struggle.