1. MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CHAUCER’S THE CANTERBURY TALES

2. Middle English literature  he term Middle English literature refers to the literature written in the form of the English language known as Middle English,from the 12th century until the 1470s. During this time the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English became widespread and theprinting press regularized the language. Between the 1470s and the middle of the following century there was a transition toearly Modern English

3. French Influence on English Language and Literature  Heavy consonants of Anglo-Saxon was changed to softer French.  English begins to become standardized.  Lines of communication are opened throughout the country  Alliteration and Caesura are replaced with rhyme and meter, Iambic Pentameter, and Rhymed Couplet.

4. French Influence on English Language and Literature (cont.)  French culture influenced Anglo-Saxon “mindset”. (Arthurian Legend and Courtly Love).  Feudalism is introduced to England.  Strong influence of the church.

5. characteristics  the characteristics of the literary works written did not change radically until the effects of the Renaissance and Reformed Christianity became more apparent in the reign of King Henry VIII. There are three main categories of Middle English Literature: Religious, Courtly love, and Arthurian, though much of Geoffrey Chaucer's work stands outside these. Among the many religious works are those in the Katherine Group and the writings of Julian of Norwich and Richard Roll

6. characteristics  growing audience, a panorama of most diverse folk of many social classes (castle, barnyard, town); the appearance of class and an audience of women new type of secular entertainment: code continued but became chivalricagony of alienation, physical hardships the sovereign lady.

7. The Canterbury Tales  The Canterbury Tales tell the story of a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury who engage in a tale-telling contest to pass the time. Besides WATCHING the interactions between the characters, we get to read 24 of the tales the pilgrims tell.

8. The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer likely wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late 1380s and early 1390s, after his retirement from life as a civil servant. In this professional life, Chaucer was able to TRAVEL from his home in England to France and Italy. There, he not only had the chance to read Italian and French literature, but possibly, even to meet Boccaccio, whose Decameron – a collection of tales told by Italian nobility holed up in a country house to escape the plague ravaging their city – may have inspired the frame story of The Canterbury Tales.Decameron