1. Medieval Time Period, Satire and Canterbury Tales
Take Notes!

2. Feudal System: Three Estates aka Social Classes
The "First Estate" was the Church
(clergy = those who prayed).
The "Second Estate" was the Nobility/Aristocrats
Those who fought = knights
Those with money/land.
It was common for aristocrats to enter the Church and thus shift from the second to the first estate.
The "Third Estate" was the Peasantry
Everyone else, at least under feudalism:
those who produced the food which supported those who prayed and those who fought (the members of the First and Second Estates).
*Note that these "estates" are defined primarily by what one does (as well as by the social class one is born into).

3. Women’s Estates Women were classified differently.
Like men, medieval women were born into the second or third estate, and might eventually become members of the first (by entering the Church, willingly or not).
Women were also categorized according to three “feminine estates”:
virgin, wife and widow
It is interesting that a woman's estate was determined not by her profession, but by her sexual activity:
she is defined in relationship to the men with whom she sleeps, used to sleep, or never has slept.

4. Middle Class
The rigid division of society into the three traditional "estates" begins to break down in the later Middle Ages.
By the late fourteenth century, we see the rise of a mercantile class aka middle class
mercantile = merchants in the cities (ex. an urban middle-class), as well as a new subdivision of the clergy:
intellectuals trained in literature and writing, but who were not destined to a professional career within the Church.

5. Humors
In medicine, there were believed to be four humors that made up the human body.
If a person were to have a certain personality trait, it meant that one of their humors were overabundant in their body.

6. Blood
Spring
Air
A person was fiery, passionate and/or liked to have fun.

7. Phlegm
winter
water
A person was calm, dull and/or sluggish.

8. Yellow Bile summer fire
A person had a temper and was full of anger and resentment.

9. Black bile
fall
earth
A person was melancholy, depressed and/or sad.

10. Some Cures Bloodletting by use of leaches
- evacuates harmful humors from the veins
Purgation - also removes harmful humors
Black hellebore and Borage (plants) - a favored purgative for melancholy,
Rhubarb (plant) - favored for anger/temper
Heating - to counteract the coldness of melancholy
Moisture - to counteract the dryness of melancholy
Diet - warm and moist foods are recommended (lettuce, watercress),
Rest - idleness and sleep warm and moisten the body
Peace of mind - mental perturbation breeds ill humors
Music and Drama (go to a play) - counteracts a heaviness of spirit.

11. Satire
A satire is a form of humor where the writer or speaker tries to make the reader or listener have a negative opinion about someone, by laughing at them, making them seem ridiculous or foolish etc.
If someone is being satirical, their aim is not just to amuse, but to affect the person that they dislike; to hurt them, ruin them, etc.

12. Satire in Canterbury Tales
In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is highly conscious of the social divisions known as the "Estates."
While the genre of the Canterbury Tales as a whole is a "frame narrative," the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales is an example of "Estates Satire,"
a genre which satirizes the abuses that occur within the three traditional Estates (in particular, the Clergy).

13. The Canterbury Tales: Prologue PB pg 96
The characters described by Chaucer in the General Prologue have gathered at the Inn in Southwark prior to departing on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
When are they going (time of year)?
Why are they going on the pilgrimage?