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2. The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's masterpiece and it is for it that Chaucer's name is best remembered. The Canterbury Tales opens with a general prologue, which is considered the best part of the whole work. In the prologue, the readers are told that on a spring evening, the poet drops in the Tabard Inn, where he meets 29 other pilgrims all ready for a journey of 60 miles to Canterbury . Because of the long and tedious journey, the host of the Inn suggests that they should colour the journey by telling stories.
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3. The Canterbury Tales
Tabard Inn
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4. The Canterbury Tales
from the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (c. 1390) by Geoffrey Chaucer
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5. The Canterbury Tales
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6. The Canterbury Tales
He proposes that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two others on the way back. The inn-keeper is going to be their judge. And the best story-teller should be treated with a fine meal at the cost of all the rest. The pilgrims are 30 in all including the poet. Therefore according to the plan, there should have been 120 stories altogether. But only 24 tales were written due to the author's death in 1400.
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7. The Canterbury Tales
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8. The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer's time. Especially the Prologue, it is a splendid masterpiece of realistic portrayal.
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9. The Canterbury Tales
It supplies an artistic corridor of people from all walks of life in the medieval England . All kinds of people except the highest (the King and the top nobility) and the lowest (the very poor labouring people) are represented by these thirty pilgrims.
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10. The Canterbury Tales
The gentle class is represented by the knight, the squire, the monk, the prioress, the Oxford scholar and the Franklin; the burgher class is represented by the wealthy tradesman, the haberdasher, the carpenter, the landed proprietor, the weaver, the tapestry-maker,
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11. The Canterbury Tales
The Squire
The Monk
The knight
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12. The Canterbury Tales
the prioress
the Franklin
the carpenter
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13. The Canterbury Tales
and the Wife of Bath; and the professionals are represented by the lawyer and the physician. Besides being the typical representative of her or his own class, each character has her or his own individual qualities.
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14. The Canterbury Tales
For these true-to-life pictures, Chaucer is generally regarded as the forerunner of English realism.
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15. The Canterbury Tales
In such realistic description of medieval life, Chaucer reveals his ideas of huanismm. Free of the medieval prejudices, Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales, highly praises man's energy, quick wit and love of life. And especially through the stories of the Wife of Bath, Chaucer affirms men and women's right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes the dogma of asceticism preached by the church. Therefore, Chaucer is fairly crowned as a forerunner of
humanism.
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16. The Canterbury Tales
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17. Geoffrey Chaucer
Though made up by seemingly unconnected tales, the whole poem is not in loose structure. Instead, all the tales are closely knitted together. Chaucer may have borrowed the idea of a collection of stories from Boccaccio's Decameron, but he did better than Boccaccio.
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18. Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer keeps the whole poem alive by interspersing the tales themselves with the talk, the quarrels, the opinions of the pilgrims, and especially the judgement of the inn-keeper, who gives the whole work unity by inviting, criticizing, admiring and denouncing.
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19. Geoffrey Chaucer
One thing concerning Chaucer's class attitude is worth mentioning. From the poet's life experience we see that Chaucer in his life mainly mingled with the people at court. Therefore, although having great sympathy with the lower classes, as is shown in his attitude towards the plowman and the poor parson, Chaucer couldn't offend the upper classes and his criticism to the upper classes in the poem was only carried out by gentle satire and mild irony.
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20. Geoffrey Chaucer
In the poem, and especially in the Prologue, Chaucer mainly used the heroic couplet to replace the traditional Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. The heroic couplet (a pair of rhyming iambic pentameter lines) is one of the poetic forms that Chaucer adopts from French poetry.
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21. Geoffrey Chaucer Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse
Written in heroic couplets
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23. Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer's greatness in English literature can also be viewed through the language used in The Canterbury Tales. Ever since the Norman Conquest, French and Latin were the language used by the upper classes. Though taught French at school, Chaucer chose to use the London dialect of his day in his masterpiece. In doing so, Chaucer did much in making the London dialect the standard for the Modern English speech.
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24. The Canterbury Tales
When the sweet showers of April have pierced1 The drought of March, and pierced it to the root, And every vein2 is bathed in that moisture Whose quickening force will engender3 the flower;
Notes:
1. pierced: penetrated 2. vein: rib of leaf 3. engender: spring up
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25. The Canterbury Tales
Notes:
And when the west wind too with its sweet breath Has given life in every wood and field To tender shoots, and when the stripling sun4 Has run his half-course in Aries, the Ram5,
4. the stripling sun: the young sun. The sun is young because it has recently entered upon the annual course through the signs of the Zodiac. 5. Aries, the Ram: the first sign of the Zodiac, in Chaucer's time it was supposed to govern from 12 March to 11 April.
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26. The Canterbury Tales
And when small birds are making melodies, That sleep all the night long with open eyes, (Nature so prompts6 them, and encourages);
Then people long to go on pilgrimages, And palmers7 to take ship for foreign shores, And distant shrines,8 famous in different lands;
Notes:
6. prompts: stimulates 7. palmers: pilgrims to foreign countries 8. shrines: places
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27. The Canterbury Tales
And most especially, from all the shires Of England, to Canterbury9 they come, The holy blessed martyr10 there to seek,
Who gave his help to them when they were sick.
Notes:
9. Canterbury: a town southeast of London, on the road to Dover, in the county of Kent 10. The holy blessed martyr: St. Thomas a Becket murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170
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28. The Canterbury Tales Notes:
It happened at this season, that one day In Southwark11 at the Tabard12 where I stayed Ready to set out on my pilgrimage To Canterbury, and pay devout homage, There came at nightfall to the hostelry13
Notes:
11. Southwark: a suburb of London, in the county of Surrey 12. Tabard: an inn at Southwark 13. hostelry: an inn, a lodging house
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29. The Canterbury Tales
Some nine-and-twenty in a company, Folk of all kinds, met in accidental Companionship, for they were pilgrims all; It was to Canterbury that they rode. The bedrooms and the stables were good-sized, The comforts offered us were of the best.
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30. The Canterbury Tales
And by the time the sun had gone to rest I'd talked with everyone, and soon became One of their company, and promised them To rise at dawn next day to take the road For the journey I am telling you about.
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But, before I go further with this tale, And while I can, it seems reasonable That I should let you have a full description Of each of them, their sort and condition14, At any rate as they appeared to me; Tell who they were, their status and profession, What they looked like, what kind of clothes they dressed in; And with a knight, then, I shall first begin.
Notes:
14. sort and condition: social position, rank
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32. The Canterbury Tales
There was a knight, a reputable man, Who from the moment15 that he first began Campaigning,16 had cherished the profession Of arms17; he also prized18 trustworthiness, Liberality19, fame, and courteousness.
Notes:
15. from the moment: at the earliest moment 16. Campaigning: riding abroad, taking adventures 17. arms: wars 18. prized: followed, sought for 19. liberality: generosity
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33. The Canterbury Tales
In the king's service he'd fought valiantly20, And travelled far; no man as far as he In Christian and in heathen lands21 as well, And ever honoured for his ability.
Notes:
20. valiantly: bravely 21. heathen lands: non-Christian countries
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34. The Canterbury Tales
He was at Alexandria when it fell22, Often he took the highest place at table Over the other foreign knights in Prussia23; He'd raided24 in Lithuania25 and Russia, No Christian of his rank fought there more often.
Notes:
22. He was at Alexandria when it fell: It describes the exploits supposed to have been undertaken by the knight when he joined the crusaders in their military expeditions to recover the holy land, Jerusalem, from the Moslems. Alexandria, a seaport in Egypt, was taken and immediately abandoned in 1365.
23. Often he took the highest place at table / Over the other foreign knights in Prussia: At feasts, he took the seat of honour among all the knights of different nations raided: fought Lithuania: 立陶宛
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Notes:
Also he'd been in Granada26, at the siege Of Algeciras27; forayed28 in Benmarin29;
26. Granada: a town in southern Spain 27. Algeciras: a town in southern Spain, which was besieged and taken from the Moorish King of Granada by the crusaders in forayed: attacked suddenly 29. Benmarin: a Moorish kingdom in the northern Africa
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36. The Canterbury Tales
At Ayas and Adalia30 he had been When they were taken; and with the great hosts31 Freebooting32 on the Mediterranean coasts; Fought fifteen mortal combats; thrice as champion In tournaments, he at Tramassene33 Fought for our faith, and each time killed his man.
Notes:
30. Ayas and Adalia: Adalia was a town on the southern coast of Asia Minor, taken from the Turks in 1361, and Ayas, a town in Armenia taken in hosts: (archaic;) army 32. Freebooting: embarking 33. Tramassene: now called Tremcen or Tremessen, in the western Algeria.
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37. The Canterbury Tales
This worthy knight had also, for a time Taken service in Palatia34 for the Bey35, Against another heathen in Turkey; And almost beyond price was his prestige36. Though eminent, he was prudent and sage37, And in his bearing mild as any maid.
Notes:
34. Palatia: originally Palatye, later read as Balat, it is the former site of Miletus, in Asia Minor the Bey: the Turkish Governor 36. prestige: fame, honour 37. sage: wise
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He'd never been foul-spoken in his life To any kind of man; he was indeed The very pattern of a noble knight. But as for his appearance and outfit38, He had good horses, yet was far from smart. He wore a tunic made of coarse thick stuff, Marked by his chainmail39, all begrimed with rust, Having just returned from an expedition, And on his pilgrimage of thanksgiving.
Notes:
38. appearance and outfit: appearance 39. chainmail: chainarmour, armour made of metal rings linked together
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39. The Canterbury Tales
There was also a nun, a prioress, Whose smile was unaffected and demure40; Her greatest oath was just, “ By St Eloi41! ” And she was known as Madame Eglantine42.
Notes:
40. demure: coy 41. By St Eloi: a very mild oath, showing that the Prioress was very modest in her way of speech 42. Madame Eglantine: The name is romantic, often used in romance, but some scholars proved that it was a common name in Chaucer's time.
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40. The Canterbury Tales
She sang the divine service43 prettily, And through the nose, becomingly intoned; And she spoke French well and elegantly As she'd been taught it at Stratford-at-Bow44, For French of Paris was to her unknown.
Notes:
43. sang the divine service: sang a hymn 44. Stratford-at-Bow: It was a monastery near London. Chaucer was poking here at the French spoken by the Prioress who had a London accent and was therefore not typically Parisian
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41. The Canterbury Tales
Good table manners she had learnt as well: She never let a crumb from her mouth fall; She never soiled her fingers, dipping deep Into the sauce45; when lifting to her lips Some morsel, she was careful not to spill So much as one small drop upon her breast. Her greatest pleasure was in etiquette46.
Notes:
45. She never soiled her fingers, dipping deep / Into the sauce: In those days, there were no knives or forks, and people ate with their fingers. So this again shows the delicacy of the Prioress. Here soil means to make dirty etiquette: commonly accepted good manner
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42. The Canterbury Tales
Notes:
She used to wipe her upper lip so clean, No print of grease inside her cup was seen, Not the least speck47, when she had drunk from it. Most daintily48 she'd reach for what she ate.
47. speck: small spot of dirt 48. daintily: elegantly
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43. The Canterbury Tales
No question, she possessed the greatest charm, Her demeanour49 was so pleasant, and so warm; Though at pains to ape50 the manners of the court, And be dignified, in order to be thought A person well deserving of esteem.
Notes:
49. demeanour: behavior 50. ape: imitate
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44. The Canterbury Tales
But, speaking of her sensibility, She was so full of charity and pity That if she saw a mouse caught in a trap, And it was dead or bleeding, she would weep. She kept some little dogs, and these she fed On roast meat, or on milk and fine white bread.
But how she'd weep if one of them were dead, Or if somebody took a stick to it! She was all sensitivity and tender heart.
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45. The Canterbury Tales
Her veil was pleated most becomingly; Her nose well-shaped; eyes blue-grey, of great beauty; And her mouth tender, very small, and red. And there's no doubt she had a fine forehead, Almost a span in breadth51, I'd swear it was, For certainly she was not undersized. Her cloak, I noticed, was most elegant.
Notes:
51. Almost a span in breadth: The forehead of a nun should not be exposed. But the Prioress' headdress is folded and her forehead is a span broad.
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46. The Canterbury Tales
A coral rosary with gauds52 of green She carried on her arm; and from it hung A brooch of shining gold; inscribed thereon Was, first of all, a crowned “ A ” , And under, Amor vincit omnia;53.
Notes:
52. gauds: large beads that divide smaller prayer-beads into groups of ten 53. Amor vincit omnia:; (Latin) Love conquers all.
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47. The Canterbury Tales
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