The Canterbury Tales

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• The Canterbury Tales
• by
• Geoffrey Chaucer

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• His year of birth is disputed, but he was
  probably born in 1343 or 1344
• He came from a family of prosperous
  wine-merchants who had rising fortunes and some
  standing at court
• His grandfather and father had started the family
  in a career of public service

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Chaucers grandfather had been collector of
  customs on wines from Aquitaine
• His father had attended Edward III in Flanders in
  1338, and in 1348 was appointed to collect the
  custom (tax) on cloths in certain ports

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Chaucer began his public service in the house of
  Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, wife of Prince
  Lionel, second son of Edward III
• During his life, he held a number of public
  positions and even served as knight of the
  shire for Kent (i.e., was the representative in
  Parliament)

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Chaucer served in the English army and was taken
  prisoner in France in 1359
• Chaucer married well. He married Philippa,
  daughter of Sir Paon Roet of Hainault in 1366
• Chaucers wife Philippa was the sister to John of
  Gaunts third wife

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• John of Gaunt was Chaucers wifes
  brother-in-law, and the fourth and longest-lived
  son of Edward III, as well as the father of Henry
  IV and Chaucers patron
• John of Gaunt (the duke of Lancaster) died in
  1399, the year before Chaucer died

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Partly due to John of Gaunts patronage, Chaucer
  traveled abroad on numerous diplomatic missions
• In 1374 Chaucer was appointed controller of
  customs in the port of London and leased his
  house over Aldgate

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• In 1386 Chaucer became knight of the shire for
  Kent, where he probably lived for most of the
  rest of his life
• His last official position was deputy forester in
  the Kings Forest at Petherton in Somerset
  (13918 at least), and he could have lived there
  for some time

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Chaucer currently resides in the Poets Corner of
  Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected
  to him in 1555
• Apparently sensing that he had peaked, Chaucer
  stopped writing at his death and has written
  nothing new in more than 600 years

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Chaucer went through three periods with his
  writing, largely dependant on the styles he was
  imitating and the writers he was reading
• He demonstrated throughout his career that he was
  a very well-read man
• He steadily developed his artistic skill and
  intellectual stature

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Chaucers writings indicate a familiarity with
  Virgil, Ovid, Boethius, Petrarch, Dante, and
  Bocaccio
• The French period, (1355-1370) culminated in
  The Book of the Duchess in c.1370, which was an
  elegy on the death of Blanche, first wife of John
  of Gaunt

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Chaucers Italian period (1370-1385) includes
  The House of Fame, a fragmentary satire, in the
  1370s, and the mature, Italian-influenced love
  story Troilus and Criseyde, c.1385, as well as a
  translation of the Consolation of Philosophy by
  Boethius
• His final period, considered his English period
  (1385-1400) includes most of The Canterbury Tales
  and his short lyrics

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• Throughout his career Chaucer wrote short
  piecescourtly lyrics, a group of ballads dealing
  with Boethian themes, some personal pieces of
  astonishing quality, and many translations or
  adaptations

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The Canterbury Tales

• Probably designed about 1387, extends to 17,000
  lines in prose and verse of various meters
  (although the rhyming couplet is the predominant
  form)
• Some of the stories may have been written earlier
  and then incorporated into the collection
• Tales are from various sources. Chaucer was
  gifted at adapting material not his own to
  original uses

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The Canterbury Tales

• The General Prologue describes the meeting of the
  29 pilgrims in the Tabbard Inn in Southwark
  (there are actually 31 of them)
• Characters represent a cross section of
  contemporary middle-class English society
• He may have had real people in mind when he
  created particular characters, but in most cases
  he chose details that would typify his characters
  as representatives of particular classes or
  outlooks

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Why are they traveling?

• The travelers are on a pilgrimage to the
  cathedral in Canterbury
• Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, had
  been slain on the orders of the king during a
  Church and crown dispute during the reign of
  Henry II in 1170. He was canonized in 1173

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The Saint of the Common Folk

• Thomas à Becket was perceived by the common
  folk as having taken their side in the dispute
  with the crown, so he was immensely popular after
  his death
• His tomb became the most famous shrine in
  medieval England, a place where miracles were
  performed

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The Plan of the Tales

• Each pilgrim is to tell two stories on the trip
  to Canterbury and two more on the return journey
  to London, which should have yielded 120 stories
• Only 24 stories survive, and four of these are
  unfinished

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The Plan of the Tales

• Chaucer evidently modified the scheme to include
  only one tale by each pilgrim, but didnt finish
  this revised plan either
• Among the 24 stories, virtually every type of
  medieval fiction is represented, including a
  characteristic medieval sermon, which isnt a
  narrative at all

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The Plan of the Tales

• The stories follow each other in an apparently
  natural course, with the Host (the Innkeeper)
  acting as master of ceremonies and extemporaneous
  critic
• Not all the manuscripts of the Tales agree on the
  ordering
• Some tales are grouped together because the
  people telling them are engaged in a quarrel

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The Plan of the Tales

• For example, the Friar tells a tale against
  summoners the Summoner replies with a filthy
  tale about a friar
• Several tales are connected by the problem of
  happiness in married life (the so-called Marriage
  group)

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• The Canterbury Tales reflects the entire life of
  fourteenth-century England, in both the multitude
  of characters it represents and the variety of
  literary styles and genres that Chaucer uses
• The Tales are so artfully fashioned that we often
  confuse them with life itself